New Haliburton County Public Library (HCPL) CAO Andrea Brown admits, that as a child, she would sneak into the bathroom of her Stoney Creek home to read when she was supposed to be in bed. She also read under the covers with a flashlight.
Her father was a teacher, and instilled in her a love of books, and learning. They went to the library a lot. She even checked out books that had been gifted to her from her own small personal library.
“I’d have little pieces of paper and I would check out books to myself, so I feel like it was destiny,” she says of her chosen career.
She was born and raised in Stoney Creek, and after high school, headed to Trent University in Peterborough to do Canadian Studies and Environmental and Science Studies.
After her second year of university, she took some time off with Canada World Youth, doing an agricultural exchange on a dairy goat farm in Ontario and also travelling to Thailand. Awaiting the start of a new semester, she did community development work in Peterborough.
While not part of her Trent education, she says “it really seeded the roots of me wanting to build community and do something that really made communities great places to be for everyone.”
In her last year, she worked in the interlibrary loans office. She also fell in love and moved with her now husband to Montreal for 1.5 years.
They then moved west and Brown applied to work at the Vancouver Public Library, getting a job in the children’s library, “and found my people.”
She started shelving books, and applied for library school at the University of British Columbia, getting her Master of Library and Information Studies.
While in B.C., Brown coordinated the creation of a provincially-funded $50,000+ Reading Tree early literacy book project, which received accolades including a City of Vancouver staff innovation award.
She started working with HCPL in the fall of 2021 as deputy CEO/public services manager, around the same time then CAO Chris Stephenson joined. She said the two wanted to modernize the service. They rebranded, developed a new website, and got a delivery van. Brown is now working hard on the new Dorset branch.
She is passionate about children and literacy.
“I really want to get kids excited about using the library. We try to find all sorts of ways to bring them in.”
For example, they have seed libraries to get kids interested in gardening. They’ve had bookmark-making contests. Brown is also keen about community partnerships, such as with EarlyON, for literacy kits, and with Pinnguaq for free kits for kids to learn science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. They open the library for the Central Food Network in Cardiff for their annual Christmas toy distribution.
She said COVID kept people away, but they have restarted programming such as family story time, boast a great children’s section, and offer free Lego and crafts “so we try to make it as fun and accessible as possible.”
She added it’s also about bringing not just kids, but adults and seniors together and keeping them connected.
She said she is proud of the work they have done so far, and had a hand in the new strategic plan.
“I really want the library to be a place where we learn to be a resilient community together. Growing our own food, sharing skills. We’ve had some great workshops in Highlands East about beeswax candle making, DIY birdfeeders. The world is changing and the library has always been a place for learning, where we share information and stories, and that hasn’t changed for hundreds of years.”
Brown said she loves living in the County, and while a big change from Vancouver, “I love being in the water, canoeing, paddleboarding. I can look out my windows and there are trees. I can have a campfire in the yard. I’ve got a chicken coop. There’s space for two German Shepherds.”
Her grandparents and their siblings had four cottages on Skeleton Lake in the Township of Muskoka Lakes so her new surroundings are familiar. “I’ve always wanted to come back to the cottage and this area. My heart sings.”
Library board chair, David O’Brien, said the board and library staff “are excited to welcome Andrea into her new role and look forward to the continued success and growth of HCPL under her leadership.”
