PORTSMOUTH — Olivia Seymour, the new children’s librarian at the Portsmouth Free Public Library, is a big believer in the power of literature.

“I think books are a great way to get you through certain things without realizing it,” she said during an interview in her new downstairs office last week. “When I lost my grandmother, I kept returning to this one book, because it was about the afterlife and I knew it would make me feel better. That’s why I think reading is so good for kids, because it’s like therapy in a way.” 

Ms. Seymour, 25, is a native Newporter who earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature at the University of Rhode Island, then completed her Master of Library and Information Science at URI in May 2020. She did her professional field experience at Salve Regina University’s McKillop Library, working there for her last year of graduate schools. 

“That was an absolutely wonderful experience. When I worked at Salve, I got a lot of hands-on experience,” she said.

Ms. Seymour’s prior experience has also given her a boost as she settles into her first professional library job in Portsmouth.

“I’ve worked with kids; I worked for EBCAP (East Bay Community Action Program) for two and a half years out of the site at Pell School in Newport,” she said. “I did a lot of that when I was an undergrad. I knew that when I was applying to jobs, I always leaned toward youth services — YA (young adult) and teen stuff as well, which I love myself. It’s nice to take a break from the heavy stuff and read some YA stuff sometimes. I thought it was a great stepping stone for me into librarianship because I don’t have as much library experience, but I have a lot of child care experience. I’m definitely comfortable with kids.”

Being hired during a pandemic was “really weird,” she acknowledged, but said in some ways it’s been a blessing in disguise.

“When I was at Salve doing my internship, COVID started. I had to learn how to be a librarian from home. I had to be super flexible because I still had to complete all my internship hours to graduate,” she said.

The McKillop Library director gave her several opportunities to run online reference chatrooms and answer e-mailed questions. “It was definitely a challenge, because students were used to being in the library and walking up to the reference desk and saying, ‘Hey, do you have anything on Native Americans for this project I’m working on?’ So, a lot of the questions during the online reference chatrooms were what kinds of electronic resources do you have on this, that and the other.”

She even designed an entire website for National Poetry Month which took place in April 2020, when the library was closed. She put together a Google website featuring an interactive section that used Padlet, a web app that lets users post notes on a digital wall. 

“People could upload blackout poetry from book pages,” Ms. Seymour said, referring to the method of redacting words from books, newspapers or magazines in order to compose your own poetry.

Eager for programming

Both the library and children’s room are open. “We can check you out downstairs now; we haven’t done that in a while. When you bring books back, you still have to drop them off upstairs,” she said. “We still have our weekly take-home craft; that’s totally free.”

Library staff members are excited to soon revive in-person programs and special events — something that’s been placed on hold for more than a year.

“We are restarting story time later in June during the summer reading program, which is going to go on,” said Ms. Seymour. “We’re doing it in the (upstairs) program room so people can be spaced apart.”

Summer reading programs will be held twice weekly, with babies and toddlers on Wednesdays and pre-school kids on Thursdays. 

She doesn’t have any big plans for changes at this point, noting she’s trying to absorb as much information as possible from the former children’s librarian — Nicole Carrubba, who has moved upstairs to the adult department to work at reference.

“She’s given me the reigns of summer reading, so I can run with it. But other than that, I don’t think I’ll really be able to be too creative until we’re more open,” said Ms. Seymour. “I did work a lot with planning and running programs at EPCAP; that was a huge part of my job and I did a lot of after-school programs. I do have some connections in the community and I’m hoping that once we fully re-open, we’ll be able to get some really cool programs going on for the kids.”

More about her

Ms. Seyour loves yoga, spends a lot of time with her mom, and has a dog and a cat. “I live in Newport with my longterm partner; he works in Newport at the Thompson Middle School. We met in high school so we’ve been dating for quite some time.” 

Of course, she loves to read. 

“I try to read before bed, like 30 minutes every night,” she said, recalling the days as a teenager, when she’d stay up reading until 3 a.m. some nights. “As you get older, you don’t have enough time.”

When asked about some of her best-loved books or authors, Ms. Seymour said she doesn’t do favorites. 

“I’m a big YA person,” she said. “I love a lot of fantasy, just because I’m big on escapism and I think the authors create these really cool worlds for teens to inadvertently solve their own problems in their heads while they’re in this fantasy world. I love the psychology behind that. I took a lot of psychology courses in schools — child psychology and teen development. I think it’s important when you’re advising children on what books are right for them that you know where they’re at developmentally.”