Courtesy of Pickerington Public Library
Tony Howard, director of Pickerington Public Library
Tony Howard, director of the Pickerington Public Library, may not have the background one would expect from a librarian – but don’t judge a book by its cover.
Immediately after graduating from Grandview Heights High School, Howard, a history lover searching for a path to college, enlisted in the U.S. Army.
He served as a communications chief for a parachute infantry group in Georgia and Alaska. Howard says his time with the military had both positives and negatives, but he likes to focus on the good, stressing the fun he had and the lifelong friendships he made.
“I had a great experience in the military,” Howard says. “It made me grow up, it really did. I went in as a kid and came out a man.”
After his time in the military, Howard went to The Ohio State University, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in history. Despite fulfilling his dream of earning a history degree, he still didn’t have a job in mind.
It was Howard’s grandmother that suggested he follow the path of his uncle, who used a history degree to start a career in libraries, and study to become a librarian. Howard researched more on his own and soon enrolled in Kent State University’s youth services and library management master’s program. He says it was one of the best decisions of his life.
In his first job after graduation, Howard was convinced he’d chosen the right path. As a teen services library assistant for Upper Arlington Public Library, he gained hands-on experience that he says was at least as important as his experience in the classroom. That position helped him realize his passion for contributing to the education of younger generations.
“We are fostering productive members of society, and we have an ability to get experiences into people’s hands,” Howard says. “When you can talk about a book to someone and see the excitement in their face, what you’re doing is selling that experience. As they read it, they’re escaping from the realities of the world into the experience of what the book has to offer.”
Eventually, after gaining library experience around central Ohio, the opportunity to become the director of the Pickerington Public Library arose. He says he considered library positions all across the country before accepting this current role. Howard says the decision to stay in Ohio was due in part to his close proximity to his family.
In his role as director, Howard takes the lead on strategic goals that the board of trustees sets for the library and creates tactical plans for his staff to accomplish those goals. He says the overarching objective is to support the lifelong enjoyment and learning needs of Pickerington and Violet Township.
Howard says his favorite part about his role is working with the community and its leaders to ensure that the library is meeting their needs and is in line with what the city, businesses and other nonprofit services are doing.
Properly managing the finances that come with the position is the most challenging part about his role, he says.
“I have a lot of responsibility in making sure we are good stewards of taxpayer funds,” Howard says. “Managing my team to ensure that every decision … we are thinking about how this impacts funding and how it is in the best interest of the public so we’re not wasteful of public dollars.”
Outside of the library, Howard spends time with his family and works on a flourishing home garden and DIY woodworking projects.
He says he extends his core values of family to his job as well, working to ensure that his staff feels like their families are valued.
“When my staff comes to me with an issue going on with their family, I do what I can do to support their needs, and when we’re looking at policies, I really try to make sure staff needs are represented in those policies,” Howard says. “If you have supportive policies, you’re going to have a happier staff, which means they’re going to provide a better service to the public, which is very cyclical and makes for a stronger organization.”
Trevor Simpson is an editorial assistant. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
