Cindy: Nancy, you're known for conceiving the first One Book, Once City program, for your radio programs, your librarian action figure, and your books about books among other things. Your head must be spinning from the past few years with all the traveling and speaking that you've done. I know that you began traveling extensively while you were still head of the Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library. Then you "retired" and your fame has grown even more. Can you tell us what that's been like? How many frequent flier miles do you have anyway?!

Nancy: This has all been a wild ride - I sometimes think that I'm just holding on for dear life (I don't think I've ever used that phrase in a conversation before). I really love going to different places, meeting librarians and other readers, and doing the presentations and workshops. But I have to say that all this changing time zones is pretty exhausting. Last year I flew 100,000 miles on American Airlines, which means that I'm now in their executive platinum class which means that I get upgraded automatically if there's ever a seat available in first class. It's pretty addicting.

Cindy: I'd like to talk a little about your teaching experiences. What have you learned from conducting workshops for library staff, and teaching classes on readers' advisory service?

Nancy: I've found that practitioners are really interested in improving their RA skills. And that library school students really want courses in all aspects of adult services, like running book groups, writing annotations, RA…

Cindy: What do you think of the new crop of librarians based on the students you've had?

Nancy: Most of my students have been simply terrific - they're real readers, open to reading outside their comfort zone, great believers in public service. I'm hoping that many of them will choose to go into the public library field, rather than archives or academia. Of course, my view of libraries is so skewed by how important I think public libraries are…

Cindy: You told me that you're teaching an online class this fall. Can you elaborate a bit?

Nancy: Yes. I've been teaching two courses a year for the ISchool at the University of Washington for several years now, one on general reader's advisory and one devoted to genre fiction. But I thought it would be fun to try an online course, especially since I'm such a sucker for gadgets and things like Instant Messaging. Who knew it would be so much fun? So I'm spending the summer planning out the online course, taping lectures (brief ones, since so much of it will be discussion), lining up guest speakers, and everything else. It will be very interesting to see how much of the course's strength - the class discussion - will translate to an online format.

Cindy: Joseph Campbell said, "If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living." I have the feeling that you've tried to follow your bliss in your life. I think I heard, for instance, that you moved in order to pursue your ideal job, even though it meant being separated from your husband for awhile. Was it worth it? Do you have any advice for those just starting out in their careers?

Nancy: My whole life has revolved around books and reading and I've certainly never regretted my very early desire (at age 10) to become a librarian. I was very fortunate in that all of the people that I worked for understood that my strengths - communicating a love of books and reading - played an important role in library service, so no one ever told me that I couldn't set up book discussion groups in the library, or do a lot of book talking at women's groups, rotary clubs, and more, or do weekly radio book reviews. And they overlooked (or underplayed) my weaknesses, which are many. When I was offered the job of executive director of the Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library (what a mouthful of title that is), it did mean that if I took the job my husband would stay in Oklahoma for four years until he could retire. We both knew that for me not to move to Seattle would be a huge mistake, so I did, and he finished out his career as a professor at Oklahoma State University. I don't know that I would advise others to do this, but it certainly was the right decision for me. (And we're still very happily married.)

The advice I would give new librarians is that they read widely, believe in the power of libraries to change people's lives for the better, and have fun.

Cindy: I've always assumed that "follow" is a key word in Campbell's phrase. In other words, your bliss changes at different stages of your life. Where do you think your bliss might be taking you next?

Nancy: I think that everything wonderful that's happened to me in my adult life has been a kind of organic process - one thing led to another, without much (or any, in most cases), prodding from me. It all just seemed to happen. I don't know what's next — I have a new book coming out next spring — Book Crush: Recommended Reading for Kids and Teens — so there'll be some travel associated with that, I suspect. And I'll keep teaching as long as they want me. I've been thinking a lot about a couple of things: how to define a "good" book, for one, and how people decide what to read next, for another, so that occupies my mind. I'd also like to go back and read or reread some books, like all of Trollope. And I have some invented characters in my head — a youngish married couple — who seem to want me to write about them, so maybe I'll work on a short story or two. That's a scary thought.

Cindy: But a very exciting one! I'll be looking forward to that very much. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.

Cynthia Orr is the Collection Manager at Cleveland Public Library in Ohio. She teaches Readers' Advisory Service classes and workshops for Kent State University's Graduate School of Library and Information Science, writes Read-Alike columns for NoveList, is a member of the PLA Readers' Advisory Committee, and of the Advisory Board for the Reader's Advisor Online, from Libraries Unlimited.