Top Ten New Librarian

Josie Crimp

Children’s Librarian

London Borough of Croydon Library Service

Length of Service: 2 years

Age: 25

Josie has been a Children’s Librarian since August 2005. She has established a summer teen reading initiative to promote reading among 11-16 year olds and encourage them to use the adult library, has been actively involved in promoting a new teen library card, and introduced a weekend storytime session to bring families together.

“I enjoy my work, and I genuinely feel each day that I’m doing a good thing. There aren’t many (paid!) careers where you can say both of those things.

“I can go home every day knowing absolutely that that day I have made at least one person’s life better. I also have a fundamental, powerful belief in the importance of reading, and I love the fact that I have the opportunity to reach out to so many children and introduce them to books.

“Libraries are important because they can do so much good in so many ways. We reach out to many vulnerable groups; housebound individuals; people with special needs; young people; families on a low income; people living alone who may not have a conversation with anyone else that day. We don’t save lives, but we provide a quality of life – which in many ways is a far more difficult task.

“I’m committed to working in public libraries in the long term, and want to develop myself to become a leader in the field. I have a passion for libraries, and I genuinely believe in them as a power for good; for education, for independence, for social cohesion, and for happiness. We all need to be driven by that belief above anything else, if we want to change public libraries for the better.”