The newest team member of the San Marcos Public Library has a ton of experience working with children; In fact, Jennifer Jones-Kelley, the children’s librarian, has a “huge” family and even became an aunt when she was just four years old. She now has 15 nieces and nephews and almost two dozen great nieces and nephews. She has a wealth of experience with children and has been caring for them her entire life. With the combination of the years of caretaking wisdom and the tutelage of the former children’s librarian of 23 years, the current Library Division Manager Ashley Schimelman, Jones-Kelley is thriving in her position and enriching the lives of the community’s youth.
Jones-Kelley got her degree in what is essentially elementary education, but is formally called Applied Learning and Development, from the University of Texas. She taught fourth grade for forty years before she went back to UT for a degree in Library Science. Jones-Kelley describes her position as her dream job.
“I just grew up taking care of kids, and not so much [just] taking care of kids, but entertaining kids, playing with kids, teaching kids, and when there weren’t kids visiting the house I was seeking that out,” Jones-Kelley said, adding that each of her careers in her adult life has involved teaching or caring for children as well. “It feeds my soul.”
