Leander Croker’s grandfather was a principal. Her grandmother was a teacher. Croker’s mother, a teacher and principal, was one of six siblings, five of whom were teachers or principals. One of her brothers is a professor at the University of South Carolina; another also teaches.

Surprisingly, Croker is not a teacher. However, the City’s deputy library director carries on the family legacy by promoting lifelong learning and access to transformational information and opportunities.

“The joke in my family is, in order to go to your real life, you have to go through a school at some point,” Croker said.

Croker would amend that joke to include a school and a library. Ever since she worked as a library page as a teen in her native Dayton, Ohio, she has realized the impact libraries have on individuals and neighborhoods. Croker also saw how she could help make libraries and librarians more engaging for a greater segment of the community.

“I didn't see a lot of library workers or librarians that look like me,” Croker said. She recalled one local librarian, Miss Peckinpaugh, who stressed the importance of assisting the community. The two often discussed how to make the library inviting to more people.

“I knew there were some people who didn’t feel comfortable coming in because they may be judged for their questions,” Croker said. “Or they might be judged because there are just cultural differences. As I went through, I was like, “Oh, I can be a space for that.”

While she earned a history degree with a minor in sociology from Winston-Salem State University, Croker held a work-study position in the school’s library. After graduation, worked in the North Carolina A&T State University library to see if she wanted to pursue a master’s degree in library science from UNC Greensboro, which she did. Croker experienced many different aspects of the profession before landing at the Durham County Public Library where she worked as an adult services librarian and business services manager from 2016-2022.

Croker says her work experience with almost every type of library job helped her appreciate the many ways librarians impact constituents from all walks and seasons of life. It also illustrated the importance of a strong connection between library administration and frontline staff. So Croker learned the City of Greensboro sought a deputy library director, she researched the opportunity and heard high praise for the City and Library Director Brigitte Blanton. While the administrative opportunity came earlier than Croker envisioned, she gladly accepted the City’s offer in 2022.

“The joke is, I'm two years ahead of schedule, so if it takes me three years to perfect the job, I'm just a year in,” she said.

Croker says it’s been a fairly easy transition to her new role. She enjoys supporting the supervisors and managers of the City’s eight library branches and encouraging them to engage and connect with their respective neighborhoods.

“Our mission statement starts, ‘In partnership with the community,’ so it's really about what the community needs,” Croker said. “My passions as a librarian don't really matter if you don't want it.

“Our communities inform the books we buy. They inform the programs we present to them.”

Not unlike Miss Peckinpaugh, Croker knows the influence librarians have on people and their neighborhoods and says the City’s libraries are poised for a resurgence in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to providing access to books and periodicals, the modern library is a hub for all kinds of information and activities. Librarians serve as research professionals who serve as portals to that information.

“Librarians don’t know everything,” Croker says. “But we know how to find it.”

And as City residents increasingly take advantage of libraries’ opportunities to learn and access information, Croker says they are also special because they are judgment-free zones where anyone can find service and access.

“Libraries are the most equitable institutions you have,” she said. “It doesn't matter what zip code you live in. It doesn’t matter how big your house is. It doesn't matter how small it is, or even if you are un-housed at the moment. Everyone's library card gets them the same, exact access.

“So go into your library. Within Greensboro, you’re only 15 minutes away from at least one of our locations. Get a library card and see what we have to offer. There’s a question everyone has and the answer is in the library. And we can help you find it.”