The Changing Face of America’s Public Libraries
By Theresa W. Bennett-Wilkes

“…I’m not a librarian but I love libraries and I believe in it as a democratic institution. The public library exists to serve everyone in the community and I see my work as ensuring that we provide access to information for all.”  Gale Greenlee, 2004 Library Journal Mover & Shaker

The conventional wisdom about libraries tends to conjure up images of row after row of bookshelves in unadorned, deathly quiet rooms staffed by demure women in comfortable shoes and old-fashioned chignons. Increasingly, however, they provide an array of services to a growing culturally and racially diverse population of immigrants and refugees who call the United States home. Gale Greenlee, Multicultural Services Coordinator with the Greensboro Public Library, epitomizes the changing face of America’s public libraries.

“My job is very fluid. I do lots of different things. One of the primary responsibilities is coordinating the adult ESOL, English to Speakers of Other Languages.”

Greenlee is one of 55 people recognized by the Library Journal as a 2004 Mover and Shaker. She is a native of Greensboro and earned a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She completed her a Master’s in Africana Women’s Studies from Clark Atlanta University with a concentration in women, literature and culture.

Gale Greenlee, 2004 Library Journal Mover & Shaker

“At heart I consider myself to be a writer, but I care deeply and passionately about social justice and equity and this job really combines a lot of my interests, in literacy, literature, as well as my love of languages and interest in other cultures.

I don’t have a traditional career path, but everything I’ve done – it’s all related. I do training for ESOL tutors and community volunteers that tutor with our program or other community based organizations. I am responsible for the foreign language, and the ESOL collections for the library. I’m Co-Chair of the Guilford County Multicultural Advisory Coalition. I’m also Chair of the North Carolina Library Association Literacy Roundtable and then I do special projects like cultural programming for our international film festival, coordinating bilingual story time for children, diversity training for library staff and Hispanic Services Day. That’s sort of my job.

I’ve always just been curious about the world and in particular the history and struggles of African people throughout the Diaspora. My travels have just fueled my interest.”

Greenlee lived in Atlanta for seven years and Martinique, in the French West Indies, for two months while in graduate school. She worked in Lyon, Republic of France, as an English Teaching Assistant for a year and lived with a host family in Senegal two months in 2003.

“I grew up in Greensboro and at that time it was much more black and white in terms of the racial demographic. Now it is completely different. You don’t have to travel, necessarily, because the world has come to Greensboro and I think Greensboro needs people who are adept at communicating with others and able to create some links between emerging communities and the long-standing communities that are already here.

We are trying to provide access to education, as limited as it may be, access for some who don’t have another opportunity, really, to become proficient in English. And without that skill, women are really limited in terms of their economic options or their educational options. We work with women from African countries, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Primarily our students are people of color. Whether they like it or not, and I think they realize it, they’re thrown into that whole thing of race, gender, politics, class issues, cultural intolerance, you name it. So really, a lot of the work I do is equally focused on educating the general public as well as supporting the transition immigrants and refugees have to face.

The award – quite honestly I don’t know how I got it. It’s exciting. What’s interesting to me is that I’m not a librarian, and like many professions, I think there’s a lot of significance placed on having credentials in the field. There are standards in any profession, which I completely understand, but at the same time there are individuals who can contribute to the field even though they lack that particular degree or specific training – that’s what feels good about this award. For my work to be recognized for providing services to immigrants and refugees and underserved populations – that’s what’s exciting to me because it’s significant because it shows that the work is important within the field and it is a necessary part of what we do in libraries.

I’m here to ensure that the library offers an open and welcoming space for people from other countries but my work is also about breaking down some of the barriers that exist because of race and gender.”