Team Spotlight: Katie Boyle, Customer Experience Lead
Katie Boyle began her career as a library director in rural Southeast Kansas. It’s a place where the library is so much more than just a book lending service. There, the library is a crucial resource for internet and film media that would otherwise be financially out of reach for most patrons. She introduced an automated library system and strategized ways to integrate the library better into the community. Eventually, she got her MLS and worked at public and academic libraries before coming to StackMap.
I was a librarian for 12 years in public and academic libraries prior to StackMap. I grew up in Cedar Vale, Kansas, a tiny town of about 600 people. I was living there in my early 20s, and at that point I didn’t really know what I was doing career-wise. The local library director at the Cedar Vale Memorial Library was retiring after 20 some years and they were looking for a new librarian. One of the board members knew I loved to read, and they asked me if I wanted to apply for the job. So, in 2009, I became the new library director, which is a part-time position, and I was also the only employee at the library. Back then, the library still had an old card catalog. They hadn’t become automated yet, it was all very dated and hardly anybody used the library. In my first year there, we transitioned to Koha, an integrated library system. Since the library is in such a rural and low-income area, we were the main place for internet access. We had four public access computers and free public Wi-Fi 24/7, so people would sit outside the library and use the Wi-Fi. During that time, streaming still wasn’t popular and many people didn’t have cable so they would come to the library for DVDs.
I didn’t have any formal training at the time, which is the case for a lot of librarians in rural areas. Fortunately, the library system I worked for had a year-long training program called Applied Public Library Education for librarians who didn’t have their MLS. We went to online classes and weekend long intensive courses. The Southeast Kansas Library System was really supportive, and they did a great job training me and helping me with anything I needed.
I am grateful I learned so many different roles at the library. Winging it at the small library is what made my love for libraries grow and made me realize that I wanted to be a librarian long-term. You really see the impact that you make on other people’s lives, whether that be helping someone find a job online or helping them find a book.
I was friends with Alexa (Director of Sales & Product Marketing at StackMap) on LinkedIn and just happened to see the job posting. I really loved the idea of StackMap and what it did for its patrons and users, so I applied. At first, it was hard to not be in a library every day helping patrons and students — that was one of the biggest things I had to wrap my brain around at StackMap. But the great thing is, I feel like I still do that even though I’m not directly helping patrons and students. Everyday I help a librarian with something that they need with StackMap, like updating the call number ranges. I love libraries and am still a big advocate for them. I was just elected to my local library board of trustees.
My job here at StackMap is to support the library staff after they become a customer. I’m the customer support for our librarians and make sure that everything’s flowing like it should. If they want to make changes, improvements, or updates then I’m there for that as well. I also reach out to our libraries if I haven’t heard from them in a while to make sure everything’s going ok and if I see any issues, I’ll ask if I can help in anyway.
My favorite part of the job is just helping librarians. At my core, I love to help and know I’ve made a librarian’s life easier. I helped a librarian a little while ago who said, “Thank you so much. You were so quick to respond. I didn’t expect this problem to be solved so quickly.” It feels great to be able to quickly provide focused and personalized solutions to librarians that can improve both their day-to-day workflow and the library experience delivered to their patrons.