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44 maconmagazine.com | August/September 2024 M u r i e l M c D o w e l l J a c k s o n PHOTO BY MATT ODOM | INTERVIEWED BY CLARENCE W. THOMAS, JR. AND COMPILED BY JULIA MORRISON Shurling Library. I applied and got that job, while waiting to try to get into my chosen profession. In the meantime, different people I'd met, including my aunt, were coming into the library, said, "Oh, you're very good at this. You should think about getting a library degree." At that point, I didn't know you had to have a library degree to work in a library. I applied to what was then Atlanta University and got my master's in library information science and finished in December of 1989, came home ... ready to do the world. I was going to go to Savannah, and I came to stop by the library to visit friends. They said, "Oh, we have a new opening. Perfect for you." So I applied, just as I was told, to always practice, always apply and interview. It's a skill that never goes out, learning how to interview and talk to people. I got offered the job, and I started here January 2nd, 1990, as a microphone reference librarian. How would you describe the work that you do? Whenever anybody has a question they can't answer, they automatically call the library. The other day we had a lady who was trying to get somewhere, and apparently, she was lost. She called here and she says, "This is the street and intersection I'm at. My GPS is not working. Where do I need to go?" We're kind of like the go-to place, and if we don't have the answers, we can usually tell you where or who to talk to regarding the answers. How big of a responsibility is it? What would we be without libraries? What [they teach in] library school is, you must remember the answer you give someone is what they're going to be dependent on for making a decision – decisions about health issues or even their business. If you don't do your due diligence, and you give them the wrong information, it could destroy someone's H E R O E S A M O N G U S M uriel McDowell Jackson can o en be found at Washington Memorial Library, on the first floor. As the head genealogical and historical librarian, she helps Maconites dig deeper every day, rummaging through boxes of old photographs or carefully combing through 19th-century books. Born in Macon, McDowell Jackson attended St. Peter Claver and Mount de Sales before studying finance at Georgia Southern. Library science was a "just for now" job that turned into a deep passion. Among her many recent research interests, McDowell Jackson is the highly credentialed author of Macon's new Black Heritage Trail markers (see page 39). She was the perfect choice – an undisputed expert and an unmistakable local advocate. Give us a little background – how did you get into the library profession? There was an advertisement for a job at