NCW Libraries hire new Grand Coulee librarian

NCW Libraries has hired a new branch librarian in Grand Coulee.

Joanne Percy started her new position on Tuesday, August 16, taking on the role of the previous branch librarian, Catherine Matthews.

Percy grew up in a tiny village in rural Norfolk, England. After graduating from high school, she spent a couple of years traveling around England and Scotland before attending university and earning a BA in English Literature and Philosophy. She moved to the U.S. in 1998 and began teaching English as a second language to international students and then worked at American University in Washington D.C. as an administrative assistant in the library.

"I quickly realized I wanted to work in the library itself and switched to the Interlibrary Loans department and just loved helping students and faculty find obscure articles and books," she said.

Percy spent several years working in academic libraries in the nation's capital, including heading up the inter-library loan department at Georgetown University. She earned her Master of Library and Information Science degree in 2005 from the University of Pittsburgh while working full time and raising her children. She moved to the West Coast in 2011, where she has been working in libraries ever since.

Most recently, she worked as the adult and teen librarian at the Liberty Lake Municipal Library east of Spokane for five years, creating programming for all ages, including outreach events for seniors and children who were unable to visit the library.

"Some of my more popular programs included arts and crafts, but I also worked with local community members and businesses to provide classes such as cooking, car maintenance, yoga and meditation, genealogy and gardening," she said.

Percy has three children in college and two children at