Volunteer Highlight: June 2024 | 100-Hour Pin Awarded: December 5, 2025
On December 5th, during our library’s holiday party, I was honored to receive a pin that signifies a deeply personal milestone: a jeweled bookmarking 100 hours of volunteer service. While I am proud to serve as a Library Trustee at Large, this past year I felt a calling to move beyond the boardroom and into the stacks. Reaching this milestone wasn’t just about “putting in time”; it was about bridging the gap between our town’s rich history and its digital future.
Data Advocacy: Defending the Library
A critical portion of my service involved protecting the library’s reputation and funding through rigorous data analysis. In response to the 2023 County Library Debrief, I authored two comprehensive reports:
- Funding & Growth: I analyzed financial records, inflation data, and the impact of our facility’s 2x expansion to explain the necessity of current funding levels.
- Efficiency Audit: Using Bibliostat and Census data, I proved our library’s operational efficiency compared to peer institutions. On December 5, 2025, the Royal Examiner published these findings in “Protecting Our Library‘s Legacy: A Call for Transparent, Data-Driven Decisions“, successfully debunking multiple claims in the Debrief. These reports were later cited and praised by two community members during public hearings on December 10, 2024, regarding the formation of a county library board.
Bridging the Digital Divide: “What the TECH?!”
The core of my 100 hours has been spent on the front lines of digital literacy at our weekly “What the Tech!” program. It is a rewarding challenge that taps into my decades of tech experience. On any given afternoon, the requests are as diverse as the community itself:
- Device Troubleshooting: Helping seniors sync fitness trackers or resolve stubborn laptop glitches.
- Advanced Support: Assisting patrons with high-level tasks like pointing DNS records to a website, creating QR codes, or helping a neighbor recover and secure a compromised computer.
- Makerspace Mentorship: Leading workshops to teach patrons how to use the 3D printer and laser cutter. Together, we’ve created everything from custom puzzles to holiday ornaments, turning digital designs into physical reality.
I researched how to make different-shaped puzzles with various puzzle generator websites, instructed students how to convert images to black & white images using either Gimp or Adobe Photoshop, and how to convert to SVG files using Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator.
Archival Research: Echos of the Past
A significant portion of my service was spent at the Warren Heritage Society’s Laura Virginia Hale Archives, where I serve on the Archives Committee. I had the privilege of providing deep-dive research assistance to Coleen Snyder, author of In Search of Giants, for a new presentation at the library.
This research supported the return of the Silver Tea Party, a historic library fundraising event traditionally held on George Washington’s Birthday. Together, we searched through old newspapers to trace the library’s physical journey across various locations in Front Royal, uncovering photos and stories buried for generations. Coleen transformed this research into a presentation titled “Echoes of the Past,” which premiered at the Silver Tea and was subsequently shared with the public through additional presentations.
Preserving the “What-So-Ever Circle” & The Tabard Inn
My research took me even deeper into the original minutes of the What-So-Ever Circle of the King‘s Daughters, the visionary group that founded our town’s first public library.
This led to another fascinating discovery in the forgotten history of bibliography: the Tabard Inn Library—a sophisticated early-20th-century “revolving” subscription-based library system that often operated out of local drugstores.
Specifically, I discovered that our state’s first kindergarten teacher had established a Tabard Inn location in Trout’s Drug Store in Front Royal, Virginia, for her students. Realizing that much of this history was missing from the global record, I utilized my technical background to ensure these local stories became a permanent part of the digital commons by authoring and expanding several Wikipedia entries:
- Tabard Inn Library (Original Entry)
- List of Tabard Inn Library Locations (Original Entry)
- Booklovers Library & Bodley Club Library (Original Entries)
- Seymour Eaton (Expanded biography of the innovative founder)
The June Volunteer Highlight: Setting the Pace
My transition from “Trustee” to “Active Volunteer” was officially recognized in June 2024, when I had the distinct honor of being the first volunteer featured by Samuels Public Library in its new recognition series.
At the time, I had just begun ramping up my hours, focusing on making the library’s specialized technology more accessible to the public. Being featured early on was a powerful motivator; it confirmed that my background in IT and systems development could be directly translated into a valuable community resource. It set the stage for a year of intense engagement that would eventually lead to my 100-hour award.
Conclusion: The Whole Man
Reaching 100 hours has been a journey of “The Whole Man”—using my hands in the makerspace, my mind in the archives, and my heart in the service of my neighbors. Whether I am fixing a DNS record or documenting a library system from 1902, the mission remains the same: ensuring that knowledge is accessible to all. I am grateful to Samuels Public Library for giving me the space to serve, and I look forward to the next hundred hours.
