Welcome back to another installment of 5 Questions! If you would like to choose 5 Questions yourself, feel free to choose 5 from this form.

Kaylin Preslar, Outreach and Reference Archivist

Tell us about what you do at ZSR Library?

As the Outreach and Reference Archivist, I spend time helping researchers access and use our Special Collections materials and promoting these resources through outreach opportunities, both on and off campus. In addition to implementing short-term outreach goals, I will also be helping with the long-term planning and implementation of Wake Forest University’s 2034 Bicentennial. Part of my work also includes helping to manage and create metadata for our oral histories, transcribing digitized archival materials, keeping up with the university timeline, instruction, working closely with the Wake Forest Historical Museum, and other tasks across Special Collections as needed.

What is your favorite book/podcast/movie?

A favorite book of mine as of late is The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, and, of course, I have to mention Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. While not a movie, my favorite mini-series is a show called Over the Garden Wall. The show has just the right amount of fall-time spooky and whimsical vibes that make me feel cozy as soon as I hear the iconic theme music! Fun fact: Elijah Wood (who voices one of the main characters in this show) also stars in another one of my answers to this question, which is the LOTR trilogy. I’m also a big fan of Studio Ghibli movies, with Princess Mononoke being my favorite at the moment, and most Robert Eggers movies, as the amount of research he puts into each is truly admirable!

What is your favorite library story? (or memorable experience?)

My mother and grandmother often took my little brother and me to our local rural public library to check out books and go to programs. It was during one of these trips that a local folk storytelling event was happening. During this event, storytellers of all ages, some professional and some not, told both passed-down fictional tales and true events from their lives. Being immersed in each speaker’s performance might be the first time that I became aware of how crucial the sharing of stories, whether fictional or historical, spoken, written, painted, or otherwise, are when it comes to the human experience of learning, connecting, and empathizing with others, and it showed me first-hand the active role that libraries take in stewarding and sharing them with others.

How did you start working in libraries?

The first time the idea of working in libraries crossed my mind was as an undergraduate student when I interned with UNC Asheville’s LGBTQ+ Oral Histories Collection. It was during this time that I became very interested in oral history work, but I still didn’t have a good idea of how one went about working in libraries or if it would be a possible option for me. A couple of years later, during my first year at UVA as an English graduate student, I took a job at a local public library in a small town near Charlottesville, VA, which led to a career shift away from English Education and into libraries. My library offered to help fund my MLIS tuition costs, and the summer after finishing my MA, I went back to school. Early on in my MLIS program, I remembered how much I loved my first undergraduate internship and decided that I wanted to concentrate in archives. I then began working different internships in government and academic archives, the latest of which at UVA turned into my first short-term archivist position and led to my applying and interviewing for my current position at ZSR, where I am so, so excited to be working!

What is something we can’t know by looking at you?

I love animals, oddities, and natural history! I frequented the Carolina Raptor Center often as a child and, like many children, had a giant rock collection, in addition to a toy lizard collection. As an adult, I’ve enjoyed volunteering at local animal shelters and wildlife rescues, and I collect and make art out of oddities and natural history objects. One of my bucket list items is to one day befriend a murder of crows!