I am currently serving as the K-12 Department Head of Libraries for the District of Chelmsford. I correspondingly serve as the high school librarian for Chelmsford High School, with a student population of 1,740. Prior to my work with MSLA, I served on the Executive Board of the Northeast Massachusetts Regional Library System from 2000 – 2004. Serving on the board of a multi-type regional library system gave me the opportunity to learn and grow as a school library teacher while simultaneously beginning to understand and observe the world of other library types: public, academic and special. Having been involved in a variety of committees that actually brought the multi-type library systems to be a reality in the state of Massachusetts was an eye-opening experience for me, and an education in and of itself into the world of libraries and librarianship and how much we all really have in common.

In addition to my work with MSLA, I am also a doctoral candidate at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell in the Leadership in Schooling Program and serve as an adjunct professor at Simmons College in Boston, teaching Organization and Management of School Library Media Centers to future members of our profession!

I currently live in Chelmsford with my husband, Glenn. Three of my four children are living on their own, my youngest daughter being a senior at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Paul, my second son, has a PhD from the University of Maryland College Park with a focus in Media Literacy. This gives us much in common when we get together!

For more information, readers can link directly to a “Snapshot” profile on the SimmonsCollege website if they go to Valerie Diggs’ name on the adjunct page at:

http://www.simmons.edu/gslis/about/adjunct.shtml