Inuvik (Sep 22/03) - Bev Garven is an avid book reader. She also loves her job as head librarian at the Inuvik Centennial Library.

News/North: What do you like about being a librarian and why is literacy important to you? Bev Garven: I like the books and the people. I read constantly. My favourite thing is working with the people and the books and recommending reading to folks.

My particular area of expertise is adult fiction but I can find anything if you need it. I've read 75 per cent of the adult fiction here and I'm starting to run short!

I think libraries are important and I think it is important to introduce kids to libraries and to reading. So much nowadays is on a little square box in front of you -- either on a T.V. or a computer -- that the art of reading, I think, is being lost.

The number of people I know, not just kids but people who read poorly or can't figure something out because they can't sound it out, is just amazing. The art or skill of reading has gone downhill, in my estimation, and I'll do anything I can to help find a way to get reading back to being important.

So much is visual (today). While there is nothing wrong with visual, I don't think you can go very far in life if all you can do is see something and you can't read about it.

For me, literacy and reading is education. If you ever stop learning then, to me, there is no point. Life from day one to the end is a constant learning process and reading is an essential part of that process.

I've got two university degrees and I'm now enroled in a course to take another diploma associated with libraries because I don't want to stop learning. There are days when I hate the homework, but it's kind of a life-long learning thing and reading, to me, is essential to that.

N/N: Do you consider yourself a stereotypical head librarian?

BG: No! I always pictured the head librarian as tall and thin, pinched, very prune-faced, very stern and strict.

I'm one of those people that, unless I'm absolutely desperate, won't work a job I don't like. I have to like coming to work and enjoy being there, which means I need to be able to laugh when I need to, sit down and interrupt everyone else's work and have a conversation if I want to. I want to get to know my staff and the patrons and have conversations about things other than books too.

N/N: Who is your favourite author?

BG: I'll read almost anything. I go through phases. I'm out of the romance novels and I'm into crime fiction, police stories and psychological thrillers.

I have too many (favourite authors) to count. I find a subject an author writes about and then I tend to read everything the author wrote I can get my hands on.

And it's very strange because I usually pick a book by its cover to start with, and then I read the inside flap and go "okay, I could read this". Then once I've read it I decide whether I want to read everything by this person or go "ew" and not read any more.

Right now I'm reading Edna Buchanan. I await eagerly for Kathy Reichs, Patricia Cornwell and Jonathan Kellerman.

N/N: How many books do you read in a week?

BG: Depending on what other things are going on I can usually read between three and four books a week.

If I'm having one of those weeks when I don't feel like doing anything else but sit in the evening and the weekend and read, I can read a good-sized novel in a day. I read fairly fast.

N/N: How do you read so fast?

BG: I don't know I just do. It doesn't take me a long time to read a book. Part of that is because I often get started and I can't put the darn thing down. I've always been a fairly fast reader.

N/N: Where's your favourite place to read?

BG : I have two places at home. I either read in bed or I have a reclining easy chair. I sort of move between the two. I pretty well read every night before I go to bed for one half to three quarters of an hour or more.

If I'm doing one of those lazy weekends where I do nothing but sit and read for most of the weekend then it's my easy chair. I pop the feet up and grab a cup of coffee. I can spend hours sitting there, much to the detriment of my housework!

N/N: You've done many jobs within this community, from banking to administrative work for the town. Why did you chose to be a librarian and what are the challenges?

BG: I've been working in libraries off and on since I was in Grade 12 -- almost 30 years ago I started working in libraries.

I don't know if I always wanted to be a librarian but I always wanted to work in a library.

This is a very, very administrative position in a lot of ways. Some days it's good and some days it's absolutely awful because part of my job is not only doing the fun stuff like working with the kids and the patrons and ordering books, but I have to do the budget, I have to maintain the budget, I have to look and say 'no you can't order that because it's too much'.

The one thing in our favour is that the town -- through its taxpayers -- is very supportive of the library.