ALSC Profile | November 2025
Tim Capehart
Head of Youth Services
The Carol Graff Beavercreek Community Library, Greene County Libraries
Beavercreek, Ohio
ALSC Membership: 22 years
Where did you attend library school?
University of Kentucky (Go Wildcats!)
What was your very first library position?
Well…my FIRST library position was at the Wilmington-Stroop Branch of the Montgomery County Library (Now Dayton Metro Libraries). It was the branch I’d gone to as a patron since kindergarten. I was an aid for about six months during my junior year of high school. Only six months because I was “allowed to resign.” They did timed shelving tests, and I failed three times to shelve a cart in 45 minutes. The Head of CIrc and Aides (Miss Grant) would also put books out of order around a few of the books on the cart and put a little trash in the aisles and on the shelves to see if we were doing the WHOLE job. I was ok with basically being fired because it meant I had time to be in the Spring play at school (Harry Pepper in Barefoot in the Park). My second professional library job (after Leominster Public in Massachusetts) was as the Children’s Librarian and Assistant Manager of the Wilmington Stroop Branch…I also, as it happened, was Miss Grant’s supervisor.
What do you love most about your current job?
I used to say: “the books.” I took every literature course I could in library school. I’ve been on Newbery three times (so far!). I’ve reviewed for every journal in Library Land (now, only for Kirkus). I stopped counting the number of books reviewed at 2,000. But, recently, I think the answer has changed. I still love the books (just look at my house) but I love “my people,” the kids. Nothing compares to the feeling you get when a third grader stares at you wide-eyed and says, “You came to my school!” after Summer Reading visits. Or leading a room full of toddlers in some goofy version of the hokey pokey during storytime and hearing them giggle. Or being thanked repeatedly by a parent when you’ve given their reluctant reader just the right book and hooked ‘em.
What's your favorite book of all time? (Or this week!)
Watership Down by Richard Adams. My Dad read it to us when we were kids around the time the movie came out. I knew he skipped parts (the Rabbit fairytales), and I wanted to read it myself. When school visited the Wilmington-Stroop Library, I tried to check it out…but it was in the adult collection, and back then, all children’s cards were “restricted.” I got the last laugh when I bought an ex-library copy of the book for a quarter a couple of years later at a library sale. I read it or listen to Ralph Cosham read it every year now, around the time the first bunnies appear in our yard. (The denial of service is probably part of the reason I’m a librarian. I don’t want that to happen to other kids).
What would you do if you won the lottery?
Grab my husband, buy a house with two libraries in Key West, and visit New Orleans at least once a year. And probably get a part-time job at the Key West Public Library…’cause it’s a cool library and I've got 68 storytime hats that are not ready to retire yet.
Who is your favorite superhero? Why?
My husband Trent is a walking comics encyclopedia. Half the fun of seeing a Marvel movie with him is the commentary afterwards. He would probably choose The Scarlet Witch as his favorite. I love Harley Quinn (she’s a hero!). I loved her in the Batman games, the animated series, and the movies. But I choose her partially because she was my Halloween costume one year (pictures available upon request) at Masquerage, “Dayton’s party of parties,” that benefited AIDS charities.
What is the best compliment you ever received?
The first time I was on Newbery, I fell in love with Ginny Rorby’s Hurt Go Happy. We chose the lovely Higher Power of Lucky, but one of our honor books Cynthia Lord’s Rules won the Schneider Family Book award. I sent Ginny Rorby an email urging her to get her publisher to nominate HGH for the award the following year, since Schneider books can be published in the previous two years. They did, and she won. Recently we met for the first time face to face though we have emailed many times over the years. She told me I “changed her life” and she wouldn’t have had the career she did without that award.
Are you more comfortable in your kitchen or in your living room?
I really like to cook and bake bread. I’m not always successful since I do treat recipes as suggestions and often combine two or more. But I was just in the top 10 of Carla Hall’s Favorite Chef Competition…I only made it to number 7. (And the “competition” is really just a way to raise money for the James Beard Foundation).
