People with Purpose: Dan Ireton

Dan Ireton may have spent his career in the library, but quiet has never been his thing.

Bringing warmth, wit and whimsy to the bookstacks, Ireton, academic services librarian for K-State Libraries, has built his work around making research feel approachable and fun — finding his purpose in helping others love learning out loud.

Q: What is something you do "behind-the-scenes" that you wish more people knew about?

Ireton: Libraries are almost forced to be two contradictory things — a library should be an impressive, beautiful building that instills a sense of awe, while also feeling extremely welcoming and eager to help. Sometimes this conflict leads students to have a question but be too anxious to ask.

Asking for help can be a big lift, especially when you're a student approaching faculty. But our first responsibility is to our patrons — whether students, faculty, staff or community members — and there's nothing more important to my work than helping you get the resources you need. I try to be as approachable as possible. Please ask me your questions!

 

Q: What drives you to support students?

Ireton: A big part of it is how much I tend to like students as people. Outside of age, although most of our students are young people, there is a palpable energy to someone studying a discipline and walking their academic path.

Q: What helps you earn trust in your role?

Ireton: I try not to take myself seriously. Humor helps. If you look and sound a bit whimsical, I've noticed students have an easier time approaching you.

I also have a genuine enthusiasm for student research. You're trying to make the argument that Othello was originally a comedy until the character of the fool was written out, and it then became a tragedy? Not something I've heard of (and I know quite a bit about Shakespeare), but if you've got the idea, I'm excited to find something to support your argument.

We might also find that there isn’t any support for your argument, which is also a success! Looking and finding nothing is very different than not looking at all. You still come away knowing more than you did before.

Q: How do you think your work helps students, faculty and staff form connections on campus?

Ireton: A central pillar of librarianship is "knowing a guy who knows a guy." Through my work, I've been in many classrooms sharing resources, tools, processes and more — all the tips and tricks to help our patrons produce their best possible scholarship. Through my own personal research and connections through K-State's Faculty Senate, I’ve met a lot of people, and I'm not unique here — if you reach out to a librarian and they don't have the answer, they almost certainly know someone to point you to.

Q: What is one thing you do that makes a difference in the lives of students?

Ireton: Listening to and truly hearing students' needs and concerns. Whether it's a small or a big difference can depend on the student, the day, the class or even if Mercury is in retrograde, but the first part of helping students is listening to their questions and hearing their story. From there, I can start guiding them in their research or help them to adjust their research query. No matter the situation, I think it's important to let the student voice their ideas first before looking for answers.

Q: How does your work transform lives across Kansas and the world?

Ireton: I won’t speak for all librarians, but I think many in my field would agree that we're interested in everything. I don't have mathematical expertise — in fact, I'm kind of terrible at it — but I love the chance to see someone show off their expertise and learn something for myself along the way. I've got my own pockets of specialized knowledge, as do my colleagues, but I love learning about others' research. How does that transform lives? I don’t know, honestly, but I hope that I've encouraged the spirit of curiosity and discovery of the scholars I work with. If we keep learning, we keep growing, and that’s beautiful.

Q: What advice would you give to students who are interested in your field?

Ireton: There's an old saying about being "a jack of all trades and a master of none." Some folks only know that part, but the original saying was "a jack of all trades and a master of none, but far better that than a master of one." If you want to know a little about everything, and a lot about a few specific things, librarianship might be for you. If nothing else, you’ll be an absolute giant in trivia contests!