Beaver named new children's librarian

(Photo submitted) Shown reading to a group of sleepwear-clothed children at Milford Memorial Library, where she currently serves as a special projects coordinator, Sarah Beth (Fuchsen) Beaver has been named Spencer Public Library's new youth services librarian.

Sarah Beth (Fuchsen) Beaver has been named the new youth services librarian at Spencer Public Library.

Monday, March 23 will mark her first official day on job.

The 27-year-old daughter of Tom and Marianne Fuchsen, Spencer, is a 2000 Spencer High School alumna who also graduated from the University of South Dakota at Vermillion. Beaver is currently working to complete her master's degree in library science online from the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee this December.

"I started working at the public library in Vermillion when I was going to college and sort of fell in love with it. I always hoped to go into children's librarianship, just from the experiences I had there and here in Milford," Beaver, who has served as the special projects coordinator at Milford Memorial Library since April 2007, said Tuesday afternoon. "Being with the kids and doing programs for them is a lot of fun."

Seventy people -- from Iowa, Minnesota, California, Vermont, Texas, Idaho, South Carolina, Wyoming, Nebraska and Ohio -- applied to fill the youth services librarian position formerly held by Mary Walk, who served at the local library for 33 years.

Beaver fondly remembers attending story times led by her predecessor, who retired in December.

"My memory of the Spencer library is story times with Mary Walk in the Round Room. I always thought that was a lot of fun," she said. "Mary had a great outreach program; I'll need to make those contacts and get that started back up with the schools. Then, I hope to work on getting story time going, as well as some of the programs for older kids. I also want to get the summer reading program going this year, maybe something with presentations or programs with local businesses' sponsorship or that kind of thing. The theme for the summer reading program this year is 'Be Creative,' so there's a lot that we can really do with that with some of the local organizations we have in Spencer."

* Beaver lives in Spencer with her husband, Casey, who works in the Johnston Automotive warehouse. The couple have two daughters together: Samantha, 3, and Lily, 5 months. Beaver also has a stepson, Dellis, who lives in South Dakota.