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County library’s new executive director getting to know the community
NORRISTOWN >> The community drives the change and the library follows its lead.
With that philosophy in place, the Montgomery County-Norristown Public Library’s new Executive Director and District Administrator Karen DeAngelo is taking leadership while getting to know what the community expects and what it needs from an icon that serves 300,000 county residents as well as support services to all 35 public libraries in the county.
“The reason I ended up applying for the job was because the more we talked about the opportunities of things being changed and meeting the challenges of the changing environment, with the pandemic and everything else, the more I was like, ‘I have ideas, I want to do this,’” DeAngelo said.
“Making drastic changes is never a good idea until you get to know the people in the community and their needs,” she added. “So the things we’re going to be looking at is a strategic planning process involving community members, community leaders, library workers, friends, boards, in the process of finding out what the community’s needs and wants are and how we can help meet those needs. Norristown community is a vibrant, very diverse community and I’m looking forward to getting to know them.”
DeAngelo received both her bachelor of arts and her master of library science degrees from The State University of New York at Albany. She has held a
variety of professional roles, including serving for 10 years as library director at the Town of Ballston Community Library in upstate New York. For the past four years, DeAngelo has served as district consultant librarian for the Montgomery County Library District, a role that well prepared her to transition into her current job.
“I’m already familiar with all of the library directors in Montgomery County, many of the boards and communities,” she said. “I’ve already worked with them and I’m familiar with the state laws and library codes and I’ve already been working with everyone and that got me ready for doing this. Before, I could give advice and ask good questions but couldn’t actually make changes. I could just tell them what the law says and give advice. Now I can make changes.”
The library’s tradition of assigning leadership roles primarily to women casts a significant light during Women’s History Month.
“I think it’s more that women are more likely to become librarians and that’s who you have available in the roles,” DeAngelo pointed out. “But it certainly is a goal for our library and the library board and myself to reach out and look for a more diverse population of staff, not just in the leadership roles but overall. We all know that diversity, equity and inclusion are important and it’s certainly something that is very important to the library.”
As the Montgomery County-Norristown Public Library, 1001 Powell St., Norristown, has gradually reopened — 65 patrons are currently allowed in the building —its importance takes on a fresh relevance that many may have taken for granted at one time.
“People missed connecting to one another, and what better place to do that than in a public library?” noted DeAngelo, who lives with her husband in Royersford. “For 12 weeks we were closed completely. Our doors were closed but we were still doing online programming, reference work, providing access to all sorts of learning through our databases and overdrives. And then we started curbside service. People could call and ask us to make selections for them, bags of things that they’d enjoy reading and then they would come and we’d put them in their car for them, much like curbside pickup at the grocery store. We’re continuing that. It was really popular. People like being able to do that.”
The service has been especially convenient with those who have mobility issues, DeAngelo said.
“And moms with sleepy kids. It’s a very convenient thing to come and just have someone bring your items out to your car.”
People come to the library for the experience now as much as for anything else, she added.
“It’s a place to relate to others. People come to libraries to connect: connect to the past, the present, and the future, with each other, with their communities, and with the world,” DeAngelo said. “Those connections are what the library is about: helping people make those connections. The Montgomery County Norristown Public Library is committed to our mission of being a gateway to lifelong learning for all.”
DeAngelo echoed the words of newspaper publisher Katharine Graham, “To love what you do and feel that it matters — how could anything be more fun?” to which she added, “I look forward to sharing that philosophy with everyone who lives and works in Norristown and with the public libraries in Montgomery County.”