Northwestern University librarian Ted Quiballo (wearing stocking hat) helps students with a project. Quiballo has been named one of the American Library Association’s I Love My Librarian award recipients. (Provided photo)

Ted Quiballo never saw himself as a librarian.

“If you told me in undergraduate school that I would be a librarian, I would have laughed,” Quiballo said.

Working in electrical engineering information technology, Quiballo took a break to be a stay-at-home dad. During that seven-year stretch, he started working in Chicago area libraries.

“I was surprised by what librarians were doing behind the scenes,” Quiballo said. “I was able to see the impact that librarians have on a community.”

Encouraged to go to library school, Quiballo applied for a scholarship. When he got a positive response on his application, Quiballo thought, “Shoot, I’ve got to go to school.”

He received his master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois in 2017. A year later, Quiballo was working at Northwestern University’s library.

“I was really fascinated in the way we serve the community,” he said. “It is not just getting books they want to patrons.”

Quiballo has been a Northwestern librarian since 2018. (Provided photo)

Quiballo estimated that 95 percent of his current role is interacting with students and faculty regarding technology and innovation.

“I kid around that I am going to start up a podcast called ‘The Illiterate Librarian’ because of all the interactions I do and not typical librarian work,” Quiballo said.

He leads the Northwestern Library’s maker space, as well as helps with video recording and 3D printing.

“If students or faculty need help, we can provide expertise and help them meet their deadlines,” the Northwestern librarian said. “Five to eight years ago, you did not hear of a librarian helping with video recording.”

Quiballo also is part of the university’s work with the refugee community and prison population.

His interactions with students, faculty and community members have made an impact on individuals and the American Library Association.

The ALA picked Quiballo as one of 10 recipients across the county for its I Love My Librarian Awards. Nearly 1,400 librarians were nominated for this year’s awards.

ALA President Emily Drabinski said the I Love My Librarian Awards, funded by the Carnegie Foundation, represent the broad range of things librarians are doing today.

“It’s one of our kindest, nicest projects,” Drabinski said. “It honors the best of who we are. A lot of people really love their librarian.

“We look at the people making an impact and it’s impressive. They model what librarians can do. We can’t pick everybody. We choose the best examples of what librarians can do.”

For the past two years, Northwestern’s Quiballo has been involved in the university’s work with refugees.

During a summer program, Quiballo and others work with refugee and asylum-seeking youths in the university’s maker lab and with video production.

Quiballo said despite some language barriers, he and other Northwestern staff were able to work well with the students.

“They laughed at our mistakes. We laughed at their mistakes,” Quiballo said. “We had a lot of give and take. We had a good relationship.”

Quiballo said he also enjoys the university’s prison education program, in which he collaborates with another Northwestern librarian, Josh Honn, collecting the resources requested from incarcerated students.

“We get the resources for their papers. I am really impressed with the topics they pick out,” Quiballo said. “They ask about dark matter, black holes and how they are formed. We try to get them the resources they need. We have learned from them as well.

“They are different from college students. They have a different background. We help them get what they are looking for and we help them accomplish the papers their professors are requesting.”

He said re-entering society is a challenge for incarcerated individuals.

“We are looking at how to make it easier to help them break the cycle,” Quiballo said.

The Northwestern librarian said he has helped between seven and 10 incarcerated students per quarter since 2021.

“A lot of these individuals are in their 30s and 40s and have been in prison for a while,” Quiballo said. “They have had time to reflect and are searching for opportunities to help break the cycle. School is one of those opportunities.”

kbeese@chronicleillinois.com