Chat with MLC: Natalie Dunaway

Libraries as Facilitators for Self-Actualization...

I work as the Community Outreach Coordinator and the State Data Coordinator for the Mississippi Library Commission. In my role, I collaborate with Mississippi's public libraries on community needs assessments, partnerships, and strategic planning. This role allows me a lot of time in the field traveling to different libraries across Mississippi and getting to know the communities those libraries serve. Whether it is the Delta or the Pine Belt, through needs assessments and focus groups, I have the fortune of learning about the needs and interests of fellow Mississippians directly, and how their local public libraries can help meet those needs. Also under my purview are our disability support services. Our Disability Support Coordinator, Ruth Jinkiri, works with library systems to develop support groups in their communities for patrons with disabilities and their caregivers. Ruth also provides Mississippi’s public libraries with professional development content and training for library staff to be better able to serve those with disabilities in their communities.

I’ve been with the Commission since 2017 and have found working with the Commission to be extremely rewarding. Prior to starting at MLC, I lived in Japan, and then lived in New Jersey while furthering my education. However, in summer of 2017, I found myself wanting to work in a community service role and decided to move back home to Mississippi. 

Through my education and career journey, I’ve maintained a strong dedication to community and community-based education development. While working in the education field in Japan and completing my first master’s degree, I always wondered how we in the U.S. can improve the accessibility of higher education and foreign language education to the public, specifically on a community-based level. What about those who may not have access to a stable school system? Or those who may have minimal options for getting a college degree? What routes do they have to pursue their information and educational needs?

Over the years that question has stayed with me but has expanded to include general information access as a whole. I did not initially expect to find my professional home in service to public libraries, however, they are crucial institutions for supporting public needs and interests and ensuring that knowledge is accessible to all. As my academic and professional interests have always hovered around the humanities, and as public libraries are intrinsically humanistic by the nature of their existence, I have found incredible satisfaction in being able to help them meet their organizational needs, which ultimately helps them meet the needs of their patrons and communities.   Whether through programming, education resources, or social services, public libraries do much more than fill gaps. They enrich lives and enable self-actualization.  

Natalie Dunaway
Community Outreach Coordinator/State Data Coordinator