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7 <br />Page 1 of 2 <br />Virginia Baeckler <br />Volunteer Application <br />Orange County Advisory Boards and Commissions <br />Name: <br />Name Called: <br />Home Address: <br />Phone (Day): <br />Phone (Evening) <br />Phone (Cell): <br />Email: <br />Place of Employment <br />Ms. Virginia Baeckler <br />317 Joyce Road <br />Hillsborough NC 27278 <br />609 - 462 -5978 <br />919- 241 -4596 <br />baeckler @gmail.com <br />Retired <br />Job Title: Former Director, Plainsboro Public Library, NJ <br />Year of OC Residence: 2013 <br />Township of Residence: Hillsborough <br />Zone of Residence: Hillsborough ETJ <br />Sex: Female <br />Ethnic Background: Caucasian <br />Boards /Commissions applied for: <br />Chapel Hill Library Board of Trustees <br />While my academic training at Cornell University was in the field of Slavic <br />languages and literature,) wandered far astray after a year of doctoral <br />research in the Soviet Union. I became a lobbyist for arts in education, <br />which morphed into being the advocate for New Jersey Media Association, <br />working to improve political support for libraries in every school. From <br />there, I stepped into the public library world. In Plainsboro, NJ, which has a <br />wildly diverse population, I guided the library through rapid cultural <br />revolutions, and in the space of 20 years, built two libraries, moving from <br />1400 square feet, to 14,000 square feet to 48,000 square feet. Numbers <br />are not everything. I bring real world experience gained throughout the <br />growth in services, holdings and finance. More than that, as a recent article <br />trumpeted: libraries are in my blood! Since supporting myself in college by <br />working in and eventually running a branch of the university library system, I <br />have been dazzled by the potential of libraries as the only public institution <br />entrusted with cradle to grave education. We are informal education at its <br />finest. For example: With the nation facing a critical shortage of scientists, <br />and science education lagging in school curricula, we launched a Science <br />Center that boasted everything from science story hours for wee children, to <br />robotics classes utilizing corporate volunteer techies, to community wide <br />science competitions that engaged adults, teens and tots. With the advent <br />of digital education, we brought a nifty array on online services to our public- - <br />be they adult investors, or kids needing help /tutoring with their homework. <br />At the core of it all, education is our supreme goal! <br />