ULA Annual Conference 2025

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

I have worked in public libraries for 21 years, with 15 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, when the atmospheric CO² level was 340 ppm (1980). I now live and work in Cache Valley, a homeland of the Northwestern Shoshone (nwbshoshone.com), when the CO² is at 420 ppm. I'm happily married to Dr. Amy Anderson, Logan High School’s counselling department chair, Hope Squad teacher, and GSA advisor, and we have four daughters, one son, and one son-in-law. A lifelong Anglophile, I enjoy reading The Guardian, the work of Thomas Hardy, and medieval English history; listening to Britpop, the BBC World Service, and the work of Ralph Vaughan Williams; watching Sky News, the work of Laurence Olivier, and adaptations of Brit lit; supporting Dorchester Town FC, the Three Lions, and the Lionesses; and observing Anglican worship, Westminster politics, and UK-Ireland relations.

Follow/friend me on Litsy, LibraryThing, BookWyrm, and Goodreads, all @bibliothecarivs.

📸: Taken by my colleague, Morgan Stoker Taylor, at our temporary 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 and British & Commonwealth Studies, 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), Interim Director (Nov 2024-Mar 2025), Acting Director (Jun-Jul 2024), 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
Department of History 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)
Membership & Service:National History Day
Utah-Cache Region Judge (2022-2023, 2025)Cache Valley Historical Society
Member (2021-Present)City of Logan
Poet Laureate Selection Committee (2019), Employee Appeals Board (mayor-appointed) (2019-2025)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 (2016), founding member (2013-Present)Cache Valley Library Association
Webmaster (2015-2017, 2021-Present), Secretary (2018), Advocacy Committee Chair (2016-2017), Advocacy Committee (2016-2018), Past President (2015), President (2014), Inaugural Vice President (2013), founding member (2012-Present)Utah State University
Fife Folklore Curator informal interviews group member (2020), Creative Writing Contest Nonfiction Judge (2014, 2016), Common Literature Experience Committee (2010-2013)Utah State Library
LSTA Grants Reviewer (2016), Utah’s Online Library Steering Committee (2010-2015)Utah Library Association
Rural & Small Libraries Committee (2015-18), Historian (2014-16), Intellectual Freedom Committee Vice-Chair (2011-13), Intellectual Freedom Committee (2009-13), member (2009-Present)
Awards:Cache Valley Library Association 2024 Library Hero