Shelbyville – Bedford County Public Library Staff

Lis Ann Morehart was named as the Director of the Library in August 2020.  Many will remember Lis Ann from her time as the Youth Services Librarian, a title which she held from November 2015 – September 2019. During her time away from the Shelbyville-Bedford County Library she was the Director of the Fayetteville-Lincoln County Public Library in Fayetteville, TN.

Ms.Morehart is passionate about libraries and their role within the community. She has spent her career serving patron needs and advancing initiatives that engage community members. During her time in Tennessee, Ms. Morehart has served as a board member for the SE-YA Book Festival, the Tennessee Library Association’s Division Representative for Advocacy, TLA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee Co-Chair, TLA’s Library Legislative Chair, and an ambassador for libraries at the State of NASA Social in 2018.

Ms. Morehart is looking forward to working with the staff, trustees, and the community to build on an already thriving library. She says she is enthusiastic about creating a vision for how the library can best serve community needs.

Margaret began volunteering at the Argie Cooper Public Library in the fall of 1995, after a short period of volunteer work she began working part-time at the library in October of the same year. In July 1996, a full-time position as a library clerk became available and without hesitation, she began her career in a job that she loves. 

Margaret has been the Technology Librarian since the library gained it’s first computers and internet access back in 1996, taking the title on officially in 2001, while also wearing the hat of the Children’s Librarian from 1999 – 2010. When the two jobs became too much to handle together, she decided to take on the Technology full time and pass the Children’s job off to someone with more energy. 

Margaret has recently been named Assistant Director and enjoys assisting Lis Ann in making the Shelbyville-Bedford County Public Library a community hub for Bedford County & Shelbyville. At this time she is still handling most of the growing technology needs of the Library, but plans are to eventually have someone else take over the IT Dept.

Margaret enjoys being the staff liaison to the Friends of the Library, helping them publish The Friends of the Library Quarterly Newsletter,  and working with the patrons, whom she has come to love over the past 25+ years. 

When not at the library she loves to spend time with her husband, Jamie, their 2-year-old son, Woody, who is affectionately known as, “The Library Baby”, and preparing for their 2nd child, Elijah, due in October 2021.

Linda has been with the Library since 2003.  After retiring with 30 years of service with Bell South, she came to work with us part-time.  Over the years, patrons have grown used to seeing Linda’s smiling face at all times of the day, as she has been part of the night & weekend crews in the past.  In August of 2019, Linda was offered a full-time position and she gladly accepted.

Today she works the front desk assisting patrons on a daily basis, as well as handling Memorial Donations and helping with many other Library tasks. Linda enjoys her job immensely and looks forward to each new day’s challenges.  She says her favorite part of working at the library is getting to see & help all of the seasoned patrons and meeting all of the new ones!

Linda is always busy, whether at the library or at home, she doesn’t like to be idle!  When not at the library she has, in the past, worked part-time for State Farm Insurance and is currently a part-time weekend caregiver for Family Staffing.

In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family, her church, staying healthy and traveling. She loves visiting both the mountains and the beach, and she enjoys antiquing!

Katie began working with the library in 2016 as a Library Tech.  Over the past year she has begun training on Collections and Processing items.  In August of 2021, she took over the Collections Management position. Katie is part of our evening crew and will continue to work with patrons at the front desk while settling into her new position. 

She attended MTSU and enjoys art and loves cats. One of her favorite things about working at the library is seeing all of the new books as they come in.

Emilee’ began her library career in January 2020. She is a graduate of Richland High School in Lynnville, TN, earned her BA in English & Political Science at UT Martin, and earned her MA & PhD in English at MTSU. 

Emilee’ has worked as a tutor in the University Writing Center and as a research assistant and taught composition classes as a graduate assistant at MTSU.  She has also taught English as a part-time instructor/adjunct at MTSU, Columbia State Community College and Motlow State Community College.

She has joined our library as the Children’s Librarian (for ages 12 & under) and has done a wonderful job navigating through the uncharted waters of “New” ways to do things in 2020, due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.  She loves interacting with the kids and helping them learn about the library and find that, all important, “favorite” book!  This has been something she has dearly missed over the past year and is very glad to be offering in-person programing again this summer!

When she is not at the library or planning a children’s program she enjoys reading children & YA books, historical fiction, fantasy, murder mysteries, biographies, and classic literature.  She has an avid interest in pop culture and has been a fan of Wonder Woman for most of her life!  She says her favorite Disney character is Maleficent… because she turns into a dragon, of course! She enjoys a wide variety of T.V. shows and movies and has been known to play a few video games, however, her favorites are still the old Atari games.

Caleb is our newest employee, he began working part-time in January 2021 and in August 2021 became our full-time Technology Librarian. You will also see him working the front desk, helping patrons in the computer lab and teaching computer classes periodically throughout the year. He will be responsible for keeping our Tech updated and running smoothly with the help of our Regional & State Tech Team.

Caleb is a graduate of CHS and has just recently graduated from MTSU majoring in Economics with a minor in Business Administration.

He is settling in well with the rest of the library staff and the patrons are taking to him quite well. He enjoys assisting patrons in finding what they’re looking for whether it’s the Tax Preparers or the latest best-seller! 

When he’s not at the library, Caleb enjoys playing video games.

Hayley C. began working at the library shortly after we moved into our new building, in the Summer of 2015.  She is enjoys getting out in the community and helping with our Bookmobile services as well as assisting Emilee’ and Hayley W. with Children’s & Young Adult Programming.  Hayley works tirelessly to keep our Facebook, Instagram, & Website up-to-date as well as taking care of our other media needs. She has been a great help in our transition to virtual programming and online events over the past year by assisting with computer setup and Facebook Live events.

Away from the library, she enjoys drawing, music, and cooking.