The new director of the Joseph Plumb Library, New Bedford native Kristen Cardoso, took a 17-year, step-by-step path to her new position, with a detour through Canada.
Her fascination with books started very early. As a child, she said, “I was a huge reader. So was my mother, and she always made sure we had access to books. When I was young, my grandfather would bring me to the Lawler library. ‘The Goosebumps’ series and scary books were my early favorites.”
It’s no wonder Cardoso started her library career while still attending high school, as a volunteer page at the New Bedford Public Library. In 2004, around the time she worked under previous Rochester library director Gail Roberts, she went full-time, then became a librarian at the Wilks Branch library.
After six years working in New Bedford, she left it all to pursue two master’s degrees, in English Literature of the 19th century focusing on New England authors and Library Studies at McGill University in Montreal. “It’s funny that I had to go to Canada to study English and American Literature,” she admitted with a bit of a laugh.
But Montreal is also where the idea of becoming a full-time librarian really took hold.
“That’s where I decided I did not want to be an English professor,” said Cardoso. “I wanted to pursue being a full-time, professional librarian. I was getting an understanding of how people can learn about American literature through me as a librarian.
“Teaching is part of this job. In this role, I’m better able to help guide people to find information and books on their own, to empower them as readers and learners. We’re living in a world of information overload. Helping people sort through all that information is important.”
When Cardoso’s husband went to study for his doctorate in Political Science at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, she was able to follow him by becoming a librarian there, then in 2018 the head of Curriculum at the University of California Santa Cruz. Cardoso worked there until the pandemic hit and sent her and her husband back home, where she became the branch manager at the Howland Green Library in New Bedford in 2021.
That’s where she was when the Rochester position came available. “This was my next step,” she said. “I was a little nervous taking on this job, but I’ve gotten a lot of support to at least try for this job. And now it’s working out.”
What are her future plans as Rochester’s head librarian? “I am doing my best to be visible for people who need help,” she said. “Whatever I hear from people that they need or want will be the future of this library. It’s not my library. It’s our library.”
Said Roberts, a mentor of Cardoso’s, “She’s always sweet and always helpful. She is a very good fit for the town of Rochester.”
By Michael J. DeCicco