Age: 44
I’m from: Eugene
Now I live in: Alameda/Northeast Portland
Job: Downtown Central Library Youth Librarian at Multnomah County Library
With the county since: 1998
Favorite book for toddlers: “Hooray for Fish!” by Lucy Cousins (because of the colors and fun words)
Been a librarian for: 20 years
Why did you come up to Portland? The job and the place to live. I was living in a small town in Washington state, so it was nice to get back to Oregon.
Why don’t you work at a branch closer to home? One thing I like about Central is that we have children’s library staff as opposed to a branch library where you might be the only youth librarian, so you don’t have people to bounce ideas off of. And I like being downtown.
What are the most borrowed books? "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" has been very popular lately. It’s very hard to find them on the shelf. Of course, Harry Potter is still popular. That’s hard to find on the shelf, too.
Parents rave about the bubbles during storytime . . . bubbles during storytime? The kids love bubbles. I’m horrible, I don’t do them. The problem is big kids running over the little kids. It’s just too hard to restrain a 4-year-old from running into a 1-year-old and knocking them down.
Do librarians do a lot of reading at work? A lot of people think librarians get to sit around and read all the time, and that’s not true. I do my reading on my own time. The job isn’t just reading.
What do you love about introducing these kids to books? I was helping a brother and sister the other day, and the boy really wanted science and magic books, and the girl really wanted animals. They both left with huge stacks and they kept telling me about everything they were excited about. I really like that.
What’s the best part about working with kids? You get instant feedback. They’re not afraid to say, “Oh, that book? I don’t want to read that.”
What do you do for fun? I like traveling. Last year, I went to Oslo and Paris and Amsterdam. It was great. We had some friends getting married in Oslo, so it was a good excuse to go. I have two step kids. One is planning to study overseas and the older one also went overseas. That’s always a great excuse as well. “Great. You’re in Denmark? We’ll come visit you.”
