The Taylor Public Library is a place to be quiet, but its director recently had plenty to shout out about what’s going with the facility.
On May 9, Karen Ellis was the guest on the sixth episode of “Taylor Talk with Jason Hennington,” the Taylor Press video interview series with city of Taylor staff on Facebook. She spoke about her start at the library, upcoming projects and what she does as library director.
“I buy a lot of books. I read a lot of journals to find out which books are the best, said Ellis. “That eats up a lot of my time, but it’s well worth it because we only want quality materials for the for the citizens of Taylor to read.”
Ellis has been library director since 2004. Before then, she had worked at libraries in Harris County and Victoria.
“I saw that Taylor was getting ready to actually build a library and I thought, ‘Huh, okay. I’ve opened branches and opening day collections. I could probably do that,’” said Ellis. “So, came down to Taylor. Small, small town. There wasn’t even a light on the loop.”
She also performs municipal duties such as presentations to the City Council, run the library advisory board, make personnel decisions and more.
“I do all the related reports and statistics that are required by the city and those that are required by the Texas State Library so that we can remain an accredited library in the state of Texas,” said Ellis, “which gives us some benefits such as some free databases that the Texas State Library pays for.”
Ellis’ next focus will the summer reading program.
“The summer reading program is actually a program that’s kind of subsidized in terms of publicity and promotional materials through the state library,” said Ellis. “There’s a national theme. There’s a whole organization for this. There’s so many layers.”
Taylor’s program is scheduled to start June 13 and will include movies, Story Time readings, performances and other events.
“I did pay my power bill, so we will have air AC in the building as (the temperature) gets up really high,” said Ellis “We will continue to offer different activities and things.”
The director is also looking for a summer intern, part-time and full-time library aides.
The first five episode of Taylor Talk featured City Manager Brian LaBorde, Deputy City Manager Jeff Jenkins, Police Chief Henry Fluck, human resource director LaShon Gros and parks and recreation director Tyler Bybee. The officials discussed their work, upcoming projects, parts about their life and ways their departments connect to the community.
To submit questions, email [email protected].
The show is scheduled to broadcast on the second Monday of every month at noon. The show complements the Taylor Press’ other live show, “Around the Watercooler,” which airs at 11:15 a.m. Thursdays and primarily covers local sports along with other topics.
For more from Eliis’ interview, visit http://www.facebook.com/gotaylortx and scroll down to the May 9 post.
