I am loving my life. My family and I are enjoying all of the time we spend together. We live in a home that we cherish very much and that we have many plans for, so we end up spending a lot of our time here. The kids are growing up and are exploring so much of the world. Haley is working full time and is growing so much as a human being. I am surrounded by amazing people and because of that I have a most amazing life. I don’t think about libraries much anymore. I find that to be a good thing for me. I visit my local library to get stuff for the kids about once a month. It’s nice to stop in. M ..read more

For the September 2023 issue of Information Today Magazine I wrote about the amazing new Legend of Zelda game (Tears of the Kingdom) and how libraries can use this amazing piece of art to connect with their communities. Thank you to Karen Miller and Lexie Melo for talking to me for this piece. And many thanks to my kiddos Aero & Finn for all of the photos in this piece. You can read this full feature here ..read more

Hi there! I had a really nice time presenting at the 2023 Computers in Libraries Conference this week. It was great to see so many wonderful people who have encouraged me in my career as a librarian. Many thanks to the amazing Jane Dysart and Brian Pichman. You two are amazing people and I thank you for the nudge you gave me in 2022 to get me back towards presenting at the amazing conferences that you both organize. I had a lovely time connecting with so many great people and also learning so much from y’all. In no particular order, thank you to Jan Holmquist, Amanda Goodman, Erik Boekesteijn ..read more

Every month we are required to write a department report for our local city council (at our library we are a mix, part city department/part nonprofit). I like writing these reports because, well first off I like writing, and second because they give me a chance to recall and reflect upon the things the library has done that month. Too often I forget about a lot of these things, and even more so I get down on myself for “not doing enough”. Doing these reports helps me remember what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and that we are actually accomplishing a lot with very little. I’ll do my ..read more

Every month we are required to write a department report for our local city council (at our library we are a mix, part city department/part nonprofit). I like writing these reports because, well first off I like writing, and second because they give me a chance to recall and reflect upon the things the library has done that month. Too often I forget about a lot of these things, and even more so I get down on myself for “not doing enough”. Doing these reports helps me remember what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and that we are actually accomplishing a lot with very little. I’ll do my ..read more

Read the full opinion piece HAVE WE FORGOTTEN WHAT A PUBLIC LIBRARY IS FOR? by Deborah E. Mikula & Loren Khogali here “Librarians are not trying to force your children to read material you don’t want them to read. They are fulfilling their role as information professionals tasked with upholding the constitutional promise of access to information for all.” –Deborah E. Mikula & Loren Khogali  from HAVE WE FORGOTTEN WHAT A PUBLIC LIBRARY IS FOR? by Deborah E. Mikula & Loren Khogali I was very happy to read this piece in the Washington Post recently. I’m glad that someone from t ..read more

In my first ten months at the Gardiner Public Library I decided to go hard on updating and writing new policies for the library. If you want a library to succeed I believe that you have to have a solid and understandable set of policies backing up the work you do. It was great to work with our Board of Trustees and then our Policies Committee to develop this set of policies for the library. At last night’s Board Meeting, all of these policies were approved unanimously. Now with these policies in place, it is really time to get to work and do some amazing things for an amazing community. You c ..read more

Every month we are required to write a department report for our local city council (at our library we are a mix, part city department/part nonprofit). I like writing these reports because, well first off I like writing, and second because they give me a chance to recall and reflect upon the things the library has done that month. Too often I forget about a lot of these things, and even more so I get down on myself for “not doing enough”. Doing these reports helps me remember what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and that we are actually accomplishing a lot with very little. I’ll do my ..read more

Every month we are required to write a department report for our local city council (at our library we are a mix, part city department/part nonprofit). I like writing these reports because, well first off I like writing, and second because they give me a chance to recall and reflect upon the things the library has done that month. Too often I forget about a lot of these things, and even more so I get down on myself for “not doing enough”. Doing these reports helps me remember what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and that we are actually accomplishing a lot with very little. I’ll do my ..read more

Every month we are required to write a department report for our local city council (at our library we are a mix, part city department/part nonprofit). I like writing these reports because, well first off I like writing, and second because they give me a chance to recall and reflect upon the things the library has done that month. Too often I forget about a lot of these things, and even more so I get down on myself for “not doing enough”. Doing these reports helps me remember what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and that we are actually accomplishing a lot with very little. I’ll do my ..read more