'Big Ideas' for Canton Library's Nichole Welz

The most common refrain Nichole Welz has heard since joining staff two months ago is, "So you're the new Miss Kristen" — a reference to her predecessor, Kristen Kostielney.

Welz relates the story with a faint grimace which melts into a playful smile. No, she responds to such questions, she's not.

She hopes in time to establish a presence with library regulars — some already know who she is — though for now, she's busy creating 2012 projects and thinking up unique programs for children, tweens and teens. Her blue eyes flash as she talks about the immediate future and the pace of change and the role she's taken on. "I have big ideas," she said. "We'll see."

So how does one assume the mantel of a new job — in this case, the library's program specialist for children, tweens and teens — when the first and only other one was beloved, not to mention a library mainstay for more than 20 years? Kostielney moved on to a job as head start teacher with the Campagna Center in Alexandria, VA — a role she called her "dream job." People cried when she left.

Kostielney and Welz, as women, are perhaps no more different than the fairytale sisters, Snow White and Rose Red. Which is to say, they look different and each has a different approach to her role but the effect of their personalities is, indeed, similar: Kind, patient and creative with a dash of fun.

Library director Eva Davis, who has known Welz for 13 years, praised her enthusiasm for the job.

Welz, 41, earned her master's degree in 1998 from Wayne State University and started her career at the Grand Rapids Public Library. She went on to a job at the Lansing-area Capital Area District Library. She married another librarian, Karl Ericson, and the couple have two children, Hazel, 8, and August, 6. She left her Lansing job in April, 2009, to spend more time with the children. Her husband continues working in Lansing, where the family owns a home. These days, she commutes from the state capitol.

Welz is the sort of librarian who might read James and the Giant Peach with a British accent and someone willing to embrace the changes presented by technology.

"No use fighting technology. It's current. It's here," she said. Instead, she talks with enthusiasm about finding literary applications that promote reading. The recent uproar over a baby trying to use a magazine like an iPad, she said, took focus off what's really important. The main focus shouldn't be on whether the printed words are on paper or a computer screen, rather what those words say.

"It's a content issue," she said, adding that the medium — iPad or magazine, video, book or desktop computer, aren't as important as how parents, librarians and educators use the tools to showcase the story. "You have to harness it," she said.

"I think it is most important to encourage language/literacy and the power of story and information," she wrote in a email to Canton Patch. "How kids get this is almost inconsequential. Whether it’s an iPad or a book. That is why we still need to provide all choices."

Helping children and their parents assimilate literature while adapting to new technology is just one element of her job. Welz herself is still on a learning curve, adjusting to the routine of leading story hours with younger children, casting a watchful eye on special-interest groups, such as those dedicated to board games or chess or a form of drawing called animanga, or making plans for the future. She's working with Marcia Barker, the library's adult programming coordinator, to sort out room schedules for both regular and plan special programming for 2012.

She said she's thrilled to be at Canton Public Library, in part for its reputation as the busiest single-branch library in the state, but also for the surrounding community. "Everybody has been really nice," Welz said.