Our staff of library professionals are committed to providing excellent service.
Joan Cochrane, Manager of Circulation
Joan, who qualified as a nurse originally, began working in our South Elmsley branch in 2000 and became Head of Circulation in 2008. Besides working in two branches, she is our expert on the circulation end of the library database, handles book processing, payroll and supervises all staff and student pages. She also holds provincial certification in Small Library Management.
Laura Lee Davies, Manager of Programs and Community Outreach
Laura Lee joined the library team in 2018 with many years of experience as an early literacy specialist and as a lead on the Read to Every Kid Every Day literacy project. She has also worked with students and staff at the school board developing Character based programs. She is a proud Athenian.
Jamie Gipson
Jamie is a graduate of the Library Technician course at Algonquin College in Ottawa. She works 3 of the 5 branches and with her designer brain is always improving the layout and use of space. Jamie also took on an accounting course through Willis Business College and handles our financial records. She excels at social media, contests and promotion of the library.
Nichole Harper
Nichole is one of our two students working at the Elgin Branch. She has been a life-long library user growing up in the Elgin area. Nichole attends Rideau District High School and is active with the Badminton team and has been part of the school band.
Elva McCann
Elva had a long career as a local elementary school teacher before she joined the staff of Rideau Lakes in 1998. Her experience as a school librarian is very useful to the library as she catalogues all the juvenile easy readers, picture books and fiction.
Anne Muldoon
Anne is a retired elementary school teacher of 30 years. In 2007 she was nominated as Provincial Teacher of the Year. She served on the Smiths Falls Library board until she relocated to Rideau Lakes. Anne works at our South Elmsley branch.
Betty Anne Nolan
Betty Anne joined the staff in 2013. She is a retired secondary teacher with 31 years experience with a background in health, physical education, math, guidance and special education.
Besides working the circulation desk, she catalogues the donated books, assists with scheduling staff, coordinates duties for volunteers and assists with training new supply staff. She works at the South Elmsley and Elgin Branches as well as filling in at other branches as required.
Liz Priebe
Liz, before she moved to the area, had many years of experience working for municipal government in Ottawa. As well as being the library staff member in Delta since 2000, she worked for KEYS, the local employment information center, and with Delta community groups providing a valuable link with the wider community.
Sharon Riviere
Sharon began working for the library as relief staff in 2014 and has since taken on more permanent shifts, particularly at the Portland Branch. She brings over 27 years of customer service experience working in Canada’s North as well as working in a Provincial Park assisting visitors.
Sharon loves to help patrons find new authors as well as making them feel comfortable finding their way around our branches.
Mary Roantree
Mary began as an occasional staff with the library in 2014 after a career in children’s mental health.
Mary has regular shifts at our Portland and Elgin Branches and enjoys providing occasional coverage at our other branches.
Vicki Stevenson, CEO
Vicki took on the role of CEO in August of 2018 after many years of running library programs and working at the circulation desk since 2002. She has a Bachelor of Science from Trent University, her provincial certification in Small Library Management and is working towards her MLIS.
Her experience outside of the library world includes work as a biologist, natural museum coordinator as well as a researcher and writer for international children’s media productions.
Lorie Truemner
Lorie is one of our occasional staff members at all branches. She is fantastic with mystery and Canadian literature book recommendations.
She is also the Secretary of the Friends of the Rideau Lakes Public Library.
Ashley Ubdegrove, IT Support
Ashley took on the job of IT co-ordinator after a contract in 2016 and now handles all of the library’s technology support.
She also runs one-on-one assistance to patrons with technology troubleshooting.
Sarah Whyte
Sarah is one of our student employees working at the Elgin Branch. She is on a number of sports teams at Rideau District High School and has volunteered at Rideau Lakes Daycamp.
Edith Willson
Edith has accomplished much in a short time at the library since 2014, working regularly at the Elgin Branch but also filling in at other locations. Edith worked for almost 20 years at the University of Auckland as a Department Manager before retiring and returning to Canada in 2012.
Edith is our resident expert knitter and is a founding member of the Hooks and Books needlework program at the Portland Branch.