Library Announces New Associate Director, Grier Carson

The Library is excited to announce Grier Carson as its new Associate Director!
​
“Grier has a strong foundation and experience working in libraries and serving our own community, alongside a vision and passion for access, service, and programs,” said Marilyn Wood, Library Director. “He brings exceptional leadership qualities to our team.”
​

---

Grier began his path to librarianship here in Bloomington. As an undergraduate at Indiana University, Grier studied English literature and art history. “Old stuff has everything to do with why I work in libraries,” he said. “Literature led me to libraries; it’s a big part of who I am.” Grier received his Master of Library Science from IU’s School of Library and Information Science in 2006.

After graduating in 2006, Grier’s career led him to Lake Forest Academy, a boarding school in Illinois where he worked his way from librarian to Director of Libraries and Academic Technology. There Grier proposed and implemented a 1:1 iPad program, one of the first of its kind in the United States. Grier recalls that the process was “exciting, but also scary…a glorified gaming device ended up being transformative as an educational tool.”

Grier and his family moved back to Bloomington in 2013, when he became the Director of Putnam County Public Library. At Putnam County, Grier oversaw important renovations and expansions and increased outreach efforts. He also developed a training program for new librarians, hiring recent graduates with fresh ideas.

In 2018, Grier became Access and Content Manager at MCPL. In this new position, he pushed to make the Library less format-focused and more attentive to content and accessibility. Grier oversaw the expansion of the Library of Things and the addition of new digital services such as Kanopy, a film streaming service. Grier also took a leadership role in planning for a new Southwest branch where the collection would reflect the same vision.

In his new position as Associate Director, two priorities stand out to Grier––an ongoing effort to build bridges in the Library and community, and planning for a new Southwest Branch, slated to open in 2022 adjacent to Batchelor Middle School.

Although the new branch is still in the design phase, Grier sees it as a transformative thing. “It turns us into a bigger library system. With this additional access point, we’ll be even more accessible than we were before,” he said. “I feel very fortunate to live in a place where the public library is as strong and valued as it is here in Monroe County and look forward to evolving with the Library.”