I’m a humanist librarian advocating for people-centred libraries. Such libraries value information and literacy funded by the people for the people, life-long education, communication and dialogue, kindness, community, diversity, historical perspective and progressive thinking, egalitarianism and democracy, honesty and accountability, privacy, health, ecological concern, and conclusions/decisions/policies/practices based on evidence and empathy.

I have worked in public libraries for 20 years, with 13 as a professional librarian. My specialities include maintaining adult non-fiction collections (selection and deselection for the Dewey classes, biography, reference, local history, and educational audio/video), customer service, research, working with Friends groups, and defending intellectual freedom. I'm an active member of the Utah Library Association and the Cache Valley Library Association, which I helped establish more than a decade ago.

I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, at 340 ppm atmospheric CO² (1980). I now live and work in Cache Valley, a traditional homeland of the Northwestern Shoshone people, when the CO² is at 416 ppm. I'm happily married to Amy, a counsellor at Logan High School, and together we have five wonderful children. A lifelong Anglophile, I enjoy reading The Guardian, George Orwell, and medieval English history; listening to Britpop, the work of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and the BBC World Service; watching Sky News, Mr. Bean, and filmed adaptations of Brit lit; cheering Dorchester Town FC, the Three Lions, and the Lionesses; and observing Westminster politics and British-Irish relations.

📸: Taken by my colleague, Morgan Stoker Taylor, at our library in 2023

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Education:

• Master of Science in Library Science, Rural & Small Libraries, Clarion University of Pennsylvania (2009)
• Bachelor of Arts Cum Laude in History, British & Commonwealth Studies, Latin, Utah State University (2007)
• Associate of Science in General Studies, Salt Lake Community College (2004)
• GED (2001)
• Dropout, Copper Hills High School (1999)

Employment:

• Logan Library Assistant Director & Adult Nonfiction Librarian (2017-Present), Head of Adult Nonfiction & Reference Services (2012-2017), Adult Nonfiction & Reference Librarian (2009-2012), Associate Librarian for Interlibrary Loan (2008-2009), Technical Assistant (2008)
• Utah State University History Department Undergraduate Teaching Fellow (2006)
• Bridgerland Applied Technology College Bookstore Clerk (2005-2008)
• Barnes & Noble Shelver (2001-2002)
• Salt Lake County Library System Customer Service Specialist (2001-2004), Shelver (1999-2001)
• Seagull Book & Tape Clerk (1997)

Professional Service:

• Friends of Merrill-Cazier Library President (2018-2020), Trustee (2016-2020), member (2014-Present)
• Friends of the Logan Library Board of Directors ex officio (2018-Present), Bylaws Review Committee member (2016), founding member (2013-Present)
• Cache Valley Library Association Webmaster (2015-2017, 2021-Present), Secretary (2018), Advocacy Committee Chair (2016-2017), Advocacy Committee member (2016-2018), Past President (2015), President (2014), Inaugural Vice President (2013), founding member (2012-Present)
• Utah Library Association Rural & Small Libraries Committee member (2015-18), Historian (2014-16), Intellectual Freedom Committee Vice-Chair (2011-13), Intellectual Freedom Committee member (2009-13), member (2009-Present)