Staff Profile:
Pairlee Berry

She started out with some reservations about working in a library.

“I knew libraries were the quietest places you could find,” said Pairlee Berry. “I thought I was too noisy for that.”

That was in July of 1973 when Berry was hired for half-time work as a bibliographic checker in the order department of the library, in what became Lassen Hall, and through many expansions of the student body and campus facilities. Berry stayed with it, and soon worked up to full-time status in the library where she is an order and reviewing clerk.

She is stationed these days at a computer in the library information systems in a third floor room even quieter than parts of the library where “hush-hush” conduct goes with the territory.

She learned computer tasks on the job, mastering the current Millennium system and a couple of its predecessor systems used by the entire library. She found out that she was fascinated with the computer world.

She progressed from part-time to full-time work after three years. She now keeps track by computer of the library’s more than one million books and 10,000 magazines and journals, managing what is called an integrated online system.

Berry, who was named Pairlee after her maternal grandmother, was born and grew up in Sacramento just a few blocks from McGeorge Law School. She graduated from Sacramento High School and attended Sacramento City College, setting her sights on becoming a legal secretary but explained that she “got married instead.”

She has two children, Charles Berry III, an artist whose murals grace several Sacramento buildings, including the cafeteria at ARCO Arena, and Nina Berry, who works for Verizon and expects to graduate from CSUS in 2005.

Berry is happy that she found a career at the library. “I stayed because the people are interesting and my work is challenging,” she said.