Courtesy Photo | As the new supervisory librarian at the Fort Lee Community Library, Desmond has...... read more read more
FORT LEE, Va. (Oct. 22, 2015) -- Her love of the Laura Ingalls Wilder “Little House on the Prairie” series of children’s novels has remained strong since childhood growing up in Rochester, N. Y.
“Her books clicked for me,” said Kelly Desmond, the new supervisory librarian at the Family and MWR Fort Lee Community Library. “She is my favorite author of all time.”
In her new position at Fort Lee since August, Desmond has brought with her 30 years of military, college and public library experience, primarily in the Air Force. These include civilian assignments at Barksdale AFB, Bossier City, La.; Spangdahlem AB, Spangdahlem, Germany; Hurlburt Field, Okaloosa, Fla., and most recently, Kaiserslautern, Germany. In each of the libraries, she served either as library director or supervisory director and even as a translator and tour guide.
She said, “This is my first Army library and there has been some new terminology to learn. I have a great staff of enthusiastic people to help me.”
The employees include Kate Eminhizer, Linda Flock, Diane Hill and Karen Smallwood. There also is an open position she plans to fill.
She praised the programs at the community library, which is located on the 2nd Floor of the Army Logistics University.
“We are pleased our Preschool Story Hour has expanded to Bunker Hall (on the ALU campus in the cafeteria annex) every Wednesday,” said Desmond. The free weekly session was previously held in a small, cramped room at the library and moved about a month ago.
“We just outgrew the space and it was often hard to squeeze everyone and baby strollers into the room. At the new site, we can fit as many as 100 but our ideal number would be 30.”
The time – 10:30-11:30 a.m. is unchanged for the program that also features crafts for children.
Desmond noted FMWR recently purchased about $20,000 worth of new books, CDs, computer games and more. “We have the latest and most popular computer games in all the new formats.”
The library has a collection of about 10,000 fiction and non-fiction books, audio-visual materials, periodicals and more.
“We are not terribly large, but we are a good library. I really love military libraries. You get a diverse set of questions asked to you by your clientele. We are a little public library, a little academic library and a little military mission-specific library,” she said
Its mission, Desmond said, is to help people find what they are looking for whether it’s a book, some information or something else. “You get to know a lot of people on the post. People call the library looking for everything from the phone number for the community center to information on the area. And we get to make new friends in the process on the post too.”
The library hours will change beginning Nov. 2 and it will be open until 7 p.m. on Tuesday nights. The operating hours will be 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday and Wednesday-Friday; and 8 a.m. - 7 p.m. Tuesday; and noon - 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Desmond has some ambitious plans for the future including offering computer classes and more Tuesday night programs such as one with a dietitian.
“We are trying to organize a large-scale program with a dietitian for January. We know in January everyone is recovering from the holidays, and this would be a good time,” said Desmond.
In looking at computer classes, she believes many would find these educational and helpful. “Not everyone knows Microsoft and other programs,” she said. FMWR recently acquired six computers that can be used in the classes, she said.
“If you ask us for something, we will figure out a way to get it. We get very interesting reference questions,” she said. “It makes the day fun. You never know what questions will come in next.”
Desmond said she’s looking forward to the upcoming Halloween Spooky Story Hour Oct. 29 at the library. “We have 10 different story tellers lined up and hope to get a good crowd.”
One activity here is new to her – the Read 2 Rover program – that recently returned to the library. It promotes childhood literacy thru the use of therapy dogs. “I had heard much about it and was pleased to see it firsthand recently.”
The free Read 2 Rover activity will continue on the third Tuesday of each month, starting at 5 p.m.
She personally likes all kinds of books from mysteries to romance novels. “I tell people to read something. I don’t really care what it may be. It will help you in life.”
Desmond said she enjoys taking part in other activities on the post and at the same time getting the word out about the library. “I feel connected working on the post, and I want more people to know about us, where we are at ALU and stop by to see what we have. “One of my first stops when I moved here was the library.”
The new library leader noted, “We are small and good, but we’re going to be great.”
For more information about the Fort Lee Community Library, call (804) 765-8095.
| Date Taken: | 10.22.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 10.22.2015 10:57 |
| Story ID: | 179602 |
| Location: | FORT LEE, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 108 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, The librarian: military spouse has spent decades sharing her love of reading, by Terrance Bell, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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