Schofer began her tenure May 31 and previously served as director of neighborhood and public services, at the Brooklyn Public Library in New York with 20 years of experience. Schofer achieved her master’s degree from Kent State University in Library and Information Science and her bachelor’s degree in English and History from St. Ambrose University.

“I’m from Iowa originally, so I grew up in Davenport, Iowa and have went school there, went to university there,” Schofer said. “… I have family in the Midwest still and had thought about coming back and had been exploring some opportunities.”  

Schofer said she received a call from Charles Glatz, a board member for Ames Public Library, informing her of the job opportunity in Ames. Schofer also said the position was a “next step” for her career and she had been considering moving up in leadership regarding her career.

“I’ve been steadily growing in my career so this was like a next step, I oversaw all our branches in Brooklyn and that was a big system–but you know the next step to be the director of the a library was kind of a career path,” Schofer said. “But you know you got to get the right community and for personal reasons–being closer to family–and Ames being a just really supportive, engaged community, it was kind of just the right fit.”

Two weeks into her tenure, Schofer shared her goals of expanding the Library’s outreach towards Iowa State students and the Ames community. She also said the Library already has strong programs for the community of all ages and said the next step is to allow them to grow and create multi-age group events. 

“Our programs are open to everybody so if it’s a topic that you share interests in … but it isn’t on campus so it isn’t just traditional students– it might be teens but it might be an older person too,” Schofer said. 

Schofer said the Library will participate with Welcomefest, an event held by the Students Activity Center, and have joint programs as a way to reach out to Iowa State students. She also said a lot of students are unaware of the different opportunities the Ames Public Library has to offer such as online content, private study rooms and its partnership with Parks Library.

“I think it’s just an opportunity to take advantage of resources that are here for them [Iowa State Students] but also to connect with the broader community of Ames, because there are a lot of great people who come to the Library and they could connect,” Schofer said.