
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 27, 1991                   TAG: 9103270154
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KIM SUNDERLAND NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

REGIONAL LIBRARY HAS NEW DIRECTOR

The Montgomery County-Floyd Regional Library Board of Trustees has chosen a new director to oversee a system headed toward expansion and automation.

Carol Veitch, 42, will start work May 6, ending a three-month search to replace Kathryn I. Martens, who resigned in November after a decade as director.

"It was a rather thorough search," said Darrel Clowes, chairman of the board. "We feel very positive about this appointment."

Veitch has headed the Onslow County Public Library system in Jacksonville, N.C., since 1986. The area is comparable in size to Montgomery and Floyd counties with a population of about 150,000.

Veitch received a Ph.D. in library science from the University of Pittsburgh and taught in Kentucky and North Carolina. She also spent 12 years in her native Pennsylvania as a librarian.

"I chose to be a librarian after I graduated high school in 1960," Veitch said Tuesday from her office in North Carolina during a phone interview. "There were not many job choices or openings for women at that time and being a librarian seemed a feasible choice" since she had worked in her high school library.

"I have never regretted my choice," she said.

Veitch had specialized in children's literature and has been widely published. She has co-authored "Literature Puzzles for Elementary and Middle School" and "More Puzzles for Elementary and Middle School," has written articles on children's literature, and has done book reviews for professional journals. She is currently beginning another book.

Veitch (rhymes with "beach") will move to the New River Valley around the end of April.

She plans to acquaint herself with the area and its library system before making any determinations. She did, however, discuss a few priorities. Automation in several areas is one of them, and a new library branch is needed in Blacksburg.

Veitch is "very much an idea person," said trustee Clowes, who said the board received about 20 applications for the job. "She will bring us to the next plateau."

by CNB