EDWARD GARCIA, director of the Cranston Public Library, was recently elected to the American Library Association’s executive board. The American Library Association is a nonprofit that helps promote libraries and library education around the world. Garcia first started with Cranston Public Library as an intern in 2006. Two years later, he became assistant library director at the Central Falls Free Library before returning to Cranston in 2009.
What drew you to wanting to be a librarian for your career? This [month is] my 10-year anniversary since graduating from the University of Rhode Island with my master of library and information studies and becoming a librarian. I started my career working for Sony Music, then moved to the Boston Phoenix and then I managed the Rhode Island office of the American Diabetes Association. I was trying to find something I enjoyed doing and I always talk about my 10-year odyssey of finding my calling after leaving Sony. It was librarianship; I thrive on and I am fulfilled by the fact that we are helping people every day at the Cranston Public Library.
What have been some of your accomplishments in the 10 years you’ve been a librarian? Thankfully we have an amazing staff at the Cranston Public Library, which has allowed us to evolve and innovate library services over the past 10 years. Some of our accomplishments have been opening the C Lab, our digital media learning space, and being the first library in Rhode Island to offer 3-D printing to the public in 2014; having a $1.2 million bond for library capital improvements passed overwhelmingly by the voters of Cranston in 2014; adding an extra day of summer service hours at all CPL locations in 2012; additional service hours at four branch locations in the past two years; having CPL recognized … with the LibraryAware Community Award in 2016; and launching our new children’s room at the Central Library, which underwent a major renovation in 2017.
How many ideas have you taken from the various discussions on the many boards you have served on and applied them to Cranston Public Library? The most recent is an initiative we are working to implement now; going fine-free for all children and teen library materials. We noticed that [more than] 2,200 children’s library cards were blocked because of overdue fines. The library noticed that fines became a barrier for some families from using the library. Many don’t return to the library because of an inability to pay fines or for fear of accumulating them. Penalizing young people for late books makes libraries feel unwelcoming. Going fine-free will make a big difference in providing educational and reading opportunities to all students in Cranston, whether their families can afford to pay library fines or not.
What ideas do you plan to bring to the American Library Association’s executive board? The American Library Association is a very complex professional association with more than 50,000 members. I hope to help in the effort to streamline the organization, which has several layers of management, committees and policies that at times overlap and also make it very hard for new members to navigate.
