CURRENT POSITION Director, Anderson Public Library, IN DEGREE MLS, Indiana University, 1997 Photo by Noelle Sherrell

All About Access

Edra Waterman was working in a community mental health center when she heard about Indiana University’s top-notch MLS program. “My job convinced me that I wanted to be in a field that helped people of all backgrounds and situations,” she recalls. “The ethos of the public library as a welcoming place for everyone clicked with me on a fundamental level.” 

As executive director of Hamilton East Public Library in suburban Indianapolis from 2012–23, Waterman had ample opportunity to put those principles into practice. She helped create an arts-focused makerspace, Ignite Studio, in an unused 15,000 square foot space. She partnered with local organizations serving people with disabilities to provide training on the equipment and initiated public engagement opportunities, driving home the concept that a brick-and-mortar library is still crucial. 

Not long after, Waterman adeptly worked against an aggressive relocation of high school–age materials, including the bestseller The Fault in Our Stars, to the library’s adult section by the board of trustees. She presented cogent arguments at hours-long, unruly—police were called twice—meetings. She spoke on the expertise of librarians, parental responsibility, free speech, and viewpoint discrimination. “I repeatedly insisted that these materials were purpose-written for the intended audience and should be shelved accordingly to maximize access.” During the protracted battle, she twice attended ALA’s Congressional Fly In, taking her advocacy to the national level. The censoring policy was rescinded. “We demonstrated this is a slippery slope by showing that identifying certain words or ideas as excluded will cast a wide net,” she says.