Carrie F. Carr: Candidate profile
Bio
Name: Carrie F. Carr
City: Barrington
Office sought: Barrington Area Library Trustee
Age:
Family: Married, two daughters (one in college; one in graduate school)
Occupation: Program manager large, global consulting company
Education: BA English; MA Human Resource Development
Civic involvement: Junior Women's Club (former president/treasurer); led various PTO committees; Girl Scout leader
Previous elected offices held: Barrington Area Library Trustee
Incumbent: Yes. If yes, when were first elected? 2013
Website: reelectcarrpintozziclifford.org
Facebook: Protect Our Library
Tumblr: protect-our-library.tumblr.com
Twitter: ProtectourLibrary
Instagram: protectourlibrary
Issue questions
What are the most important issues facing your library district and how do you intend to address them?
The Barrington Area Library is highly successful and award-winning. The focus is to build upon that success.
- Provide relevant programs for our residents - all audiences from children to seniors. These programs could even expand outside the walls of the library by sponsoring programs in the community.
- Maintain and grow the physical library space to serve our residents. Per the recent book by Eric Klinenberg, libraries are "Palaces for the People". Although the Barrington Library completed a renovation several years ago, we need to provide the appropriate investment to make sure the infrastructure can be adapted for future programming and other civic events.
- Keep/recruit talented library staff. Our staff have made Barrington Library very successful. We need to make it attractive for staff to careers at the library and recruit the best talent to bring the library into the future.
Why are you running for office? Is there a particular issue that motivates you? If so, what is it?
I've been a resident of Barrington for over 21 years and believe it's important to be involved and serve the community. As I'm an avid user of the library and take advantage of many of its services, it seemed like a natural way to get involved. I decided to run for another term of trustee because I'm proud of what the library has accomplished over the past six years (renovation, creative programming, expansion of technology and services) that I'd like to be a part of figuring out what the future means for our library.
If you are an incumbent, describe your main contributions. Tell us of important initiatives you've led. If you are a non-incumbent, tell us what contributions you would make.
As an incumbent trustee, I'm currently the board Treasurer; chair of the Audit and Budget, Finance & Levy committees; and a member of the Policy committee. As Treasurer and chair of the committees, I have worked with our director and business manager to:
- Automate/streamline our financial reporting through process and technology
- Explore opportunities to maximize our financial returns through investments
In addition to the improvement to our financial processes, the biggest accomplishments during over the during my term have been 1) completing our renovation and 2) recruiting/hiring a new library director. The renovations brought the library to a new level and poised for the future by providing new services and more options for work and meeting space and improving our technology offerings. Our new director is creative, energetic and has great ideas to take the library into future as well.
Do you have a library card? How long have you had it? How often do you use it?
I have had a library card for most of my life; specifically had a Barrington Library card since moving here 21 years ago. I typically use it my library card to check out materials several times per month. Over the years, how I've used my library card has evolved. My kids were young when I first got my Barrington library card; I used it to check out books/movies for them and reserve spots in storytime programs. As a Girl Scout leader and a leader of Barrington Jr. Women's Club, I used my card more to reserve meeting space or to check "how-to" books. Now, as I work remotely, I use my card to reserve work space. I've just started taking advantage of the audio book program. I think that my own personal library card use reflects how libraries are evolving.
What impact have economic and technological changes had on libraries? How does a library remain relevant? How should its role in the community change?
Libraries have become more than just a place to check out books. They are places for the community to gather and provide continuous learning and programming for all ages. The Barrington Library has done just that. For example, last November, the library provided work space, internet access and power to those who lost power/internet during a snowstorm. The library provided cookies/coffee and support to accommodate the unexpected surge of folks during the day. Several weeks later, the library supported local high school students during finals week. The library offers creative programming like the upcoming ComicCon program.
Barrington library also provides technology options for the community. The MakerLab provides new tools and options to create many cool 3-D items or to etch glass (popular with both kids and adults). Many seniors use the computers to check email/social media; the staff provide technology support. Libraries will evolve their services as technology continues to evolve.
Libraries will need the economic support to become libraries of the future. The Barrington library is well positioned to do that and, as trustees, we need to make sure we have continued economic support.