best overall
Story By Mike Overall, Photo By Susan O'Connor

It is no herculean task to get the affable David Eckert to sit still long enough for an interview. During the course of the interview though, he still remains a man on the move, whether in his rapid-fire speech, his admixture of quicksilver thoughts that engender those torrent of words, or his enthusiastic revelation of those passions that animate the sum of his physical presence.

The 42-year-old Eckert, a Pennsylvania native who in 2008 will replace the retiring, much-vaunted Rusty Dancer as assistant director of the Jonesboro Public library, is already on the job, said Library Director Phyllis Burkett.

“We noticed right away that David is as passionate about the library and its many services as our library team has always been,” Burkett said. “And we feel certain that David will bring with him new and exciting ideas regarding our library system and how it may better serve the lifeblood of that operation, our patrons.”

Working under the tutelage of Burkett, as well as at the behest of the library’s board of directors, Eckert is an “idea and action man” who anticipates with glee, along with a sense of relish, the challenges that lie before him. And challenges there will be aplenty, as the Jonesboro library is headquarters of the Crowley’s Ridge Regional Library system, which operates seven branches in Craighead and Poinsett counties.

Why Eckert ended up in Jonesboro is a little easier to explain than how, the former being twofold: a job that seemed tailor-made for a man who thrives on challenges; and the opportunity for him and his family to be physically closer to his parents and brother, who live near Branson, Mo., and his wife’s sister, of near Fort Worth, Texas.

As for the latter, the “how,” one must chart the career of the peripatetic Eckert, whose journey here began in Pennsylvania; thence to Southern Methodist University in Texas, with two lengthy, separate stopovers in the Dominican Republic (where he met the woman who would become his wife); then on to Kent State University in Ohio, where he received his Master’s Degree in Library Science; next a job as a music reference librarian at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.; and before arriving here, a stint as a children’s librarian in Camden County, N.J.

For a guy who’s the antithesis of a job-hopper (at each stop in his travels he settled down to pursue serious career goals in education, the performing arts and what one might call the inculcation of an unassailable work ethic), Eckert has seen much of these United States.

Eckert was a music major at SMU when the conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic was in town for a guest conducting gig. To shorten the proverbial long story, a year later, Eckert’s brother, a viola player who had joined the orchestra at the conductor’s request, called David in 1988 to tell him that one of the orchestra’s bassists was not working out. Eckert then auditioned for the orchestra, and ended up holding down the principal double bassist’s chair.

“The orchestra was a truly international one,” Eckert said, “with players from all over Europe and the world …. It was a great experience, musically and because of the people I met. It was through the orchestra that I met my wife, Claudia. And I also fell in love with the ethnic music down there, which at one point I, an American, was teaching to groups of Dominican children.”

Years later, in 1998, Eckert returned to the Dominican Republic for another five-year stint with the orchestra. While there, he also worked as a school librarian.

When Eckert enrolled at Kent State, he began pursuing a degree in ethnomusicology (a study of the music of non-European cultures). After a time, though, he decided to switch majors. “Being a people person, I finally dropped my ethnic music studies because, fascinating a field as it is, I couldn’t see myself spending the rest of my life writing academic papers and articles that only a relative few people would read,” he said. “That’s when I decided to get my master’s in library science,” a field in which he could interact with people, as well as apply certain organizational skills he honed through years as an avid stamp collector.

On the subject of libraries, “which you must remember are repositories of our history,” Eckert says they must keep abreast of current technological, cultural, sociological and other changes.

“The libraries of today have to be more proactive …. We must go into the community in order to provide more and better service to our patrons,” he said. “Nor can we now think of the library as just a building that contains a lot of books. We have a ‘virtual branch’ out there, one that is crying out for our services, in the technological arena as well as other areas.”

Eckert said the “proactive library” he envisions could be the 21st century version of the old bookmobile, where the library went directly to the people to provide its services. “To stay viable, we’re going to have to go out and do library-based programs for the public.”

From an entertainment perspective, libraries are in competition with bookstores, Eckert noted. He also implied that the traditional, hidebound image of the library, one where it was regarded as the staid, shushed province of the ancien regime, must be changed.

“Take, for instance, the Web,” Eckert said. “It’s now so pervasive in most of our lives, and rife with more material than any of us can imagine, that the library is a good place for our citizens to learn what’s out there that’s worthwhile, entertaining and educational. We can help our patrons find their way on the Web, because libraries and computers now go together.”

The Internet, Eckert said, “is as good and bad as it can be.”

When informed that a distinguished American historian once called the free-lending library “the greatest institution in American history,” Eckert’s comeback was immediate. “It’s comforting to know that there are still more libraries than McDonald’s restaurants in our country.”

Eckert and his wife, Claudia, have two children, Michael, 13, and Andrew, 10.
Director Burkett said filling Rusty Dancer’s shoes (pun not denied) won’t be an easy task.

“Rusty became the outreach librarian here … twenty-five years ago. We were a much smaller organization then … and she moved on to other responsibilities as the library grew. She really showed her initiative and enthusiasm when we automated our card catalogue and circulation systems,” Burkett recalled.

The always cheerful Dancer never shied away from the tasks that came with the library’s growing pains, Burkett said, “even when the odds seemed stacked against us. She has always been a great partner in our planning, and the debt we owe her is simply one that can’t be calculated.”

Dancer said she felt honored to work “in a place and a job – a ‘home’ – I have loved for so long …. I came straight to this job from graduate school, and ever since, it has allowed me to know so many wonderful people and I hope for them to know me.

“I have lived through three building projects here … and was responsible for the installation of our first automation system, even down to getting on the floor and plugging all of the ‘dumb’ terminals in.

“My main job,” Dancer concluded, “has always been to make the library a fun place to work …. I love to laugh and hope to continue in whatever lies ahead for me.”

music

• KASU Blue Monday, Dec. 10, Blind Mississippi Morris and Brad Webb, Newport, Depot Diner, 308 Front Street; no Blue Monday in Paragould or Jonesboro due to holidays; no Bluegrass Monday concerts due to season;
• The Edge Coffee House, 1900 Aggie Road, Rob Alley Trio, jazz/contemporary, Tuesdays, 7-9, check for holiday schedule;
• 501 Club & Restaurant, 2628 Phillips Drive, entertainment Thursday nights;
• Electric Cowboy, just north of 501 Club, entertainment TBA;
• All other venues are TBA: Back Beat Music, Guit-Down, Brickhouse Bar & Grille, Mallard Club in Holiday Inn, Caffe Buono.