Meet new Heywood Library Director Stephanie Young - here's what she's planning

For Stephanie Young, a Barre native, her dad's advice has turned into a 20-year career as a librarian.

"When I was younger and trying to figure out what I wanted to do, my dad handed me an article from the Boston Globe, and he said to me that he thought I would definitely be a really good librarian," she said.

Right after reading the article on the state-wide librarian shortage, Young said she marched to the Woods Memorial Library in Barre to ask if they were hiring, and after a month or two of waiting, the library had an opening for a library assistant.

As a library assistant, Young organized children's programs, and then she started to work her way up, gaining the responsibility of cataloging for the library. In 2006, Young said she was asked to be the interim library director while she was finishing her bachelor's degree in communications from Worcester State University. After getting her bachelor's degree, she took classes through the Massachusetts Board of Libraries Commissioners (MBLC) so she could eventually become the Woods Memorial Library director in 2007.

While still working as the library director at Barre, Young graduated in 2014 with a master's degree in Library and Information Science from the Wayne State University online program. The MBLC requires different levels of college education depending on the municipal population of the community where a librarian is working. Massachusetts librarians must get a master's degree in Library Science before they are certified by MBLC to work in a municipality with a population of over 10,000 residents.

In 2019, Young decided to pause her career to focus on her family. During the four years Young devoted to her three children and husband, she said she missed being in the library and always wanted to go back to work.

"I was really excited to see a position open up in Gardner," she said. "It seems like there are so many opportunities at the Gardner Library and community to grow and change. I look forward to seizing those opportunities."

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Five-year plan to improve Heywood Library

Young is in her second month as the new Heywood Memorial Library director, and she said she met with the library's Board of Trustees, and they approved her five-year plan to improve services at the Gardner library.

The first step is to survey the community to figure out what residents need and want from library services. Young said the survey will reach residents starting late spring and early summer.

"This library hasn't [hired] a director outside of the institution since the late 1980s," she said. "So it's really important that I dive in and take a full survey so we can make changes and become a reflection of what the community needs."

Connecting with the community is Young's big goal

Young said her other big goal for her first year as Gardner Library director is to connect with the community through library programs and events. She said she hopes to work closely with other city departments like the police, fire, and public works departments to do a "Touch a Truck" event for children.

Another future program that Young would like to make a reality is a history program co-sponsored with the Gardner Museum. She said the library staff is also looking to enhance the library's collection, for example, shifting from DVDs to streaming services and obtaining hotspots for residents.

Young said another idea she hopes to bring to the library is "Memory Kits" for people with dementia or memory loss. She said each kit would have a theme that holds certain items and activities that could spark a conversation or reminisce with the caregiver and the person with dementia.

"I'm someone new coming in with a fresh look at the library with new eyes," she said. "Creating all types of access points and equity by increasing programs that we offer to adults, young adults, and kids."

Who is Stephanie Young?

Besides her commitment to her career as a library administrator, Young is quite involved in her community. She currently lives in Petersham with her husband and three children. She said she is the Petersham Historical Society's vice president and a cultural council member.

"Civic service and being connected to the community is really important to me," she said. "A fun fact about me is in my spare time, my husband and I breed French Bulldogs, and sometimes we show them in competitions."

Young said she is a big history buff, and she loves to learn about the history of industrialization of municipalities like Gardner and how it developed into today's modern community.

"I have a big interest in all things related to local history, and I'm really looking forward to also diving into Gardner's history," she said. "I love the industrial side of things and seeing how it's all interconnected."

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: New Gardner Library Director Stephanie Young hails from Barre