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 and Hope Squad teacher, 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 Association member (2021-Present)City of Logan Poet Laureate Selection Committee Member (2019), Employee Appeals Board Member (mayor-appointed) (2019-present)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 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 Member (2010-2015)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)
Awards:Cache Valley Library Association 2024 Library Hero