Ruth Troyanek
Ruth Troyanek started on one path in life, then found her heart called her to librarianship. Now, she is the new Director of the Albany County Public Library.
“I was encouraged by my parents to become a scientist or doctor,” she said. “I earned a biology degree at Iowa State University in Ames. During college, I worked in a lab and realized I wanted a job working more closely with people.”
She earned a Master of Library Science degree at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, taking courses in strategic management, public libraries, collection management, and cataloging.
Troyanek brings 14 years of library experience to the position, the last six as the Youth Services Librarian at ACPL. After earning her MLS, she worked part-time and volunteered at several libraries before moving to Laramie and landing an internship in the children’s department at the county library.
Her internship eventually turned into a paid position. Later, she transitioned into additional part time positions as the Older Adult Services librarian and the Young Adult Librarian. She loved getting to know the library’s homebound patrons during the five years she delivered books. In YA, she started with just a few shelves of books and built thriving, grant-funded teen services with a growing collection, including comics and manga, and a weekly teen program, YAK. She left Albany County Library briefly for the birth of her son before returning to her most recent position as Youth Services Librarian.
Troyanek is involved with the wider library community. She’s given several well-attended talks at Wyoming Library Association conferences, and has made it a point to attend national conferences. When she travels, she visits libraries to meet other librarians and learn new ideas.
Troyanek likes to nurture strong relationships with librarians throughout the community, particularly in schools. Some of her goals as director are to build trust among the staff and community, increase staff training, and evaluate staffing needs and workloads in each department.
“This is a very hopeful time for ACPL’s patrons, supporters, and staff,” she said. “Recently, we opened the High Plains Seed Library, and we’ve made great progress with our re-labeling project to make locating books easier for patrons. We plan to overhaul our web site and acquire a mobile hot spot so we can do library card sign-ups and book checkouts outside of our buildings. Looking forward, we plan to set and meet larger goals for our community.”