My name is Carol. My parents named me after my godparent’s only son, Carroll who died while serving in the United States Navy.  My friends call me Maliaka.  The short story on how that came to be is that I assumed the name while taking a Swahili language course in high school.  Swahili is a Bantu language spoken in several countries in East Africa such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda.  Maliaka comes from the Swahili name Malaika which means “angel”. At the time my friends thought the name would be agood choice.

I have the distinct pleasure of being the first born of four children.  I am a native New Yorker who grew up in a suburb of New York City. I absolutely felt that I was in the right place at the right time and can’t imagine growing up anywhere else.

I’m a school media specialist in the Poughkeepsie City School District where I work in two elementary schools serving a K-5 student population.  As a teenager, my first job was a library aide in the middle school I attended.

During my career I have enjoyed many rewarding experiences in academic, corporate, public, and research libraries.  Some of the places I worked included M.I.T. Historical Collections (Cambridge, MA), Massachusetts Historical Society (Boston, MA), and the Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.) where I held numerous positions involving a wide range of duties and responsibilities.  I probably could share a story or two about each place I worked, however, I’ll save that for another time.

Alright, I have a confession to make. I love stories just as much as I love libraries.