In this Quick Hits, George Allen, public services librarian, talks about books, travel, and his ideal day.
What is your favorite novel?
“The Black Arrow” by Robert Louis Stevenson — it’s always been my favorite novel. I think it’s the perfect novel. Stevenson is a great novelist because he packs so much flavor and weight and emotional power and description into so few words. It’s also a medieval setting, during the Wars of the Roses, and I think it’s the adventure story par excellence. A lot of people would say “Treasure Island” is more so, but I prefer knights and castles to pirates.
What’s the craziest experience you’ve ever had?
Crazy things never seem to happen to me, or in my vicinity. I’m always at a loss for stories from my personal experiences. If you want to guarantee that nothing really wild ever happens, just keep me around.
What should students stop doing in the library?
Leaving posters everywhere. There are two places in the library to put up posters and that’s the boards at the entrance and exit of the library, but people tend to print flyers and leave them all over the place. That’s irritating.
Disney or Pixar?
I’d say toss both of those and choose a Ghibli movie.
What’s your favorite color?
Green.
What’s your favorite pastime?
If I just had any amount of leisure time and could do anything, books and games. I also play the harp. I run tabletop adventure games for friends of mine and I really enjoy reading through the books that give you the background on the adventures even if I’m never going to run them.
What is one of the funniest things your kids have said?
I actually kept a record for ages of all the hilarious things they say. They would say I would routinely post it to my Facebook, but I actually kept a document where I wrote it all. So I don’t even know if I could tell you one of the latest funniest things.
George: “Girls, no arguing.”
Girls: “We’re not arguing, we’re disputing!”
George: “Disputing and arguing are the same thing.”
Girls: “We’re…conversing about how we’re going to do this…cooperation.”
What is your ideal day?
Sleeping in, long slow breakfast and coffee, reading at the table, going out to the park for lunch, napping in the afternoon, and sending the children away and having an evening with my wife.
If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
Northern Italy, specifically Ravenna.
Where do you get all your sweaters?
I collect them at random and mostly my wife finds my clothes. If you want to know anything about my wardrobe, my only answer is it’s stuff my wife finds.
What advice do you have for students?
My one piece of advice to students is learn how to use the library, and that you can always reach out to us and we’ll set up a time to talk to you about library resources. We run a class every semester called information and research skills. It’s focused entirely on learning how to do research, and in particular learning on how to use the library to do research. Every time we teach the class, the students who are enrolled say, “I wish I had taken this sooner. I wish they had made me take this freshman year.”
Where are you from?
I was born in New Orleans. My dad’s from New Orleans, my mom’s from Dallas. So I was born in New Orleans where they were living but when I was 6 months old, they moved to Denver, Colorado, and we lived in Denver until I was 13. Then we spent a year in the Dallas area. Then we moved to Michigan. So I’ve lived in Michigan since freshman year of high school.
What brought you to Hillsdale College?
I was a student from 2005 to 2009. My parents had known about Hillsdale for forever because they were getting Imprimis back in the 90s when we lived in Denver. It was the only place I happen to apply for college, and I was fortunate enough to get in. So I attended Hillsdale, from ‘05-’09, and then I came back to work at the college in 2013.
