By HENRY COLT
Sentinel Staff Writer
One might think that the prospect of moving 2,971 miles to a small Alaskan town on an island with an awe-inspiring number of brown bears would daunt a librarian from the Lower 48.
But Amy Schofield doesn’t seem daunted; she seems fascinated.
Schofield came to Sitka from her home in Camden, South Carolina, to interview for the Sitka Public Library director job and was introduced to the public Friday afternoon at a “meet and greet” reception at the library.
“What impressed me after the immediate visual ‘Wow’ factor of the building was how the library is the hub and heart of such an interesting place,” Schofield told the Sentinel. “I think being the library director in Sitka is one of the coolest jobs there is.”
Candidate for Sitka Public Library director, Amy Schofield, talks with Sitkans during a meet-and-greet at the library Friday. (Sentinel Photo)
As for Baranof Island’s famous bears, Schofield, who has a boxer-mix named Rufus, said they wouldn’t cause her a great deal of concern.
“There are so many things I could worry about,” Schofield said. “That my family would be really far away, that I wouldn’t get to see them very much, that my son would hate it, that I wouldn’t have calculated the cost of living well enough, that I would discover I have seasonal affective disorder and get into a deep dark depression—but I think I’ve lived long enough to know that sometimes there’s no choice that’s right or wrong.”
Schofield is the latest candidate to interview for the library director position. Kathryn Hartly, the third director since Sarah Bell left after five years on the job, resigned on Sept. 23 after less than a year in the position. Joanna Perensovich has been interim director since then.
The Sitka Library Commission is hoping to fill the opening as soon as possible, and has a couple of other applicants for the position.
In an interview with the Sentinel, Schofield said her first library job was in New York City, with the Brooklyn Public Library. Since then, her profession has taken her to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, the San Diego County Public Library, back to New York with the Parson’s School of Design in Manhattan, and then south to the libraries of Kershaw and Richland counties in South Carolina.
Schofield currently serves as the community outreach manager at the Richland Library system.
“My job is to work with communities that have the biggest barriers,” she said.
“We try to promote early literacy with children ages 0-5; we go to housing projects and mobile home communities and give out books and educational toys to try to support those parents ... It is such an important developmental age.”
Schofield also started a program for the incarcerated. “We’ll go to detention centers and have life skills classes around issues like communication, parenting, and mindfulness. The idea is ‘whole librarianship’ – it’s not just about books and information, it’s about looking at people and looking at what they need.”
Asked what changes she might make to the library, she responded: “Rather than saying ‘I’ll do this,’ it starts with a question. ... Wherever I go I would like to understand how the library could support the surrounding community.”
