Muskogee Phoenix - | Librarian: Libraries are to help people

Muskogee Phoenix | Librarian: Libraries are to help people: "Her family suggested she consider working as a librarian when Jan Bryant was young. After being disappointed by the atmosphere at her high school library, she decided she didn’t want to be like that.

Bryant, 60, is now head librarian at the Muskogee Public Library. And, she’s not like that.

“They were very protective of the materials,” she said. “The whole concept of a library is to help people.”

After growing up in Henryetta, she attended classes at Northeast Oklahoma A&M. While a member of the band there, she met her husband-to-be: Paul. He played the bass drum and she played the snare.

Bryant majored in English at Oklahoma State University. Working later as a teacher led her into another encounter with bad library practice. Bryant felt like her students were not being well served.

“You can’t teach English without a library,” she said. “Students need to like going to the library and reading. That’s when I realized how critical a library was for students. In self-defense, I became a librarian.”

Starting in 1967, Bryant began taking summer classes in library science at Emporia State Teacher’s College. She started work at the Dodge City Public Library in 1973.

“When I walked in the door of a public library, I knew I had found a home.”

Bryant and her husband Paul moved to Muskogee in 1977 when they purchased the Sonic Drive Inn at 10th Street and Okmulgee Avenue. Running a business was time consuming, then she took some time to raise her daughter. But she continued to work when possible for local libraries.

As her daughter got older, Bryant had more time to return to the work she loved. In 1996, she took a job at the Muskogee Public Library as reference librarian, then became head librarian in 1999.

Bryant is optimistic about the Muskogee library and its programs.

“We’re in the first phase of an early literacy program that will have a tr"