FREMONT, Neb. (AP) — Janet L. Davenport isn't sure how she caught the reading bug, but she's been hooked on books her whole life.
"I still read some — not as much as I used to," said the new director of Keene Memorial Library. "As a child I just gobbled books alive. But the world makes you busy."
Her love of reading led her through historic events, the lives of famous people, sea adventures and romances. Her imagination was sparked by science fiction and mysteries. Davenport's interests, she said, "were all over the place. I think I went through different stages."
Davenport was born in Tennessee and raised in Laramie, Wyo. Her father was a railroad engineer and her mother worked for the City of Laramie. It was while in college that she decided to make libraries a career.
After earning a bachelor's degree in history at the University of Wyoming in 1974 and then a master's degree in library science at the University of Denver a year later, she took a job as a reference librarian and radio reading coordinator at the Iowa Commission for the Blind.
"My job was dealing with the taping program and radio reading program," she said.
"My first professional experience really left a mark on me," she said. "They wanted everyone from the lowest person in the organization up to the head of the organization to know what we were doing, why we're doing it, how we were doing it, and be able to voice that. I would really hope that that's the way (Keene) eventually becomes."
Davenport was hired by the Omaha Public Library in 1981, earned a master's in public administration in 1988, and then retired in 2009.
"I don't think I ever intended to stay retired completely," she said.
After working on major projects for the Omaha library system, including building the technology program, temporary retirement was an opportunity to re-energize.
"I took a year, worked on my garden. Then I started looking for work," she said.
"When this job came available, it was another piece of great luck," she said. "Here was a job close to Omaha, so I could stay in the Midwest and near my friends. I love the people in this area."
Davenport lives in Omaha now but plans to move to Fremont.
The Keene staff, she said, is customer-oriented, creative and very dedicated.
"We're in sort of a unique situation, actually, with a new library director," Davenport said. "Laura England-Biggs, who was the acting director, has taken on the role of our youth services librarian, so she's new to that role even though she's been here for a while.
"We are in the process of replacing the person who was our children's programming assistant, so we basically have the opportunity to really re-look at how we do children's and youth services, and build that program some more.
"I'm hoping to be actively involved in all parts of the library," Davenport said. "I told the youth services librarian I'm not afraid to make a fool out of myself. I'll do story hours, I'll dress up in costumes.
"The library should be fun, it should be vibrant," she said. "There needs to be corners that are quiet where you can sit down and read a book in peace and study, but there also needs to be energy and learning.
"There's always been an emphasis on service to children in libraries," Davenport said.
"There is a growing emphasis on continuing that service to children as they grow; services to teens to keep them engaged, to give them positive opportunities to be active and be with their compatriots and continue their education, perhaps," she said.
"There's a great deal of emphasis in libraries now on early literacy, because the library frequently functions with mothers bringing their children to story hour," she said.
"One of the projects that I hope we will undertake this fall is introducing a program called Every Child Ready to Read that's sponsored by the Public Library Association," she said.
The program, Davenport explained, trains library staff to teach mothers how to prepare young children to learn to read.
Another goal is building support and awareness of library services.
"Libraries are still very busy with people coming in, getting books from the shelves, getting CDs and DVDs, and movies," she said.
"They also are coming in 'virtually' and downloading books that we subscribe to in the audio form and the e-book format you can put on your Kindle or your iPad. Not as many people come through the doors, perhaps, but they're still using the library."
"Libraries are in some ways becoming more of a community center as well as a source of reading and literature," she said. "I hope we can create that vision in Fremont."
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Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
