We're happy to have said hello to these new Library staffers in the last couple of months. 

Kirsten Carleton, Circulation Assistant, is coming to the Library from a career in publishing, where she was a literary agent at Sobel Weber, Waxman Leavell, and Prospect Agency. She holds a B.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration from Amherst College, and a Graduate Certificate in Publishing from the Columbia Publishing Course. She mostly reads fiction and especially likes YA, literary, speculative, and thriller. After her time spent on the genesis of books, she's excited to move to the other end of the process, where readers are enjoying the finished product.

Pete Fey is the new Assistant Children’s and YA Librarian. He recently moved to New York City after graduating from the University of Kansas with an MFA in English, where he also taught courses in the English Department. His previous library experience includes stints at the Omaha Public Library, the Lawrence Public Library, and the Kenneth Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas. Pete loves trivia, hiking, board games, and, surprisingly enough, reading (he is currently reading K-punk: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë). If you have a minute, stop by the Children’s Library and say “hi!”

Events Assistant Marialuisa Monda studied at New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a B.A. degree in Folklore, Narrative, and Storytelling. She plans to obtain her Master's in Library Science and Information Technologies. Her undergraduate thesis was on trickster tales and the importance of academic research - you'll overhear her discussing why folklore are still important and how, like libraries, books/stories are even more so. She enjoys reading all genres, but her go-tos are fantasy, science fiction, children's/young adult, folklore (of course), and (great) renderings/mythopoeia from writers such as J.R.R Tolkien, Diana Wynne Jones, and Marlon James. When she's not staffing the box office, you'll find her in Stack 3 among call number 398.2.

Madjalia Seynou is now our Controller. Prior to joining the Library, Madjalia worked as an Assistant Controller at the Metropolitan New York Library Council. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Management from the University of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), she continued her education at St. John’s University, where she earned her Masters of Science in Accounting. She committed her career to not-for-profit organizations because she enjoys working on projects that make positive impacts on people’s lives. She likes to read self-improvement books, and her favorite author is Dale Carnegie.