By Meredith Stanton Vaselaar
After the resignation of Nobles County Library Director, Marjorie Ferguson, the county has hired a new Library Director, David Bradford, who will oversee the Libraries in Worthington and Adrian. Bradford has been at the helm for a month. He grew up in Corvallis, Oregon, a town he describes as “a lot like Brookings, SD, multiplied by two.” Bradford grew up on an acreage outside of the town of Corvallis, which boasts a population of 50,000. “It prides itself as being a town that is a great one in which to raise children,” Bradford says. After High School graduation, Bradford got a degree at the University of Oregon in Corvallis. After college, Bradford started his own building firm in Colorado. He was ready for a change and had in interest in building. The job involved the learning of various tasks and enjoying the hands’ on aspect of building and creating. He “followed the housing market” through various areas and states, building houses, remodeling and selling. Eventually he ended up in Sioux Falls. After sixteen years in the building business he was ready for a change.
When Bradford lived in Corvallis, he worked in libraries. He had always enjoyed libraries and library work, so he decided to return to school to get his Master’s Degree in Library Science, which he says, “was about a 90 degree change from what I had been doing, because a lot of what I was doing worked well” in moving toward a career in libraries. He completed his Master’s at St. Catherine’s University in St. Paul, in 2014. During that time he did an internship in the Hennepin County Library system, as well as filling in as a substitute teacher in the Minneapolis school system. Bradford returned to Sioux Falls and began working as the Campus Librarian at Globe University, while also completing his Master of Business degree there in 2016. In January of 2017, he was hired by the State of South Dakota as its Digital Resources Coordinator, in which he assisted librarians in accessing the state-wide databases, which served public, academic and school libraries.
Bradford was hired as the Nobles County Library Director in December 2019 and is looking forward to working in the area. He has visited the Adrian Branch Library a number of times already, and says he loves the storytime castle area. He is especially pleased that with Christy Hornstein and Tina Zbytovsky on board, The Adrian Branch Library is now open to its previous six-day-a-week schedule. The Adrian area has left a good impression on him, and is in consideration of a place to put down roots as he and his wife and young son look to moving east. From Oregon to Minnesota, separated by more the 1,700 miles, it looks as if Bradford is ready to call this area home, and is looking forward to serving the area as Nobles County Library Director.
Adrian Branch Library
214 Maine Avenue
Adrian, MN 56110
507-483-2541
Monday 12:00 – 7:00 pm
Tuesday 12:00 – 5:00 pm
Wednesday 12:00 – 5:00 pm
Thursday 12:00 – 7:00 pm
Friday 12:00 – 5:00 pm
Saturday 10:00 – 1:00 pm
Sunday closed
Closed Monday. January 20-Martin Luther King Day
