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08/19/2020 08:30 AMWhat’s it like to step into the directorship of a public library in the middle of an international pandemic and after the retirement of the former director, who served a community that adored him for 40 years?
For Timothy Kellogg, the new director of Westbrook Public Library (WPL), the obvious answer to the mundane question “How’s it going?” is “About 100 miles an hour, but very, very good.”
And if there’s an upside to the library being closed, it’s having time to get to know how things work behind the scenes at this small, comfortable, and welcoming place.
That downtime “allowed me to see the background pieces and the function of the library before being widely introduced to the public,” Tim says. “I have had interactions with our patrons and townspeople, but…the majority of people haven’t actually met me.”
Tim, who began his new job in early July, has been working on a phased-in reopening plan as the library continues to fill patrons’ book requests and make them available curbside. At press time, the library was set to re-open on Aug. 19 on a limited basis. Hours are posted at westbrooklibrary.lioninc.org.
“[W]hen we do the open, I will be a door host so that anyone that comes into the building will speak to me before they come in,” he says. This will give him a chance to “turn the turn the challenge of the current situation into a positive.”
Turning a New Page
Tim grew up in Colorado, began college in Colorado, and finished and graduated with a bible/biblical studies degree from Trinity Lutheran College in Washington State. He then moved to the Hudson River Valley to serve as a church youth, family, and education director.
“I met my wife-to-be, who’s a lifelong Nutmegger, she says, and that was pretty much a foregone conclusion—not if, but when, I moved to Connecticut,” he explains.
Upon making that move, around five years ago, Tim changed his career focus to libraries.
“I wanted to do something that was based in public service—continuing education, if you will,” he says. Through his work at the Guilford Free Library (GFL) and Old Saybrook’s Acton Public Library (APL), “I found that I thoroughly enjoyed every facet of library work…from directly serving the public to doing administrative functions.”
Determining that the one person in a library who gets to do “a little bit of everything is the library director,” he “decided to pursue my master’s in library science” online at Rutgers University. He will finish the program in December of this year.
“It’s a great program and I’m ever thankful with the COVID situation that I chose the online route, because it hasn’t affected my [graduation] timeline at all,” he says.
Even at a small library, a director can find him- or herself juggling many different balls. But that shouldn’t be a problem for Tim, who spent a couple of years seeming to do the work of multiple people.
“I was the head circulation librarian at the GFL…I was a library assistant at the APL…and I also was the library board recorder for the APL,” he recalls.
At the same time, he started the Rutgers master’s program, all while raising twins alongside his wife.
Re-opening the Doors
By the time the Kellogg twins turn three in October, WPL will likely have moved into the second phase of its re-opening.
The first re-opening phase, underway this week, will permit “limited browsing, where people can come in, find the books they want, check them out,” Tim explains. “We’ll continue the curbside services we’re doing for those that would prefer to use that method. People will be able to return items in our outside book drops.”
For phase two, “shortly thereafter, we will expand into appointment services for seating, study, and computer use,” he continues. Any library visit “that requires anything more than an in-and-out transaction will be [by] appointment.” Appointments will be for one hour.
Time between appointments will be built in to allow cleaning of equipment and surfaces.
“[W]e have custodial services and staff in place for…bathroom cleaning and daily routine cleaning,” he explains. “For between appointments and wiping keyboards and things like that the library staff will have to do that.”
To accommodate the extra cleaning, the library will be open for modified hours Tuesday through Friday, Tim explains. For the time being, Saturdays will be for curbside pickup of materials only.
Also imminent is the hiring of a public service librarian, a new position created after the departure of the library’s two assistant librarians: Teen Librarian Brittany Pearson left in February for a job at another Connecticut library. Joan Geissler retired in June after nearly 43 years of service at WPL.
The new position will combine the responsibilities of both their positions, made possible by the promotion of a circulation staff member to library technical assistant with an increase in hours, Tim explains. The applicant pool for the new job is “tremendous,” he says, both in numbers of applicants and in talent, and he’s confident that someone will be brought on in the very near future.
Looking Ahead
As for his vision for the library’s future, Tim says it’s “definitely still evolving.” But the “initiatives and innovations, if you will, would be technological and working to improve the technology offerings.
“This library is already known throughout Connecticut for having incredible customer service and having a reputation that supersedes me, positively so,” he explains. “So I look to continue that as well as to bring in an infusion of technology pieces.”
A tech room has been planned for the lower level of the library, to be used for technology classes as well as flexible programming space. Work was delayed because of the pandemic.
“But that should all be coming to fruition relatively soon,” he says.
Tim’s interest in learning and teaching people about using technology goes hand in hand with his affinity for older adults, who are often the patrons seeking help with laptops and other devices.
“I started doing tech assistance in libraries almost by accident,” he says. “Somebody asked me to help them with their iPad one day. I did and after that, I started teaching classes and having regular appointments and you know, it was just kind of…a ripple effect.
“[O]ne of the things that I always kind of implore people when I am helping them with their technology is to approach it like you would if you were a kid learning something new, without fear,” he explains.
“[W]hen kids learn stuff…they’re like sponges, right?” he continues. “They’re not worried about doing it wrong, or breaking something. So I always say…approach it with a spirit of playing, childlike fun, and just dive in.”
A Love of Books
Tim considers reading a hobby, one that, as a librarian, he finds he has too little time for.
“I am primarily a nonfiction reader, which means that I have to pay extra close attention to the fiction,” he says. “As a librarian, because I see books every day, my reading backlog is constant.”
Of the novels he has read over the past year, favorites are Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee, and The Stranger by Albert Camus.
But the most powerful book he’s read this year was The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, a memoir published in 1845.
“When you think about the equality of humanity, true power and true freedom is being able to be your own person—regardless of who you are or what your background is or what the color of your skin is—being able to decide your fate,” Tim says.
“And Frederick Douglass said it far better than I can say, so read the book,” he adds, laughing.
“We’re in an interesting time where, in addition to the pandemic that we’re all dealing with, we’re dealing with…political polarization, regardless of where you’re coming from on that,” he continues. “And one of the things that books help us do is to connect to the humanity, the ideas and the people behind them. Regardless of whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, [books] help us embrace and see the world differently.”
An Incredible Legacy
Former WPL director Lew Daniels continues to help at the library, a reminder not only of his commitment to and love for his community and library, but that the past and the future are always intermingling.
“I know that I am following an incredible legacy,” Tim says. “I intend to treat that with the utmost care and respect.
“And I want to assure the patrons of the Westbrook library that my mission and my goal is to provide them the best possible service experience that they can have any time they come to this building, whether it’s for curbside service, whether it’s for our virtual or digital offerings right now, or eventually the services that we offer inside,” he continues.
“So the things that they have come to love about this library I don’t intend to change,” he says. “I just intend to improve upon the things that are already great.”
For up-to-date information about the re-opening and library hours and services, visit westbrookpubliclibrary.lioninc.org.