Growing up, Armando Trejo wanted to become a librarian. Today, he has fulfilled that goal as an Archivist and Interlibrary Loan Librarian at ECC.
Q: You are an ECC alum. What brought you to ECC the first time around?
A: Well, I started in 1975. I started taking classes in the ESL program. After I did the ESL program, I jumped to get my associates here.
Q: How did you find yourself returning to ECC as a part of the faculty?
A: I was working in a bar and some teachers used to go there. I met several teachers. We talked about ECC and I told them about my background in Mexico, and they knew I was a journalist. I started the first Hispanic newspaper here. It was absorbed by the Daily Herald or Chicago Sun Times, I don’t remember. I still write some pieces for Mexican newspapers here. I started here as a clerk working in the library and also worked at Gail Borden library.
Q: You also earned an MLIS (master’s in library and information science) at Dominican University. How did that come to be?
A: While I was here, [the dean of learning resources], Jack Weiss, was constantly bothering me, “Oh get your master’s. You know, you already have your bachelor’s but go get your master’s and become a librarian.” [laughs] I used to see him coming and I just turned around and hid. I’m saying this because the administrators engaged the faculty to get further education. After about two years of him pushing, I finally decided to get my master’s. The first class, in the first 20 minutes, I realized I knew more than the rest of the class already. I already had 3-4 years of experience working with an academic and public library. So, it took about 3 years to get my master’s and then I became a librarian. Just 4 or 5 years later, I became the archivist.
[Q: Was becoming a librarian part of your plan at that time?]
A: Since I was living in Mexico, I wanted to be a librarian. But to go to the University of Mexico, I had to travel two hours. Near my house, there was another university that had a journalism program. My oldest brother, he was a journalist, a famous writer, a poet. So that’s why I decided to go into journalism at first, but it was not my original plan.
Q: For those who don’t understand, can you explain more about your role as an Interlibrary Loan Librarian and Archivist?
A: As the archivist, my main job is to preserve anything that has to do with the history of ECC. That’s my main goal, and we’ve published two books covering the history of this school. You see the bunch of boxes of documents here, so I have to appraise those and see what materials are important. I appraise, select, preserve, collect, and digitize for everyone to have access. As an interlibrary loan librarian, I’m one of the few librarians that makes this school more visible, in the state, country, and world. I work with WorldShare, which is a platform holding more than 10,000 libraries through more than 50 countries. I participate in reference sharing and pulling detailed references from countries all over the world. I have more than one thousand interactions with interlibrary loans. I create more visibility for the college.
Q: Does one of those roles take up more precedence than the other?
A: I do interlibrary loans because it is like having someone in front of you with all of the requests. Archival is more tedious and long-term. With a box of documents, I’ll have to scan them one by one, digitizing any videos and audio.
