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CIRCUIT RIDER PROFILES
Before starting work on the "Together We Thrive" grant, I was the Library Director at the Emily Williston Memorial Library in Easthampton for almost 10 years. My love for small libraries began when I was a bookmobile and delivery driver for the Western Massachusetts Regional Library System, and I am thrilled to be working at WMRLS once again! We have assembled a great team of circuit riders and I firmly believe that this grant will have a big impact on the smallest of libraries and their patrons.
A Franklin County native, I have lived here my entire life minus a brief stint in Hampshire County when I attended UMASS. Currently in my 10th year as the school librarian at Shutesbury Elementary, I am passionate about children’s literature and creating a love of reading in children. For the last six years I have also worked at the Erving Public Library where I am now a trustee. Small town libraries tend to be the heart of the community, where patrons soon become friends, and I have truly enjoyed working in both school and public libraries. I am enrolled in the graduate Library Media Studies program at Salem State College (1/2 way done!) I look forward to visiting many small libraries around our beautiful corner of Massachusetts as a Circuit Rider
I am a recent, enthusiastic transplant to Western Massachusetts. I am currently pursuing my MLS from Simmons (via Mt. Holyoke) while working as a Cataloging Assistant in the Technical Services Department of the Jones Library in Amherst. Previously I have held library positions at the Providence Public Library, Brandeis University and the University of Georgia among others. My other pursuits include a substantial involvement in local music and the arts, record collecting and small press publishing. I am a resident of Orange where I live with Amy, a painter, letterpress printer, and book artist and our daughter, Naomi.
I began as Director of the Bushnell-Sage Memorial Library on September 1, 1973, having recently relocated from Chicago where I was born. Building on my BA in British Literature, I completed my MLS at SUNY Albany over the next three years and began learning small library operation OJT. Looking back, choosing to work in a small library was the correct choice. I like small public libraries. In a large library, I would have been a bored specialist. I like the direct contact with the people I have served. I quickly learned that small town librarianship is not just about books, it is about people. You share their joys and sorrows and are glad to be part of it all. BSML had a substantial collection when I began as director and I built on that foundation. I involved myself with the Western Regional getting to know the regional staff and directors from other libraries. Through Regional Workshops, we began to add new services. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, we automated to a Follett circulation system and eliminated the card catalog. At the same time, the need arose to solve accessibility issues with a non-compliant building. I wrote a 98-page 5-year plan and a LSCA building grant and won third runner-up to a defunct program. I later rewrote that grant application to secure $700,000 State grant which we used toward renovating a two-story school building and adding on a children`s wing--complete with life-size giraffes and pandas on the walls, designed, created and donated by my family. We occupied the new facility August, 1997. We did not have funds to furnish it so I formed a Friends of the Library group. Their initial campaign raised $90,000 with which we purchased the furniture and computers. At the same time, we joined CWMARS as an On-Line Affiliate. Later under a new Director, the library became a Full Member. Having turned 65 in 2001, I retired and joined the Library staff at Berkshire School, a prep school, where I did cataloguing and other tasks until they experienced cut-backs. So I have been working part-time at New Marlborough Public Library about five years and have also just become a Regional Circuit Rider.
I recently moved to Massachusetts from central New Jersey, where I worked for the Cranbury Public Library, serving a population of 3,000. Because of the small size of the library, I was involved with many aspects of library work, including circulation, collection development and weeding, reference, inter-library loans, displays; and ordering, processing, cataloging, and repairing all media. I also volunteered (and trained new volunteers) at my hometown library in Hopewell, NJ, which has a population of 2,000. Prior to discovering my love of library work, I had a career in the investment business in New York City and London. I have a B.A. in French from Douglass College, the women’s division of Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey and an M.B.A. from New York University Graduate School of Business. I live in Amherst with my husband Richard, and I have 2 adult step-children, Rebecca and Nathaniel. I’m delighted to be living in western Massachusetts and participating in the Thrive project.
I moved to the Valley close to 30 years ago, and attended Simmons for my library degree. I've worked at Hampshire College Library in the technical services department and as children's librarian at Holyoke Public Library. For over 20 years I've been the Adult Services Librarian at the Jones Library in Amherst. My main areas of responsibility are programming, grant writing, reference service, readers advisory and collection development for the adult circulating collections. I also supervise the English as a Second Language center - a program I began with several grants. I love public library work and am an enthusiastic proponent of the importance and serious fun of weeding. I'm curious as to what will happen to circulating library materials in the not so distant future but am certain that whatever the format, libraries will always have a important role to play in community life. Outside of my work, I'm a gardener, environmental activist and hiker. I love to work with start up organizations and was a founding board member of Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA, buy local food!) and the Green River Doula Network. I have a 24 year old daughter, currently living in California. My partner and I designed and built our own house and live in beautiful Conway.
I became a Circuit Rider in October 2008 after having spent the last 15 years working in both public and school libraries. I have loved libraries my entire life. As a child, every Saturday afternoon I walked to the Westfield Atheneum, where I would return the 5 books I had read that week, and choose 5 more. As an adult, after being a “stay at home” Mom for 11 years I returned to the work force part time at the Somers Ct. Public Library. I left after 7 years to take a position in the East Longmeadow School system, where I spent 4 years reorganizing, updating and automating a 40 year old library. That was a labor of love that reinforced how much I enjoy working with children. I was then offered a part time position at the East Longmeadow Public Library in the Children’s Department where I have happily spent the last 4 years. Now for the first time in 25 years, I have become an “empty nester” as my youngest has gone off to college and I decided to leave the structured workplace to try to find a flexible position that would allow me time to travel and explore new experiences. Becoming a Circuit Rider is a perfect fit. I love working at Grace Hall Memorial Library and look forward to any future assignments.
I began my library career in high school, working as a page in the children's/YA section of my local public library, although I think I spent more time reading in the stacks than actually shelving books. In 2000 I went to India on a volunteer program, where I created a library at a local secondary school (and fell in love with travelling). I graduated from the Simmons GSLIS program in May 2008 with a focus on school librarianship and services to teens. Since 2006 I've served as an Assistant Reference Librarian & Young Adult Specialist at the Wilbraham Public Library. I live in Northampton with a housemate and a cranky cat, and I still spend most of my time reading.
My name is Carol Scheier, and I have worked in public libraries since 1990, after receiving my MLS at Queens College. Early in my career, which began in Long island, New York, I was a Children's Librarian and very much enjoyed working with children and families, developing an innovative program called Babies and Books. Following our move to Massachusetts in 2002 and immersion in community volunteer work, I became Branch Supervisor at Springfield City Library, then moved on to serve as Library Director in the small town of Hampden, where we reopened the building, brought a new CWMARS system into action, added new technology and revamped a collection of approximately 26,000 items. Currently, I run a home-based business and am honored to be a member of the Together We Thrive Team.
Libraries have always been my home away from home. Whenever I moved to a new city, the first thing I would do is take a walk around and locate the public library and the post office. I love that public libraries have become so much more than places to get something to read. Where I live, the library is also the closest thing we have to a community center. I have been a school librarian since 1997, working for ten years in elementary and now in middle school. My favorite thing is connecting the right patron with the right materials and making his or her day. Before I became a librarian, I was an archeologist. I came to western Massachusetts to attend Hampshire College. This is a wonderful place and I feel so glad to have landed here. I'm excited to see more of western MA through being part of the Thrive Circuit Rider project.
Originally trained as an elementary school media specialist, I began working as a public librarian in 1999 when I began my current job as the branch librarian of the North Amherst Library, a part of the Jones Library system. My responsibilities include ordering and deselecting all of the print and non-print materials for both the adult and children’s collections at the branch. Managing a small and busy library space has allowed me to focus on the importance of collection maintenance to maintain a vibrant, useful collection. Part of my job includes working at the reference department at the Jones Library. I am also a representative on the CWMARS circulation committee which gives me an opportunity to share information and work to develop strategies to improve the functionality of the resource sharing system. I enjoy being part of a cooperative effort among libraries, to share skills, materials and information. I see the Thrive project as a great chance to build on this effort and I am excited to be a part of it.
I began working as a librarian in California after receiving my MLIS from U.C. Berkeley in 1991. In Alameda county I worked both in the branch libraries and with the Jails department serving inmates using the library's bookmobile which unfortunately I didn't get to drive. I moved to NYC in 1993 where I spent 13 years at NYPL working as a reference librarian in different departments and branches.
After being in the public relations and news journalism world for several years, I found myself working part-time as the young adult library assistant at the Westfield Athenaeum in 2000. Being a “lifelong” library user, I knew I loved libraries, I just didn’t know I’d love working in them too! From there I began working on my master’s degree in Library and Information Studies through the University of Rhode Island’s regional program. After a bit at the Westfield Athenaeum, I moved over to the Agawam Public Library and began working full-time in their youth services department. I joined them during the final stages of their construction and renovation project. It was exciting to be a part of a major library transformation and to see a new library evolve. While finishing my master’s degree I climbed another rung on the library ladder so to speak and I returned to the Westfield Athenaeum where I became the head of youth services. As my family grew I decided to stay home full-time with my two young boys. After two and a half years, I am excited to begin working in the library world again as a THRIVE Circuit Rider.
My overall objective in the library profession is to connect people to information and technology. I also hope to bring a fresh perspective to librarianship with both my user-centered focus and technological background. Currently I am a MLS candidate through Simmons College at Mt. Holyoke. I plan to complete my degree this summer, 2008. During my past employment I worked in retail
(mostly bookstores) then transitioned into online sales. I jumped into my MLS program two feet first and luckily found it to be a perfect fit. Though I am new to the library field, I have had a few rich experiences over the course of my program. I worked at Greenfield Community College Library and provided reference services to the GCC community. The position gave me the opportunity to teach information literacy courses. Some classes required instruction tailored to specific course work while others covered the broader topic of accessing information in the library or remotely. I have also enjoyed volunteering at the Hadley Library, a public library, where I experience all aspects of maintaining a library; weeding, patron services, computer maintenance, copy cataloging, etc. In either type of library, academic or public, I found a combination of customer service skills and technological know-how go hand-in-hand. For more information about this LSTA grant project, contact:
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Becky (Plimpton) Marconi,"Together We Thrive" Project Coordinator