Who's Who: Louise O'Dea, Kensington Library Mainstay (Reader, Knitter Too)

Name: Louise O'Dea

Age: 59
Occupation: Library assistant at the

Lives in: El Cerrito

How long have you been working here at the library? 24 years this month. A long time.

How did you get involved at first? My kids came to Kensington for school and I volunteered here. Pretty soon I interviewed and got the job.

And you run the book club? Book club, knitting club, the adult programs here.

Did you start those? Yeah, I did. I like to knit, so I started that. And to read, of course. There was a need in the community for those and they've been popular. The book club especially. It's been going on for six years and the knitting club for five years.

How many members do you have in the book club? It varies from about 18 to, if we get someone like Jane Austen to read, it goes up to 29. But average is about 22.

Do you normally read classics? We alternate classics with contemporary. It's a very literate group.

What do you have coming up? We're reading The Dubliners by James Joyce and next month will be The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

Can you tell me a little bit about the knitting club? Oh sure. People come with all levels of experience. We offer help getting started with projects, and I'm happy to help them throughout the month. We meet once a month. Some people have amazing projects. There are some very, very experienced knitters, and we had an art display in the past with their projects. Some people use patterns, some don't.

Both clubs have become social clubs too. We do discuss books and knit, but we have our steady core group and people have become very fond of each other.

You've been here for quite a while. How have you seen the library change? Certainly there are a lot more AV (audiovisual) materials going out, but people are still very literate. They want their reading. It's been a very steady community and a very supportive community.

Do you think this is specific to this community? I've heard other librarians and some authors say that people aren't reading anymore. I think they're very aware that it's important for children to read. So yes, there is quite a reading public here. And yes, of course they still have their DVDs. What's become popular are e-readers, and we have e-books through the library that you can check out online. Sadly the Kindle is supposed to be compatible with our e-books in November-December, but right now it's not. That's up to Amazon, or whatever we can work out with them.

Have you had authors come in? We have for the library adult programming, but not for the book club. Many of the authors we read have passed on, or they're so popular that it would not be affordable.

We have had several local authors who have either written books about the area or about certain topics and were familiar with the community and came in to talk. We had one from the East Bay Parks called Living Landscape about how the East Bay Parks acquired the land. We had one on Bedouin weaving. The author came in to talk. A whistleblower who discovered corruption at a UC Davis grant program who came in. She wrote a book that was actually endorsed by Daniel Ellsberg. Her name is Amy Block.

What do you like to read? I like our book club's readings. Historical fiction, classics...

You choose what gets discussed? With a lot of help from the book club. They're very helpful in choosing the books and helping me lead discussions.