It was evaluation time, again. Anne mentally flipped through her little staff list and was satisfied that everyone was doing well until she got to Jo McAllister. Jo graduated from a state school near her home and attended an online MLIS program while working in retail. Her retail experience gave her good customer service skills, but she had only been able to volunteer a few times at her local library, ending up with little library experience before graduation. It had taken her almost two years to land this position. Anne thought she was killing two birds with one stone by hiring Jo. First, let’s face it, she came in at the bottom of the already low salary scale, and Anne needed to save money. Second, Jo was a first generation college student from a lower class background. Anne thought Jo would bring an understanding of this student population to her job, that she would be out front designing programs and resources for them, but that hadn’t been the case. Anne sighed; more experienced librarians had applied for the job but withdrew when they learned about the salary. Anne needed Jo, not just because she could get her at an entry level salary, but because Anne truly wanted the large number of first generation students at her little rural college to have a better library experience. Jo worked hard, but was it enough? Yes, she was good with patrons, but so was everyone else. Her database skills weren’t that great. She was uncomfortable with her part of collection development, unsure of her choices and always sought a second opinion. And when the other librarians lobbied for a little travel money and time off for the Association of College and Research Libraries conference, Jo volunteered to stick around and take up the slack. She didn’t seem to understand how the conference could help her professionally. Anne wondered if perhaps Jo thought she would be seen as a hard worker if she skipped the conference.