Dave Schroeder remembers taking a career aptitude test in the fifth or sixth grade. One of the results that came back was that he had a good aptitude for working with people and should consider becoming a librarian.
“I have learned that the overwhelming majority of people are kind and generous, and you know, just interested in their community and interested in learning more,” Schroeder said when asked what he has learned about people in his almost 40 years of working at Kenton County Public Library.
Now retiring as the library director in August after holding the position since 2006, Schroeder reflects on his time, starting at the library as a shelver at the Covington branch in 1986. He was about to start college as a history major, and like all college students, the Ludlow native wanted to earn his degree with as little debt as possible. So he started applying for jobs.
Shelvers did what it sounds like-you put books back on the shelf.
“I hadn’t really thought about working in the library, particularly beyond that, and then it just kind of grew,” Schroeder said.
It grew from his work as a shelver to his role in the local history department in 1987, indexing historic newspapers, which was fitting for someone earning their history degree. Schroeder earned that degree from Thomas More University, then began a master’s in American history at the University of Cincinnati.
He then left the library system from 1996 to 2000 to serve as Archivist for Thomas More University and the Diocese of Covington. During that time, he earned his master’s in library science at the University of Kentucky.
Schroeder returned to the library in 2000 as the Kentucky History Librarian, a role he held until he became the Kenton County Public Library director in 2006, when former director Wayne Onkst was appointed state librarian.
Schroder was the third library director for Kenton County, the first, Mary Ann Mongan, having started her tenure in 1967.
Schroeder said Onkst first hired him as a shelver and then hired him back as the local history librarian. He said he worked with all the library’s directors, which was a really great way to learn.
“Dave has Northern Kentucky in his veins,” Onkst said. “He was born here, and his family is very involved in all kinds of local affairs, civic affairs, and so he knows the area inside out. So it’s a perfect fit, and he got a lot of great experience, both inside the library and outside the library, which makes a great combination for a job as a director.”
Many things have changed in public library systems since Schroeder was shelving books in 1986. At that time, he said there was only one computer in the building.
“We had typewriters in the building when I started,” he said. “One of the things that we always hated when you worked the reference desk was if somebody came up and said the ribbon needed to be changed on the typewriter because nobody wanted to change the ribbon. I remember when we got the first fax machine, and we thought that was the coolest thing ever.”
Progress in technology went from terminals for people to look up books to the internet being publicly available. Magazines are now online. E-books and audiobooks are the new in-demand rentals.
Schroeder said that back then, the only sound-related item people could rent was music on records. Then that switched to CDs. When the library got movies in, they were in two competing formats. BETA and VHS. Schroeder said VHS eventually won out, then was replaced by DVDs, then Blu-ray and now those numbers are declining as streaming has taken over.
“He was a leader among librarians, certainly in the state of Kentucky, and I think in the greater Cincinnati area, he was very highly respected, and looked to for leadership,” Onkst said. “It’s not been an easy time for libraries in the last 20 years or so. There’ve been a lot of challenges, and I think Dave was ideally suited to lead the library during those changes.”
Aside from technological advances, Schroeder said that programming in the library has changed over time. He said Kenton County Public Library has always done programming since it began as the Covington Library in the early 1900s. Still, it has grown into something that 170,000 people attended last year.
The library offers everything from story times for kids to science and STEM programs to genealogy and book talks from authors.
“They’re coming in to use study spaces, they’re coming in to go to programs, they’re coming in for a third space, which I think is really interesting,” Schroeder said. “Libraries have always served that purpose, but even to a greater degree now, people are looking for places where they’re not alone.”
Schroeder said libraries are among the few places that provide a third space without charging for it.
Independence Branch Manager Faith Mulberry said she first met Schroeder when she worked for the Boone and Owen County library systems during regional directors’ meetings.
“It was always great to have Dave in the room because you always had the full story,” Mulberry said. “He was so connected in the library world, being here in Kenton County, he obviously knew everything that was going on in Northern Kentucky. He knew everything that was going on at the state level, and filled in the things going on in legislator and and then on a national level.”
When he looks back at his tenure at the library, Schroeder said three accomplishments come to mind that he is most proud of.
One is the New Latonia branch that opened last June. He said the library system had not had a new branch since 1994. Schroeder said they picked Latonia because they wanted a children-focused neighborhood. He said that work was a culmination of about six years of planning and study. When it opened, he said over 1,000 people showed up.
Another component of the library that Schroeder said he is especially proud of is the workforce development program. The program started during the 2008 recession when people were looking for work, and then it evolved.
He said that the National Library Association has recognized the program and was part of a study that included Brooklyn, N.Y., Phoenix and Kenton County.
“We’re drawing people not only from Kenton County but from across Northern Kentucky and Southwest Ohio,” he said. “We have people driving from Dayton and Louisville and Lexington to take advantage of those programs, and so that’s been something that I’m really proud of, and I think it really shows the value of libraries beyond the book.”
Something else Schroeder said he was really proud of was his work in the history and genealogy department, which engulfed almost half of his career. It has always been a passion of his. When the library redid the Covington Branch, Schroeder said it was able to provide that department with the space it needed to demonstrate the quality of its collection. When he was the head of the department, Schroeder said the library started “Faces and Places,” which houses over 100,000 photographs of Northern Kentucky spanning years.
Mulberry said Schroeder loved to be first.
“He definitely creates an environment for his staff to be able to innovate and create, and that was one of the things I really loved most about working with Dave,” she said.
When someone had an idea, Mulberry said they could come to Schoeder and the idea didn’t even have to be fully formed yet, but anyone could talk to him about their concepts.
“My favorite thing to hear him say was like, ‘go for it. All right, go for it,’” Mulberry said.
“We are here to serve the people of Kenton County, and I think we’ve understood that mission from day one, and we’ve always made it a priority, and so we’re very intentional about looking and listening to what people want in the community,” Schroeder said.
Schroeder said when he got those results from his career aptitude test in elementary school, he remembers thinking, ‘I don’t want to work in a library. That would be boring.’
Today, he said, the last 40 years have been far from that.
“It’s been great, and I’ve so much enjoyed it, and I’ll miss it, especially miss the people, but I’m also looking forward to new adventures, new challenges,” Schroeder said. “So it was just a really good time in my life, and I think also in the history of the library, but it’s time for new leadership.”
