Title: Libraries Opened Up Her World. Now, She Brings That Magic to Students.

This story is part of Georgetown Faces, a storytelling series that celebrates the beloved figures, unsung heroes and dedicated Hoyas who make our campus special.

The way Beth Marhanka sees it, she fell into her career as a librarian.

A temp job after college at a federal library led to a full-time gig, a master’s degree in library science, and eventually, a 28-year career at Georgetown Library, where she now serves as the head of outreach and engagement. 

But really, libraries had been there all along.

Marhanka grew up visiting her local library in Fairfax, Virginia. When she was 16, she became an exchange student in Iceland, a country she knew nothing about. She went to the library to read up on the island. 

“This was before the web in 1984,” she said. “I decided to go after I went to the library and looked in the World Book and got excited about it. I lived there for a year, and it was transformational.”

Libraries connected Marhanka with an outside world and gave her the resources she needed — a mission that continues to drive her today. 

“Our mission is just so laudable,” she said. “We provide free resources to anybody. I feel so proud to be a part of that mission, that we can get materials for whatever you want to learn. Any knowledge that you want to acquire, you can get in a library.”

Marhanka joined Georgetown Library in 1998 as a reference librarian and web coordinator. She went on to manage the Gelardin New Media Center for 20 years, overseeing the equipment lending and instructional technology programs. In 2016, she led the opening of the Maker Hub, a space for students to ideate and create in Lauinger Library. 

In 2021, Marhanka was promoted to head of outreach and engagement, a role that leverages all her experiences and skills and engages more community members with the library.

She helps students access library resources; creates and organizes partnerships and programs; manages community galleries in the library; coordinates book clubs and speakers; serves as the staff advisor for the Student Library Council; and, her student trademark, brings in therapy dogs during finals. Most recently, she was on the team responsible for the renovation of the Pierce Reading Room, a study and high-tech space in Lauinger. 

“I’m paid to ask people how we can help them and how we can make a place better. That’s pretty good,” she said. “Every day I’ve got something else to look forward to.”

Learn more about Marhanka’s time in Iceland – including a stint working at a fish factory – the libraries she visits in India and Japan, and what keeps her coming back for nearly 30 years.

At age 16, I worked in a fish factory in Iceland: I quit school because they put me in a class with the next grade up, and I didn’t speak Icelandic. I would sit in the classes, and finally, I was like, This is pointless. So I quit, and I worked in a fish factory. They would give me a big box of unprocessed fish, and then I would take the bones out and – this might be TMI – the little worms out. Then it would be prepared to become fish filets or ground up into fish sticks. I’d get my box and listen to Icelandic music on a cassette. I’d have to strip down before coming in [my host family’s] door to get the fish smell off. You get used to it, and it was a job. 

How I found a career in libraries: The summer after I graduated, I started a pottery business in New Hampshire and realized pretty quickly that having to make a living by selling my work sucked all the joy out of making pots. I moved back to the DC area and got a temp job in a federal law library while I was applying for Ph.D. programs in English literature. Within a month, they offered me a full-time job in the library and offered to pay for my graduate degree in library science. I realized, wow, I’ve always loved libraries. I loved everything about libraries, and that I could be a part of it just made complete sense.

One of the things I’m most proud of at Georgetown: I had been visiting other libraries and saw some maker spaces that were really cool. I knew that Georgetown students would love having a place where they could have access to creative tools and a space to make and be in community. I worked with a student to draw up sketches of what the Maker Hub could look like, and the proposal was approved. Developing those plans with the help of students and faculty is my most memorable Georgetown experience.

Something I wish everyone knew about me or my job: I want people to love libraries as much as I do. It never ceases to amaze me that we can get you any book from anywhere in the world, and that if you need a place to reflect and study or to meet with friends, you can always go to a library. 

Sometimes my family gets a bit annoyed with me: but when we travel to new places, I always try to visit the local library. Whether in India, Japan, England or New Hampshire, I stop in the library to say hello and see if there’s anything that they are doing that we should be doing at Georgetown. When you really love your profession and it becomes a calling, it’s a joy to go to other libraries because I love them. 

When I’m not visiting libraries: I’m outdoors. During the pandemic, I learned how to forage for mushrooms because it gave me a reason to wander around the woods and still feel productive. Every day after work, I’d log off of Zoom meetings and head out to the woods around my house to look for morel, lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms. That’s my happy place. Libraries and the woods.

What keeps me at Georgetown for the past 28 years: I feel so proud when I tell people that I’m a librarian and that I work at Georgetown. I’m terribly fortunate to do work that is interesting and fun, and allows me to be creative and do work that has a positive impact. I thought I’d leave Georgetown when I turned 55, but I stayed. Then I considered leaving when my kids graduated from college, but I’m still here. There’s always another big event or renovation that I want to be a part of, or even a book club or Student Library Council meeting with students I love, that keeps me coming back. 

I think Georgetown just attracts really kind, good people who are also wicked smart. So I’m like, why would I leave this? Every day I’ve got something else to look forward to.