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Allison Murphy: At Home Among the Books

Allison Murphy is a familiar face at the E.C. Scranton Memorial Library. Patrons may recognize her as the former head of the library's public services, but Allison briefly left the library in 2022 to take on the director role at the East Haddam Library. Now, Allison is back in Madison, focusing on leading the institution into its next chapter.

The Clinton resident has a long and distinguished career in education and children’s studies, as well as as a librarian and director. Allison holds a master's degree in information and library science from San Jose State University and received her Bachelor of Arts in elementary education from St. Michael’s College in Vermont, among other certifications.

“A little bit of a circuitous route in becoming a librarian, as it happens,” says Allison. “I love working with children, and that’s why I became a teacher. I taught for a little bit after college, but something really drew me into the book world. I happened to be working with a librarian in the town that I lived in at the time and she urged me to apply to Scholastic Books and got into the children’s book publishing world.”

Allison says she was extremely fortunate to land that position as it brought her into contact with some of America’s leading children’s authors and ignited her passion for all things books. Her tenure there reinforced her commitment to children’s literature and outreach, according to Allison.

“It was phenomenal. It really was,” Allison says. “I was on the marketing side of things. At Scholastic, I got to work with authors like Judy Bloom, who did Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret?, Norman Bridwell, who did Clifford the Big Red Dog, and Dav Pilkey, who did Captain Underpants, all really fun kid’s books."

While working in children's book publishing, Allison says she married and took some time off to stay home with her kids, bringing them to the local library.

"We were living in Redding, Connecticut, at the time. The local library there is a great little library called the Mark Twain Library, and so I would always bring the kids to storytime. One day, one of the librarians told me there was a job opening, so I applied and became the children’s library programmer. That was my first library job, and I really loved it and eventually felt like I really wanted to do this as a career.”

Allison went back to school at San Jose State University to gain her master's degree so that she could pursue that dream. From there, she picked up her first post-master's job at the Wallingford Library, working under the tutelage of former Scranton Library Director Sunnie Scarpa, who now is, once again, working at the Wallingford Library.

“From the Mark Twain Library, a job opened up at the Wallingford Library, and I became one of the children’s librarians there. That’s where I met Sunnie," she says. "Sunnie was truly a mentor to me. I adore her; we love talking about all things management. She and I have presented at three or four library conferences about different types of management topics, and she is just a phenomenal person.”

When Scarpa left Wallingford to take on the directorship at the Scranton Library in 2019, Allison soon followed her friend and mentor to Madison. She says her experience working with Sunnie both in Wallingford and at the Scranton Library solidified her commitment to finding her own directorship at a library.

“I knew all along that I really wanted to become a director of a library, and being back at the Scranton in that position is just such an incredible opportunity,” says Allison.

Allison maintains a well-deserved reputation in state library circles via her programming initiatives. One of those programs is advancing literacy and promoting educational plans by creating Set the Stage, a statewide librarian literacy training program in association with the Connecticut Library Consortium.

“When I see a need for something, or I see that something is lacking, I love to be able to try and figure out how to best solve that need. I was talking to a children’s librarian one day, and we were discussing how there are a lot of children’s librarians out there who’ve been in the field for a very long time and needed some refreshers, or a brand new librarian, but we felt there should be some kind of a program where they could take some classes and learn some new things, get involved, get informed, meet some new librarians, and so we designed this program called Set the Stage,” Allison says. “It is a free program offered to anyone in the state of Connecticut who is working in the children’s library world or wants to be. It’s done in conjunction with the Connecticut Library Consortium, and it’s done virtually. I feel like it’s had an impact, and I’m really proud of it because it’s a free program. There’s no financial commitment, and all of the instructors are experts in the field. They really know their stuff.”

Allison emphasizes that she wants to protect the Scranton and its reputation for community service while still implementing initiatives to modernize library services, increase digital literacy, and further expand community outreach programs.

“I really believe strongly in collaborating and communicating with the community. The library is a place where you serve people from babies and newborns to senior citizens [and] to everyone in between. There are people who come to the library every day, and there are other people who may not know about what we offer at the library, and it might not be on their radar. I really feel it's critical to get out there and be in the community.”

Allison says she is eager to dive into that challenge and lead the Scranton into the future.

"One of the things that makes me so excited about the Scranton is that there are so many opportunities here. The staff is phenomenal; they have great ideas, [and] they are so connected to the community and the patrons that they serve. I am so excited to see them grow and develop as time goes on," says Allison. "I look at the Scranton as the jewel and the heart of our community. There are so many different facets of a community, groups and clubs, but a library is the one place where everybody can come together and meet in one single location to be educated and share ideas."