WEBVTT
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Language: en

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Hi.

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My name is Avery Walker, I'm 23 years old,
I'm a full-time student at UNLV, and I'm here

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to share a little bit of my story and relationship
with the West Las Vegas Library Theater and

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the Las Vegas Clark County Library District.

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As far as I can remember, the library has
always been a part of my growing up and my

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education.

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I actually had my kindergarten graduation
ceremony here in the library theater.

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I was five years old then, so my relationship
began really early with activities involving

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community outreach and also academia.

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I spent countless hours in the library, especially
during middle school and the beginnings of

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high school.

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I would have to complete many projects during
the week that required me to have access to

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a computer, which I didn't always have.

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Also books for research because I was always
interested in the arts from the time I was

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in middle school, and so the library played
a major role in personal research that I wanted

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to do for the arts and dance.

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My relationship with the library has given
me kind of an upper hand in regards to the

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work field that I study because I am a dance
major at UNLV.

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My artistic training began when I was 13.

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I was a percussionist with the West Las Vegas
Arts Center Performance Ensemble, which I'm

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now the coordinator for.

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I began dancing when I was 16.

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I just finished my last dance concert with
UNLV, so just moving on the route to graduating

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and receiving my BFA.

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All young people definitely need to invest
in getting a library card because it opens

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you up to the entire world.

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It kept me out of the streets and out of what
most young people my age were doing.

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It gave me a vehicle to be able to pursue
more than what I could see right in front

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of me.

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Without the library services and the programs
that the library offered I probably would

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have been in a completely different field
and I found my real passion, which is for

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the arts, so I'd just like to say thank you.