Key West Library branch in 1992. I took this photo for the Miami Herald. Now it’s part of the library’s Florida Keys History Center image archive.

Nine months ago, I returned to the Monroe County Public Library, this time in a new capacity. My job is Community Affairs Manager.

People ask me what that means and I say “information, outreach and engagement.”

If they still look blank, I tell them my mission is to let everyone who lives in the Keys know what the Monroe County Public Library can do for them (hint: it’s a lot more than books and movies).

I feel like I just started in some ways, but I’m having fun. One of my first projects was to get the Today In Keys History column online on the library website, as well as distributed daily on social media. (You can find it on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.)

More recently, I’ve been working on email newsletters for each of our five branches plus the Florida Keys History Center. You can sign up here! We’ll never sell your email address and unsubscribing is quick one-click without any of the annoying oh, wait, won’t you consider staying or telling us why you’re leaving nonsense.

I love working at the library for a lot of reasons, not the least that being surrounded by books makes me happy. My co-workers are so cool and helping patrons get what they want or need is really satisfying.

People sometimes ask if I miss journalism. I really don’t. The relentless pressure to produce in a smallish newsroom that has 20+ newscasts a day, the anxiety about accuracy and fairness and everything else a story needs to be - it’s all a lot when you’re my age. And when I heard about big breaking news toward the end, instead of the adrenaline rush a journalist should feel, I would feel dread. So I knew it was time to get off the front lines.

I do miss writing, some, so I’m going to do some of that here when the spirit moves me. For the next few months, it will probably move me most often about the Key West Literary Seminar - I’m chairing our program for 2024 and our topic is Florida. We have an incredible lineup of writers coming - if you haven’t registered, I hope you’ll consider doing so.