Park City’s newest librarian, Daniel Thurston, will be bringing Spanish language services to the local library. KPCW’s Sean Higgins has a look at what Daniel will be offering to Park City’s Spanish speaking community.
Daniel Thurston’s first official day as Park City’s Spanish services librarian was January 4th, but he has been hard at work translating library information and programming out what he’ll be offering the city’s Spanish speakers in 2021.
This Tuesday, Thurston debuted cuentos y cantos, that’s stories and songs in Spanish, and introduced himself to the community and told listeners what brought him to Park City.
Thurston grew up in Provo where Spanish was actually his first language. He said thanks to his parents, Spanish was always spoken at the house as a kid.
“My mom is from Argentina, so Spanish is my first language, we’d always be speaking Spanish at home, we learned English as well,” said Thurston. “It’s kind of weird, I don’t remember a time when I didn’t speak English, but, I don’t know, that’s just how things go sometimes.”
Thurston spent time working at libraries in Provo and Pleasant Grove before coming to Park City and he’s currently working towards a masters in library science from Indiana University.
He said a career as a librarian wasn’t always something he thought he’d be doing, but thanks to a serendipitous job he took after college, he found his true calling.
“I studied chemistry in college and I really loved it, but I found out that working in a lab wasn’t really my favorite thing,” he said. “Some of the other jobs I had had similar aspects; I really like things that are organized, I like things that follow patterns, make sense. I always liked being able to help people, to interact with people, to have a sense of accomplishment for what I do. I ended up getting a job at the library, I guess in a way just to have a job and I was like, ‘hey, this is really nice, maybe I want to do this for the rest of my life.’”
Thurston will host cuentos y cantos every Tuesday at 10am via zoom and the Park City Library’s Facebook page. He said the stories and songs will all be in Spanish, but both speakers and non-speakers are welcome to tune in.
In addition to hosting cuentos y cantos, Thurston will also be providing Spanish-language services at the library and help with Spanish-speaking curbside book pickup on Thursday afternoons.
To listen to this week’s cuentos y cantos and to catch all future shows, visit the Park City Library’s Facebook page or their website.
