You may only know him from his usual “how to use your library card” course, but to the DePaul Prep community, he means so much more. 

Anthony “Tony” Powers is DePaul Prep’s one and only librarian. 

“If I could describe Mr. Powers in three words they would be: Best, Librarian, Ever,” said freshman Iziah Harden.

Powers’s experience in a library did not start at DePaul Prep, but many years before.

After spending his undergraduate years at Rosary College, which is now referred to as Dominican University, he decided that his life was to go the route of being a lawyer. After attending Kent School of Law for a year, “lo and behold, I did not like it.”

“After a year, I kind of reevaluated what I wanted to do with my life, and wasn’t really sure, but I knew that the college I got my undergraduate degree had a library school and an information science school. I always generally liked research and being around books and literature. So I gravitated back towards that, and I’ve never looked back.”

Powers always knew that he had a tremendous love for books and literature, but his main inspiration behind his career path comes from his high school and college history teachers. 

Powers affirms, “As part of their courses, they required me to do some pretty accelerated research, which caused me to spend a lot of time in the library. I simply think that by being required to be in that type of environment, I think that kind of influenced me greatly.” 

While at the Dominican University Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Powers got his first paid job putting away and filing materials in the Rosary College library, but as soon as he graduated, he moved up from a small college library to much bigger projects. He worked as a librarian at St. Patrick High School for two years, “and then I interviewed for a position at the Chicago Public Library, and I spent the next 33 years there.” 

Powers worked at the Carl B. Roden Branch in the Norwood Park neighborhood from 1987 to 1999, and then at the Austin-Irving branch from 1999 to 2020.

Thirty-three years later in 2020, Powers retired from his position in the Chicago Public Library system and was approached by DePaul Prep’s President, Mary Dempsey. Dempsey was a former commissioner of the Chicago Public Library, and she offered Powers his position as DePaul Prep’s first librarian. 

“Mr. Powers was an outstanding branch manager for me when I was head of the libraries because I loved the way he organized book discussion groups for the neighborhood as well as the way he worked with local schools,” Dempsey said.

Though he is too humble to say it himself, the common insight on Powers is that he knows how to do his job–and do it well. During his time in the Chicago Public Library, Powers worked with local community groups and reading programs and initiatives, which were requirements for branch managers of the library. He had a job to do and he enjoyed it. 

“I knew he had the qualities that I was looking for in a librarian for DePaul College Prep,” Dempsey said.

At DePaul Prep since 2020, Powers has spent his days building the library, since there was no student-use library at DePaul Prep until his arrival.

“I work with the collection, building the collection, I work with students who need readers’ advisory suggestions like what do I read next? What should I be reading? I help them with their research papers, if they’re having difficulty finding sources, I go to classes and I talk about that process.” 

When asked how he would describe himself and his position at DePaul Prep, beside the obvious answer of “librarian,” he uses the phrase, “student support.”

Freshman Amalia Favaro agrees. 

“Honestly, I feel like even though it is my freshman year, and I have not been reading there for a long time, Mr. Powers knows what interests me, and he always makes an effort to give me the right books, find recommendations for me, and not only that, but also have day-to-day conversations with me.”

Senior Clarisse Lorin has been working with Powers ever since her sophomore year at DePaul Prep. 

“There have been times where I’ve gone to the library to speak with Mr. Powers about different databases to use whether it be for math or English research, as well as getting book recommendations from him.”

The library is a beautiful place that has been curated by Powers and by students over the past two years, and it is important to realize the wonders that take place there. Powers rightfully holds the title of “Best Librarian Ever.”