Former Associate Director of Rochester Library Honored as 'Mover and Shaker'

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Karen Knox of Orion Township Public Library has been named a “Mover and Shaker” in the library industry by the national publication Library Journal.

In its March 15, 2012 issue, Library Journal named 53 outstanding professionals committed to providing excellent service to meet the needs of the people they serve. Knox was selected because of her commitment to the profession and her previous work as the Associate Director and IT Manager at the , where she worked until the beginning of February 2012.

Knox currently serves Orion Township Public Library as Library Director.

Library Journal honored Knox because of her success completing an entire overhaul of the technology at the Rochester Hills Public Library. Christine Lind Hage, Director at RHPL, shared that Knox was hired in 2005 when she created an overall technology plan. “She installed an entirely new network, updated a phone system, revamped an old-fashioned website, migrated to a new library automation vendor, and installed about 200 new computers. She did all of this with a very part-time staff…vastly improving our customer service, staff moral, and ­efficiency.”  In 2010, she also migrated most of the servers to a virtual environment to save power and increase efficiency.

Knox graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Michigan in 1997 and with a Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Texas in 2000. She worked at the Novi Public Library and the Rochester Hills Public Library before coming to the Orion Township Public Library to be the new Director in February 2012.

The 2012 Movers & Shakers were selected by the editors of Library Journal, the profession’s leading trade magazine. Each of the Movers & Shakers will be prominently featured in the March 15^th issue of Library Journal and celebrated at a special luncheon in June during the American Library Association’s annual conference in Anaheim, CA. The print feature’s companion website is sponsored by OCLC and available at www.libraryjournal.com/movers2012. The luncheon and awards ceremony is made possible by the support of sponsors, including ABC-CLIO, DEMCO, ProQuest, Reference USA, and Rosen Publishing.