Meet the Librarian: Cheri, Assistant Director

Name:    Cheri Nienke
Position at the library:    Assistant Director/Collection Development/Cataloger

1. How long have you been at APL?  I’ve worked here fourteen years.  Total in libraries? 24 years.

2. What’s your favorite thing about APL?  The beautiful building, the great staff, and the patrons and books.

3. What is your favorite book and why?  There are so many it’s hard to choose.  When I was twelve, I read “Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell.  It was my first inkling that unconventional women can make choices and live their lives independently.  It changed how I see the role of women in the world.

4. Do you have any other book or author recommendations?  I really like Wally Lamb-his book “I know this Much is True” is an incredible book about brothers.  Mary Doria Russell’s ‘The Sparrow’ posits the question-“If we discover alien life on distant planets, is it our job to school them in our religious beliefs?”, and I like Elizabeth Kostova’s story ‘The Historian”, a creepy tale of vampires and Vlad the Impaler.

5. Do you have any hobbies? (Besides reading?)  I make non-traditional quilts, create wearable art, am interested in the Steampunk movement, love to bake, but mostly enjoying playing with my grandkids as often as possible.  And I have to add reading, because I read every day-usually 4-5 books a week.

6. If you weren’t a librarian, what would you be?  Working with children.

7. What’s your favorite food?  I love homemade spaghetti and French bread.

8. What is the funniest experience you’ve ever had at the library?  We had patron visit us in the winter once wearing a bathrobe. He insisted it was a coat.

9. What does your dream library look like?  I work in my dream library every day.

10. Talk about other stuff you like (movies, TV, music, games, etc.)  I like Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, [yes, shades of the 60’s]-we had THE BEST music ever.  But I also like Mumford & Sons, Maroon 5, Adele and other current musicians.  I like anything by Joss Whedon . Best movie moment? Not one word was spoken, but the emotion conveyed was absolute-and I think everyone felt it.  “Saving Private Ryan”.  The mother is washing dishes at the sink, and the military vehicle comes down the country road to tell her that three of her sons died on D-Day. I play a lot of Candyland and Chutes and Ladders right now. ;o)

Caught reading in the stacks again...