By Anita Weier
Friends of Lakeview Library

Lesley Kircher has been settling into her new job as librarian at Lakeview Library since August, learning more about the community as well as the library. She is excited about the opportunity and the challenges of providing library services for the Northside, an area Kircher said she enjoys because of its diversity.

“Starting at a new place is always a little intimidating, but I love the neighborhood,” Kircher said over a cup of coffee at Willy Street Co-op – North.

Her road to the Northside — and to library work — has been long. “In high school, photography and television production were my interests,” she recalled. “I’ve had several different jobs, including media jobs.”

She grew up in Eau Claire with six siblings, which was “lots of fun.” She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism at UW-Eau Claire while working at the college media center. She later worked for America’s Value Network, when they went live on television, as a floor director, camera operator and graphics operator. But she switched her focus to librarianship and earned a master’s degree in library studies from UW-Milwaukee in 2004. While attending UW-M, she was a part-time assistant to the youth services librarian at the Dwight Foster Public Library in Fort Atkinson.

After earning her master’s degree, it took a year and a half to find a job as youth services librarian at Meadowridge Library in Madison. She worked with young people from birth to 18 years old doing story times, school-age programming and after-school teen services. “I also took care of the collection and did outreach to schools. I started a chess club and knitting for kids. Those are both still going at Meadowridge. I started a monthly book club for teens,” she said.

“It was challenging but I loved it. They had never had a youth services librarian there. The Madison Public Library used to send youth librarians out from Central. I was one of those first hires for youth services at the branches. There is a huge need, especially for middle schoolers. Parents with money can take kids to classes and camps, but for parents who can’t, the library can provide those services. Madison Public Library has really advanced in the last 10 years.”

Kircher worked at Meadowridge for more than two years and then at Pinney Library for seven years, also in youth services. She was an adult reference librarian at South Madison Library for eight months until a position opened at Lakeview with the retirement of longtime librarian Katie Scharf.

“It is a challenge replacing a much-loved librarian such as Scharf,” Kircher noted, but she appreciates the way library users and the Friends of Lakeview Library have welcomed her.

Kircher is married and has a son who is a senior in high school.

At Lakeview she has been getting to know the staff and patrons. “We have been rearranging the collection in front, weeding out books that are little used so it is easier to find what people want,” she explained. “We are trying to make the library look more appealing.”

A new after-school program called Terrific Tuesdays will offer children something different each week, such as LEGO Club, cooking classes, games and art projects. Lakeview will also host a Library Laboratory once a month for children to flex their “tinkering brain muscles.”

She wants to schedule more programs with Anthology, a State Street business that will be presenting programs at Lakeview, such as creating Valentine cards and garlands, hand lettering and “Altered Books,” in which people use outdated travel books from the library and change them into their own journal/travel guides.

Lakeview has a staff of 15, most part-time, serving people who come to the library a total of 170,000 times per year. And that service is what Kircher loves.