Library Limelight: Lisa Echols, Youth Services Supervisor, Post Road Library

Library Limelight is intended to be a quick read to help FCPL patrons get to know our librarians and staff.  We hope you enjoy learning about the people who make our libraries great!

Lisa Echols is pictured with her two children
 and acrobat Cameron Tomele at the 2015 Summer
 Reading Fun Kick-off Carnival.

Lisa Echols
Youth Services Supervisor
Post Road Library

Where is your hometown?

Gainesville, Georgia

How long have you been at FCPL?

Almost three years

What other jobs have you had at FCPL?

Just this one.

Why did you choose to work in a library?

I love the quote that you should first find your dream and then find your purpose. I have always loved books, theater, children and helping people. What better place could I find than a library where I could combine my passions! Nothing makes me happier than the moment when I pull a book off of the shelf and a child's face lights up because it was exactly what they were looking for!

Describe your job in five words or less.

“Awesome resources + programming for youth” or "Serving youth, family, school, community!" (That's a tough one!)

What is unique about your job?

Being a youth librarian is terrific because every day is different. Where else would you get to meet an amusing balloon twister magician, make fluorescent lava bags with kids, sing “Let It Go” from Frozen with teens, and then present a puppet show to a crowd of 100 all in one week? And that was all in one week last summer!

What is your favorite part of your job?

Helping kids who don't think they like reading discover the joy you feel when you discover a book that really speaks to you. Also offering kids who haven't found a "tribe" through school or sports to discover friends and acceptance at the library.

What’s the most interesting place you’ve lived or traveled?

I was lucky to travel a lot growing up because my mom was a Delta flight attendant. Two of the most fascinating places we visited were the Avebury Ring and the Glendalough Monastery ruins. Avebury Ring is on Salisbury Plain in England - like Stonehenge, but bigger, and you can still touch the stones. (No wonder I love Outlander!) Glendalough Monastery is in Ireland, and it’s a place that makes you feel like fairytales about wolves and fairies might be real!

What are you reading right now?

Cruel Crown by Victoria Aveyard, a prequel to the teen novel Red Queen, Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan, a moving and ethereal juvenile book that just won a Newbery honor award, and a lot of picture books about moose for my storytime this week.

Paper books or eBooks?

Paper books forever! Or audio books - I listen to them in my car daily!