Hello everyone! Hajimemashite! My name is Ian Winters; I’m a Circulation Assistant at the Hebron Branch. Although I’ve only been working at Boone County Public Library for about two months, I already feel like a full-fledged team member thanks to the awesome crew at Main and Hebron. Everyone has been beyond kind, helpful, and welcoming as I’ve settled into my new role.
I was born in Dallas, Texas and lived there for ten years before moving to Kentucky in my Freshman year of high school. After graduation, I spent a few years floating between universities studying English before I finally dropped out and joined the Air Force. Over the course of four years, I called various places home, including Japan, Korea, and Utah, with another short stint in southern Mississippi. Being in those diverse environments and among wholly different groups of people led to a deeper appreciation for diversity in thought and identity.
I separated from the Air Force in 2018 and returned to Kentucky to study Japanese Language and Literature, with minors in French and Writing, at the University of Kentucky. I graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2022, and I’m most proud of receiving a departmental award for my translation of “A Spider’s Thread” (“kumo no ito”) by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. One day in the future my goal is to become a literary translator and educator about literature, particularly foreign language literature.
For now, though, I’m ecstatic to be at BCPL! My desire to work with the public initially attracted me to the library, and it’s so far been everything I hoped it would be. Something that’s really stuck with me through my time here has been the idea that the library is one of the last places where you’re allowed a safe space to simply exist without the expectation of spending money. I’ve always admired the services that libraries offered, but I hadn’t realized the scope of just how many ways that BCPL positively impacts the community, from the fantastic programs to the amount of no-cost digital services.
My hobbies include weightlifting, sports, video games, and independent study. I love capital L literature, with a particular focus on immediate pre- and post-war Japanese literature, but I’m also into mass media culture too. I love ghosts, monsters, and everything horror. To give you an idea, I wrote my 25-page senior paper in college on Godzilla and its remake/reboot Shin Godzilla. Beyond that, I love to travel, spend time with my spouse Brevan, and continue to study the Japanese language.