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Jessica Stroud, Head of Information Technology, is HCPL’s January winner for Who’s Awesome! There were 20 nominations for the honor this month.

Kelly Powell, business manager, nominated Jessica stating, “Jessica always has a smile on her face and is always willing to help. She takes work phone calls on her time off and comes in whenever needed. She has helped me with so many little silly things, I should have been able to fix myself and never complained. She is a person you can count on 24-7. I love working with her and think she is a great asset to the library.”

Jessica first joined HCPL’s staff on July 23, 2001, as a library assistant. She quickly advanced to serve as IT support, administrative assistant to the director and assistant circulation manager. She was network and systems administrator before being named head of information technology.

Jessica has received multiple nominations over the months—too many to fit on this page. In December, Debi Strubler had this to say about Jessica, “Jessica always answers every IT question I have, so that I understand the answer. She always has compassion for me, since I did not touch a computer until I was 40. It does not matter what I ask her, she stops what she is doing and gives all of her attention to my question. I walk away not feeling stupid, and a bit more savvy about computers.”

In November, Alisa Burch, library director, wrote, “As head of IT Jessica is integral in keeping the library’s tech up and running. She leads the way in investigating new technologies and stays on top of purchases, outages, patron and staff issues, database renewals, hotspots and more. She also handles social media posts and issues, creates library marketing materials, sends out eBlasts to library users and lends help to anyone who needs it. Jessica is Awesome!“

Each month a winner is selected by random drawing. Other staff members nominated in January include Amanda Applegate, Corinne Burton, Liz Dennis, Lisa Griffith, Diana Lasky, JoBeth Mathes, Pam Nemeth, Bob Ohlrich, Eden Ransdell, Debi Strubler, Trevor Smith, Tiffany Thieneman, Ellie Tucker-Brown, and Savannah Wallace.

Article by Alisa Burch, Director

Eden Ransdell, youth services manager, is HCPL’s December winner for Who’s Awesome! Eden was one of 12 staff members nominated for the honor this month.

Nikki Esarey, the Palmyra lead circ associate, nominated Eden stating, “Eden is always extremely efficient and helpful. I really appreciate how she just jumped right in and helped me carry and set up all of the tables and materials for the painting class at the main. It was awesome and so is she!”

In August of 2012, Eden joined the HCPL youth services staff. She has taken on many different tasks and excelled at each. Eden has created fun educational programming such as Nature Club. She uses puppets and plays her guitar in programming at the library and when she visits preschools. Eden was promoted to youth services manager in January 2023.

In October, Eden received an anonymous nomination which read, “Eden has been doing a wonderful job making the children’s floor more inviting with signage and shelf organization. She has staff excited about the changes. Library users have noticed the changes and have been very positive. She has made these modifications with little cost to the library by repurposing existing materials. Eden is awesome!” Savannah Wallace, youth services, had this to say about Eden in June, “Eden had a great microscope program for her Nature Club kids! She is so good at getting the kids excited about nature. She is also working hard to make the library’s book collection the best it can be!”

In February, Eden received two nominations. Diana Lasky, administrative assistant, nominated Eden writing, “Great job taking over the Winter Reading Challenge and making it a huge success in 2023. Wonderful recognition to the HWES school students!” An anonymous nomination stated, “Eden did a fantastic job rocking with the students at Heth Washington during the Pete the Cat visit. She played the guitar and sang the Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes book to five classrooms creating a blister on her thumb. She gave each classroom a certificate indicating the number of books they contributed to the Winter Reading Total making their school the high reading school. Eden is doing great things in the youth services department and is an asset to the library.”

Each month a winner is selected by random drawing. Other staff members nominated in December include Vee Colantonio, Amanda Embrey, Nikki Esarey, Megan Grindle, Diana Lasky, Sandy Maschino, Debbie McClanahan,  Steven Schificar, Jessica Stroud and Heather Wyss.

Article by Alisa Burch, Director

Kelly Powell, business manager, is HCPL’s November winner for Who’s Awesome!  Kelly was one of 19 nominations for the honor this month.

Diana Lasky, administrative assistant to the director, nominated Kelly stating, “Kelly has a magic touch with decorating. The front of the building looks awesome for Christmas and when she sets her hand to food items for library receptions or an open house, everything looks polished and professional. Being able to see the inner workings of the library, I can appreciate her work on making sure payroll is on time and bills are paid. Thanks for being awesome!”

An anonymous nominator added, “Kelly is the library’s go-to person for outdoor decorations. Each year she comes up with a new way to bring the magic of Christmas to HCPL. This year she added Grinch elements. She also helped demolish the old coffee bar in the library and helped with that area’s new furniture arrangement. She is a hard worker and gives 100 percent to the projects she takes on. Kelly is awesome!”

Kelly received two other nominations this month. Savannah Wallace, youth services, wrote, “Kelly did a fantastic job decorating the front of the library! I especially love all the Grinch decorations she used. Great job, Kelly!” And JoBeth Mathes, reference, said, “She is always ready to lend a helping hand. She also decorates for Christmas outside of our library branch.”

Kelly joined the HCPL staff as business manager in January of 2005. For more than 18 years she has handled payroll, insurance, accounts receivable and payable and HR functions for the library. In 2021, after the Pandemic she came up with the idea to form a “Fun Committee” to boost employee camaraderie and morale.

Diana Lasky also nominated Kelly in May stating, “Kelly is very patient. She is positive, helpful and willing to stop and answer questions or help me resolve an issue, no matter how busy she is. I recently overheard that she is the “go-to” person in certain situations because she intuitively knows how to approach people in a non-threatening, positive manner. This is so important in human resources, which falls under her umbrella, even though she is really the business manager. Thanks, Kelly for all of your help and positivity.”

Each month a winner is selected by random drawing. Other staff members nominated in November include Ann Allen, Amanda Applegate, Amanda Embrey, Connie Gresham, John Kunsman, Diana Lasky, Debbie McClanahan, Pam Nemeth, Donna Seewer, Jessica Stroud, Kaitlyn Taylor, Savannah Wallace, Kelli Witsman, and Heather Wyss.

Article by Alisa Burch, Director