EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is part of a new BurlingtonToday series — 'THIS IS BURLINGTON' — that showcases the people, places, organizations and businesses that make our city so special. Click HERE to read every story in the series, which will run throughout the month of November.
Anyone who loves reading can probably attest to thinking, “I’d love to be a librarian.”
Well, Brynley Eckhart is – excuse the pun – literally living that dream.
She’s the digital resources and collections librarian at Burlington Central Library – the same library she grew up visiting, in the same community where she was born and raised.
“I absolutely adore my job. It’s my dream job and my dream community,” Eckhart said. She admitted to always being a reader, and keeps at least one book in her purse at all times, just in case. In her car, it’s audio books.
At work, Eckhart's got her finger on the pulse of the library’s collections.
To put it in perspective, Eckhart decides what materials come into the library system and it’s a lot more than just books, especially now.
Post-COVID, and in a world where technology has drastically changed the landscape of libraries, her job has grown and evolved over the last two-and-a-half years that she's been on staff.
“I chase and assist with adding to the collection physically, and I build all the new collections: decodeable books, puzzles, cognitive care kits…. digital resources, I’m the selector of all of the overdrive titles, all the audiobooks and ebooks.”
She said the physical collection of books is nearing what it was pre-COVID and there’s still plenty of patron holds on titles too – another aspect of her job.
Supply and demand
If a book or title proves overwhelmingly popular – for example, the recent death of actor Matthew Perry has resulted in a peaked interest in his 2022 memoir – it’s up to Eckhart to decide to increase the numbers to meet demand. (There are more than 95 holds on 11 copies of Perry’s book, 113 holds on 12 copies of the audiobook and numerous holds on any given season of Friends.)
“Each day I am making sure I have the new titles purchased and always checking the holds and wait lists,” she said. “Digitally the costs have gone up. Part of my job is wagering whether to order new titles and kind of waiting to see how they’re received.”
All purchase requests (made through bpl.on.ca) land on Eckhart’s desk. From there, she checks to see if other nearby library systems have the title, and then makes a decision on whether it would appeal to the community.
There are now many new ways to enjoy literacy through the Burlington Public Library system. In fact, there’s even a streaming service that can be accessed with a library card – Kanopy.
And Eckhart, who’s married and has a 15-year-old daughter, Kallye, gets a little advice from the younger generation.
Being a librarian is a change from her prior life, or as she put it, “It’s my second-life job.”
Eckhart earned a psychology degree from University of Guelph and later a social work degree from McMaster. She worked in that field for three years and quickly realized the stress and anxiety of that position was not something she could turn off at the end of the day.
“It’s heavy on the heart,” she said. “It’s not a job that you can leave at the door. After I had my daughter, I wanted to do something that I loved. I always loved the library.”
After riding her bike to story time with her youngster in a carrier on the front of the bike, she realized the library was a place she’d like to work. She began studies once again and soon had her librarian technician diploma from Mohawk and later, her masters of library and information studies through the University of Alberta.
Her first librarian job was at the Pelham library and she quickly realized, “It’s all the good stuff I wanted to do.”
When she spotted the job for the Burlington position, Eckhart, who's happily married to Welland’s fire chief and calls Lincoln home, was exuberant.
“It’s like coming home everyday,” she said, adding her childhood home was just around the corner from Central Library. “The last two years have been the best years of my life. People say, ‘That’s a long commute,’ but I don’t even notice it. I know that sounds cliche, but going to work for something I love is easy and everyday is different, tackling something different. It’s never mundane.”
Social media has definitely changed the job, she said. Once a book becomes popular through social media – when it's a choice on a book club, for instance – she can see the response of the community, and knows what she needs to do.
Of course, the pandemic certainly threw a loop into her role, but she was happy the library responded quickly to figure out ways to make it accessible.
“It’s such an integral part of people," she said. "We had to figure out: ‘How are we going to help? How can we do that, to make sure people were getting what they needed."
A graduate of Waterdown District High School, Eckhart said the library is about a 50/50 split of print and digital resources and added that the quality of audiobooks has really improved, with narrators making books sound great.
More than just books
Plus, there’s new and growing technology for library lovers. Decodeable books, dyslexia-friendly readers that introduce different letter sounds to reinforce what they have learned, serve to promote reading and get learners into the groove of reading.
The library also has cognitive care kits to make life a little easier to understand for caregivers in the community, and different activities for those struggling with dementia.
There’s even a great new partnership with women in engineering at McMaster University that’s coming next year. The library will start circulating early engineering kits for toddlers and preschoolers, and also some STEM learning for parents to enable them to introduce it to their children as early as possible.
The library has C-pens that make independent reading available for any student suffering from reading difficulties such as dyslexia. The pen scans text and reads aloud; it can even narrate in a variety of languages.
They also have sensory kits available for neurodivergent customers that contain items like fidget spinners.
But the old-school items never go out of style: one of the most popular items recently is jigsaw puzzles.
“We had so many holds we couldn’t fill them all," said Eckhart. "There are none available right now and we have 65 ranging from 24- or 48-piece, for kids to floor ones, and all the way up to a few thousands pieces.”
One puzzle features smaller sizes for the adults and larger pieces for children so families can work on them together, but they’re all out with other customers currently.
Aside from the collection, Eckhart says the human connection makes coming to work at the library extra special.
“I feel very fortunate we have a staff that works well together and they’re kind, friendly and fun,” she said.
