She’s the one who gave you your first library card as a child; introduced you to librarianship at a pivotal moment in your life; or served as a mentor and guide in your professional career. He’s the librarian who made you who you are today.
They’re your inspiration.
ALA members are telling American Libraries about that special librarian for a chance to win tickets to The Second City in Chicago during their visit to the 2015 ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits, complete with limo service! For contest rules and information, visit https://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blog/who-inspires-you.
Submissions (updated January 23, 2015):
My inspiration comes from a woman who wears two hats within the St. Charles City-County (Mo.) Library District.
Lucy Lockley is our collection development manager and also our readers’ advisory (RA) team leader. I literally stumbled into the wrong meeting several years ago and was impressed with the ideas and energy flowing around the room. I was heartily encouraged to join and, I have to tell you, my RA capabilities have just skyrocketed. Lucy is not only familiar with today’s bestsellers and momentum seekers, but also with titles from years ago that may have dropped off the radar but still work in today’s world. I am continually impressed with the effort she goes through to help customer’s locate that elusive title or author and get it to them in an efficient manner. For a New Year’s resolution, Lucy has tasked herself with listening to more than 50 audio books on top of all the other reading she has to accomplish. I truly believe Lucy has made me a better librarian and has put me on the path toward an amazing career.
Sue Dittmar
My mother worked at our local county library, so I swore I would never do so! But while in college, I was doing research in the campus library for the psychology department and met Esther Baum. She was a reference librarian extraordinaire—smart, sophisticated, kind, and helpful. I soon realized that Ms. Baum was doing everything as a reference librarian that I wanted to do with a degree in psychology: help people, use my brain, and be surrounded by interesting people. I applied to library school, got my MALS, and emulated Esther. It was the best choice I could have made.
Mary Frances Burns
Mary Monaghan, assistant director of neighborhood libraries at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP) is my colleague, mentor, and friend. Mary was clearly an ally from the day we met. Working with her, I learned the city of Pittsburgh more intimately than people who have lived there an entire lifetime. She put more trust in me than I probably deserved, but the result was magic. We did things in Pittsburgh that public libraries had never done before. It changed the way CLP approached customer service and inspired me to think big and bigger.
When I was contemplating a move to West Virginia, where I have no friends, relatives, or support system, it was Mary’s pragmatic observations, cynical idealism (yes, that is a thing!), and ultimately words of encouragement that inspired me to believe I could affect positive change in a place where education, economy, and quality of life leave a lot to be desired.
Mary’s candor and sense of humor continue to inspire me. I often think, “What would Mary do?” when faced with supervisory challenges. I call her and she tells me what she’d do, drawing from years of experience as a librarian and manager.
Besides brilliant and beautiful, irreverent and intelligent, Mary is the most self-aware person I know. The way I can most effectively emulate her is to be as aware of my abilities and shortcomings as I can. And always be able to laugh.
Molly Krichten
The librarian who inspires me is a composite of mentors and professionals I’ve been lucky enough to meet throughout my professional journey. She is the elementary school librarian who helped me find books about dragons and girls, and the academic librarian who hired me for my first library job while I attended The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. She is the mentor who smiled and believed in my creative spirit and nudged books and support my way while I developed an outreach program at a public library. I was gifted with inspiring teachers during my graduate work at Drexel University in Philadelphia, who set the foundation I rely upon today. And she is my current state librarian who offers descriptive visions that are like inspiring pathways to light and encourages me to explore through books and action.
Delaware State Librarian Annie Norman and Delaware Libraries Deputy Director Beth-Ann Ryan are two of the most inspiring librarians I’ve known. They complement each other through a gracious understanding of each other’s poetry of work, while I get the benefit of adding a few of their ideas to my library work with their encouragement, professionalism, and playful spirit.
Cathay Keough
After I graduated from college, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I found a job as a secretary at the Northern Illinois Library Regional Library System (NILS) where I became friends with Mary Carol Powers, one of the librarian consultants who worked with the member libraries of NILS. She let me tag along as she visited the libraries, offering advice on collection development, program planning, writing grants, and serving the public in general. It was really interesting work, and after a while, she started to encourage me to go back to school to get a Master’s degree in library science.
I hesitated because I had two small children, a full-time job, and other responsibilities, but as I worked with her, I was increasingly impressed with the work she did and the impact she had. So I found a program at Northern Illinois University, applied and was accepted as a part-time student. I took night classes and worked during the day.
Then I got news that my husband had been offered a job in another part of the state. We ended up moving and I didn’t think I was going to be able to finish my degree. I kept in touch with Mary Carol and she kept encouraging me. I found some classes I could take on weekends and I spent many hours driving back and forth from my new home to Northern Illinois University.
I finally graduated and Mary Carol gave me advice on how to find a job in a library. Mary Carol was always there for me, encouraging and advising me along the way. Even after she retired, she continued to volunteer time in libraries. She was a true inspiration!
Mary Heinzman
My love of books and libraries began at a very early age. I could always be found in the library or in a chair reading a book. In high school I was given the opportunity to take that passion one step further: I babysat for Allan Woeckel, the library director of the Reddick Public Library in my hometown of Ottawa, Illinois. He knew of my love of books and reading and offered me a page position. The more I worked at the library the more it became apparent to me that it was where I belonged!
With his help and guidance, I entered college with a career choice already made: librarianship. I have been working in libraries ever since. I have an undergraduate degree in library science and was able to get my Master’s degree at the age of 48. Like my mentor, I am a public library director and have been in the position for 23 years. If it were not for him, I would have not fulfilled my dream to be a public library director and see my “new” library in the town where I reside. My thoughts were of him as I struggled with a new library building project. He even came to the library open house to see how I did and it was the best day of my life! Allan passed away last year to cancer, but he will be forever in my heart and mind. He was the librarian who made me who I am today!
Julie Harte
Who inspired me? For me to become the librarian I am today, I learned various skills from a cadre of excellent librarians that came before me. These mentors have inspired many throughout New Jersey and beyond. They include Valerie Bell, Peggy Cadigan, Connie Paul, Peter Bromberg, Nicole Cooke, Elise Weber and Marc Lanzim. They have all contributed to shaping me. Whether it was through ALA’s Emerging Leaders program, Train-the-Trainer events, or on-the-job coaching and mentoring, this team of retired and currently employed librarians is amazing. They took the time to nurture, coach, inspire, and guide me. I appreciate their efforts in showing me presentation skills, leadership advice, and librarianship. Ocean County (N.J.) Library has a system in place for librarians in training. This allows support staff to successfully make the leap from assistant to librarian. Following their stellar example, I continue to mentor newly minted librarians coming up after me.
Glynis Jean Wray
I have always loved young adult literature and was blessed to be able to share my love of it as a teacher. I had never considered becoming a librarian until I was fortunate enough to work with Mary Craig. Mary became the school media specialist after our librarian retired. She brought the idea “out with the old and in with the new” to a whole new meaning for our school.
Prior to Mary’s arrival, the school library was a place that most students didn’t want to be. Books were infrequently checked out. It was where technology (overhead projectors) was stored, and creativity was absent. Mary’s transformation of the library turned it into the heart of the school. Teachers were all fighting over time with her. She introduced web tools to students and teachers, collaborated with teachers on projects, created service learning projects, and formed book groups. The list goes on and on. The best part is she did all of this with a smile. While many people may have felt frazzled or pulled in a bunch of directions, Mary embraced the challenge and was eager to help.
Mary truly is an amazing humanitarian. She helped students create and deliver a library for students in Ecuador. The students fundraised and their collective effort allowed many of them to make the trip to Ecuador to set up the library. I have told Mary many times that she has not only inspired me to become a librarian, but also to be a better person. She is phenomenal.
Lisa Lawson
My inspiration is Myrna McCallister, the director of my library (at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater) and my mentor for over five years. I met Myrna at a campus event. I worked for the technology department as a communications specialist and my position was about to expire. After chatting at the event, she invited me to interview for a position they were trying to fill for a public relations specialist. I was hired the next week.
I have been lucky to have such a strong leader giving me advice, leading me in my current position, and helping to shape my future. I had never considered going back for my master’s degree, but in three months I will graduate with my MLIS. I’m looking for my first professional position, but I’m being coached by the best. I wouldn’t be where I am today without such a strong person leading me.
Rebecca Jones
As an elementary-aged child, one of the worst things that can happen to you is moving to a new town. Fortunately for me, the Upper Saddle River (N.J.) Borough Hall with a tiny library attached was right across the street from Edith A. Bogart School. My mother began volunteering at the library shortly after we moved. Opening the creaky backdoor into the two-room library stacked floor to ceiling with books, you could see Helen Stearn, the only librarian, sitting at her desk talking to patrons. Helen, who just recently passed away at age 99, was my inspiration. She let me shelve books, check out historical fiction such as Northwest Passage, and best of all, talk about books.
I was so intrigued by Helen’s position as librarian that I would race home after school and make library cards for my books—The Little Engine That Could was the most popular book among my collection. In high school I served as library council secretary. Thirty years later, I received my MLS and began working in a school library. Helen and I wrote Christmas cards to each other for many years, and when I communicated to her that I had earned my MLS, she was thrilled that I was now among the ranks of the most trusted profession, unlike many of my friends who questioned my wisdom in pursing an MLS after earning a Ph.D.
Thank you for the opportunity to share this story about a remarkable woman who communicated her passion for reading to the youngest among us—a rare event in the 1960s, when children were “to be seen but not heard.”
Susan Yutzey
There is only one individual in this world that has a favorite stage of inquiry. Barbara Stripling thrives in the construct phase. She lives for constructing new understandings, connecting to previous knowledge, drawing conclusions about questions and hypotheses, and building new meaning. Dr. Stripling pushes the boundaries of education, presenting new learning experiences for librarians across the world, and integrating information fluency throughout content areas. She brings her passion for inquiry alive for teachers, administrators, librarians, and students using project-based learning, innovative programming, conferences, workshops, mini-grants, and curriculum.
Barbara Stripling is dedicated to lifelong learning. Following the completion of her doctorate at Syracuse University, Barbara ran and won the American Library Association presidency. She continually sets the bar high and pushes herself to reach her dreams. I have had the honor of working with her for almost nine years. In that time, she has mentored me, guided me, taught me, and helped me become the best I could be. I am now the president of the School Library System Association of New York State, founder and chair of the American Association of School Librarians Best Apps for Teaching and Learning Committee, published in professional journals, and striving for the stars that Barbara pointed to in the sky.
Melissa Jacobs Israel
I’ve met and worked with many wonderful librarians in my life, including Delores Wallace, librarian at the Ricker Library of Architecture and Art at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Without her support and encouragement, I would not have started library school when I did, and my path would have been very different. I was working as a full-time clerk there between college and the start of library school the following summer. I had no money and was hoping for a graduate assistantship, but first I had to complete the introductory course. Dee had my position reclassified as a 3/4 time job, so I could take the introductory course while continuing to work and earn a paycheck. I happened to be placed in the experimental section, which ended up requiring a huge amount of homework outside of class, and I was falling way behind in the first three weeks of the eight-week summer session. I despaired of ever catching up, and I was about to quit school. Because Dee had to go through hoops to get my position reclassified and set my schedule based on my classes, I felt I owed it to her to keep working there and give up on class, but she took me aside and convinced me that it was more important to continue with my graduate degree than work as a clerk. She inspired me not only to stay in library school, but taught me a lot about being a good supervisor.
Emily Batista
Fred Schlipf, former executive director of the Urbana (Ill.) Free Library and professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduate School of Library and Information Science, inspired me to become a librarian. He shared his passion for public libraries, library architecture, and genre fiction with his staff and students (of which I was both). He reached out to me individually and encouraged me to consider a career in public libraries, and helped me find the best place to pursue my education. He remains a colleague and dear friend to this day.
Jeannie Dilger
Erna Hall was a librarian in the Buffalo and Erie County (N.Y.) Public Library for several decades. Part of her career was spent as the branch manager of the small library in my neighborhood where I was a library brat. The library was my refuge, and when I found out at about the age of 12 that people were actually paid to work there, I started harassing Mrs. Hall to hire me. She kept telling me I was too young—for four years. Two months after I turned 16, she hired me as a shelver.
Within a few weeks, she had inspired me to understand what library work was all about: connections. Connecting people with ideas. Connecting people with each other. Connecting people with the seemingly remote bureaucracies that could help them. Connecting people with positive experiences.
Erna enjoyed her work, and she shared her joy. She helped me appreciate that people have many learning styles, and that part of our job is to help people find what they need in the medium that suits them best. She bent the rules on fines and who could have a card when they didn’t make sense in our hardscrabble, desperately poor neighborhood. She treated everyone with respect and allowed her staff to work to their full capacity, strategically ignoring the procedures manual the Central Library established if it prevented us from learning or extending service. And when I was about to graduate from college with no idea of what I wanted to do with my life, she quietly suggested I apply to library school.
Over nearly four decades as a professional librarian, I’ve tried to emulate what Mrs. Hall taught me. I’ve fallen short many times, but her example has given me a high bar to aim for.
George Needham
The librarian who most inspires me is Ellen Cutter, who was the outreach coordinator at my first library job. When I came to the River Forest (Ill.) Public Library, Miss Ellen was already a legend. She was so beloved at the library. Children followed her everywhere she went. When she was ill, the whole community was worried about Miss Ellen. She would spend hours of her own time planning programs and working on something new and exciting for the kids: I would actually have to kick her out and tell her to go home! She had so much knowledge on the community and what it meant to be a children’s librarian. I learned a lot from her, and when I heard she was retiring, I was upset. She was an asset to the library and the community. I do not think anyone can ever fill her shoes. Ellen was dedicated to the library and the patrons. Without her, I do not think I would be the librarian I am today! She was a librarian that inspired us all!
Katie Richert
Laura Schuler is the librarian who inspires me, not only to seek out library resources but to be a better librarian.
Mrs. Schuler is originally from Mexico and has been through many trials and tribulations to become the successful librarian she is today. She has seen firsthand the plight of the American immigrant, moving from Mexico City at an early age to the greater Chicago area. She has had to not only deal with the initial culture shock of emigrating to such a diverse country, but also overcome the language barrier of English in the process.
Through her time at Stickney–Forest View Public Library in Berwyn, Illinois, Mrs. Schuler has inspired attendance through her cultural programs. Through Latin-themed cooking classes and language assistance, Mrs. Schuler has brought together new patrons and opened the library doors to community groups who may otherwise feel left out.
While traveling to Mexico for a wonderful class experience, I was able to understand how important it is for librarians in the 21st century to possess diverse language skills. Luckily,
Mrs. Schuler was with us to provide translation of discussions and explain various cultural aspects of what we were experiencing. Mrs. Schuler kept us safe and informed while visiting the FIL (Guadalajara International Book Fair) in Guadalajara.
In my opinion, Laura Schuler is the kind of librarian necessary for the new millennium: experienced, driven, open to new ideas, and willing to assist at every turn. Laura is one of my inspirations to pursue a career in international librarianship and I hope her story inspires you as well.
Justin Briggs
The librarian who inspires me is Susan Wright, a school librarian at Jefferson Elementary School in Norman, Oklahoma. When Susan is teaching, everyone in the room is listening but, at the same time, you feel like she is just focused on you. She is the perfect balance of teacher, librarian, leader, and mother. Her creativity abounds in her lessons and she widely shares them with other teachers and librarians. I know the children of Norman benefit from her role as a librarian.
Calypso Gilstrap
Her smile is so big and friendly that it’s impossible not to smile back. I first met Linda Stefanelli shortly after moving to Alachua County, Florida, where she managed one of the small branches. She was the kind of person that made you feel instantly as if you’d met a kindred spirit; only later did I realize how many other people felt that same connection with her. When I shyly admitted that I was going to apply for a librarian job in the Alachua County Library District, Linda was genuinely encouraging.
Thus, after several years working as a librarian, I was thrilled to work under her at one of the largest branches. Watching Linda in action taught me how to be a manager. In addition to her characteristic kindness, she could be tough when it came to handling difficult situations. She was great with eye contact. I saw angry patrons melt into smiles after speaking with her. I myself had many opportunities to refocus my own emotions after a good Linda session.
All of this happened years ago. Linda is retired. I now work in another city. But when I think about who has inspired me the most, it always comes back to Linda Stefanelli.
Thanks for the chance to praise a great librarian!
Diane Colson
Who inspires me? Librarians and future librarians (like me)! There was no one specific librarian who has inspired me to read and research (as I grew older), but there are a few women that have been my inspiration to follow their career as my own.
My first inspiration was Susan Henthorn, reference and subject (music) librarian at Berea (Ky.) College. I remember going to Susan’s office hours when I was an undergraduate music major, and she was always so warm and welcoming. A few years later, when I had made the decision to attend library school, she was so kind to talk to me over the phone and offer some great advice on how to make the most of my MLIS studies.
The music librarian that made the biggest difference is Anne Shelley, music and multimedia librarian at Illinois State University in Normal. I met Anne during the second year of my previous graduate degree, and she was the first person who really got me excited about this career move. Since then, she has been a wonderful mentor and friend, and three years later, I can still count on her to give me great tips and advice on making the most out of a career in music librarianship. Anne was really instrumental in helping me work on a project that actually sparked my interest in music cataloging!
A nod goes out to my current music librarian and mentor Rebecca Littman, who continues to inspire me with her expertise on a daily basis.
Treshani Perera
