Meet your new Glenwood Springs library manager

By John Stroud for the Post Independent - jstroud@postindependent.com

After honing her librarian skills in one of the most highly regarded public library systems in the country, Laurin Arnold is busy applying her knowledge as the new Glenwood Springs Branch Library manager.

Arnold, who spent the past 12 years in the 22-branch Columbus Metropolitan Library System in Ohio, has been on the job in Glenwood for a little over a month.

She was selected to succeed former Glenwood branch manager Sue Schnitzer, who left at the end of last year to take a manager's position with the Memphis, Tennessee, public libraries.

Though she came from a big-city library system, Arnold said she was attracted not only to the area but by the small-town, personable approach that the Garfield County Public Libraries took in interviewing and ultimately hiring her.

"I could tell that Jesse and Amy were really passionate about the libraries and really invested in it, and that means a lot to me," Arnold said of Garfield Library District Executive Director Jesse Henning and Assistant Director Amy Shipley.

Coincidentally, Henning also came from the Columbus area, working in the neighboring Westerville libraries before heading west and eventually taking the executive director's position for Garfield County Libraries.

Arnold had even done some work with Henning's wife, Carrie, on the Columbus area Reference and Information Services Division Action Council, but she didn't know Jesse directly.

Aside from the mountains and the awesome beauty of western Colorado, Arnold said she was also attracted by the dedicated staff at the Glenwood Springs branch and the other district libraries.

"The fact that they were involved in my interview is another thing that really impressed me and that they have a say in who they get to work with," Arnold said. "That's a great mindset for the administration to have.

"Obviously, they are very dedicated and work very well together, they enjoy their jobs, and you can see that in the way people respond to the libraries," she said.

Read the full article at the Post Independent (originally appeared in print on Wednesday, April 12, 2017.)

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