How long have you worked here?
I joined the library team nearly four years ago, in the fall of 2019, just before the pandemic.

What do you do in your role for the City?
As a library assistant, I share circulation responsibilities with the other library assistants, such as checking materials in and out, helping patrons find and request items, and assisting with other services like printing and computer use. And like my coworkers, I have additional duties. My primary one is adult programming. I collect and develop ideas, and plan, schedule, help publicize, and host programs aimed at adults – and sometimes teens as well. I also line up artists to display their work in our Programming Room.

What do you like best about your job?
I really enjoy working with the people here: my coworkers, the patrons, volunteers, and programming folks – they are all fabulous. It’s great fun visiting and getting to know people, putting on a successful program, or helping someone make a new reading discovery. But my most favorite moment is when a young person enters our library and for the first time realizes what it means to have all these materials at their fingertips – and they can take it home! For free! Sometimes they just light up. That is a small yet epic moment of joy for me that hardly has an equal here.

What is your typical workday like?
My days include greeting patrons, helping them locate items – on our shelves or at other branches -- requesting such items be sent over to us, receiving them when they do, checking items out to patrons, checking in returned items, answering the phone, and so forth. I typically will spend some time away from the front desk on planning and preparing for upcoming programs, designing publicity graphics, and catching up on communications. Often I will also close up shop at the end of my shift.

I serve because...
I love libraries and what libraries do. They have loomed large in my own lifelong learning, and I think public libraries are a brilliant cornerstone, along with public education and representative government, of our civic and social life. Reading is the gateway to all our inherited and shared knowledge and expression, and the door to learning and understanding. Libraries rock!

What I love about North Plains is...
The small town vibe and sense of community. How fun to see residents using the library with a sense ownership and gratitude, and to offer so much support and appreciation.

What do you like to do when you're not at work?
Playing with our grandson (nine months), reading, creative writing, photography, traveling, snorkeling, and enjoying friends, family, music, art, and the outdoors.