Rebecca Hawes Owen and Tim Breeden of UVA Law Library
You may know Rebecca Hawes Owen and Tim Breeden from the Arthur J. Morris Law Library, where they can be found at the circulation desk, addressing the myriad concerns of students, staff, and faculty. They were kind enough to take a break for a chat with the Law Weekly; the conversation has been edited for clarity.
I’m here with Tim and Rebecca. Hi! Where are you from?
Tim: From Waynesboro just across the mountain!
Rebecca, you live in Waynesboro too?
Rebecca: I do live in Waynesboro! Though I’m from Augusta County, originally.
Is Waynesboro a hotbed of librarians?
Tim: It is! We’re there, after all.
So how did you guys get into this field?
Rebecca: Sure, I'll start! So, sort of accidentally. I worked in a high school before I started here, and I found that I liked helping people get access to information. So I was looking for a job after I finished at the high school, and ended up here at the library.
Would you say that law students are more or less needy than high school students?
Rebecca: I’d say they're about the same amount of needy as high school students. But in the best way! I like helping people find what they need.
That's very diplomatic. So, Tim, you said that you had a winding path to the library. I would love to hear more about that.
Tim: Well, there are so many stops along the way that I don't want to bore you with all the gory details! But basically, I had summer jobs in the public library back in Waynesboro as a high school or college student and really enjoyed it, but had no idea or intention of making library my life's work. But the twists and turns of life! I was a communications major in college and had other ideas for myself, but again those twists and turns … it just so happened that I was playing softball with a team of library people – a co-rec softball team here at UVA. I was looking for something different and started chatting, and next thing you know they had my application and looked at it and said, ‘We think you'd be a good fit! Would you be interested?’ And I was like, ‘Well, I'll give it a shot!’ I was over at the Health Sciences library and after 10 years there made the jump over here, and I've been here now for fifteen years.
Wow, yeah! Was there anything that surprised you about being in the Law Library compared to the Health Sciences library once you got here?
Tim: Oh gosh, yeah! I should be diplomatic here…
Please don’t!
Tim: I should be, but I'm not! You know there is – and probably law students are aware of this – there is this cliche or whatever about law students being very competitive. Cutthroat and every man for himself. And supposedly, with the scientific field it's more of a big old team environment. And what I found was just the opposite: that there was a lot more competitiveness and so forth going on over there than over here. What I have found is that students are very appreciative of all the work that the library does, or services we provide, and that students really are collaborative and really help each other out. Just the exact opposite of what I had heard or expected, which is amazing!
That's fantastic! Rebecca, do you think there are any library resources that are underutilized, that you would love people to know more about?
Rebecca: Surely!
Tim: Inter-library loan! It doesn't seem like that service gets used as much as one might expect.
Rebecca: Yes! Students are able to check out books from the UVA libraries, but if we don’t have it, we will search – basically in libraries all over the world – for books that students might need. So we do that, and I think also we in circulation and the reference librarians upstairs are a great resource. But not everyone stops by to talk to us, so people don't know that.
They’re missing out!
Tim: And literally no question is too small or too big. I mean, again, you might come to the desk with a question we can't answer. So we're going to help you find the person who can answer! It could be about anything. So yeah, the people.
That's very cool! Any other library thoughts?
Rebecca: We're having library tours on Wednesday and Thursday at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM.
Tim: Just drop in, very very casual. They're not formal tours, but again we wanted to point out some things that we thought maybe people were either under-utilizing or just weren’t aware that we have or did. So we thought we would throw those out there!
Very nice! A casual library tour, business attire not required?
Tim: That’s right!
Just encouraged.
Tim: Think of it as a minor OGI.
So we can all brace ourselves to be rejected by books in addition to law firms?
Tim: By books and scowling librarians!
Do either of you have pets?
Rebecca: Yes, I have a black cat named Roosevelt. He is cute and really stupid.
Tim: I am currently pet-less. My last dog passed away a number of years ago and I haven't quite pulled myself together enough. He was a border collie and was amazing, my best buddy. So I will eventually get there but not yet.
When you're ready to love again?
Tim: Exactly.
Do you have any recommendations for people who are hungry in Charlottesville? If there is one food you were going to direct people to, what would it be? Or should we live on books alone?
Rebecca: Hah, no! I mean, Bodos is always my go-to, but Take It Away on the Corner is my second favorite sandwich place after Bodos.
Tim: I don't know if I have a favorite, preferred place, because I can and will eat just about anything. But certainly you can't go wrong with any of the donut places.