Meet Aspen Hill

The newly refreshed Aspen Hill branch reopened to the public on July 15. Stop in and check out the improvements, including:
While you're at Aspen Hill, grab a book, try out our enhanced Wi-Fi, attend a program, use a public PC or loaner laptop to browse our online offerings, or just relax and enjoy the ambiance.
Aspen Hill library staff member Patricia Buck
Patricia Buck
Patricia Buck joined Montgomery County Public Libraries in 2001 and has worked at Bethesda, Germantown, Long Branch, Outreach, Silver Spring, and Virtual Services. Of all those branches, she loves Aspen Hill the best, because it "is the perfect size for a community library." Patricia lived in DC for twenty years before moving to Columbia, MD in 2006. She received a master's degree in fine arts from Howard University in 1995. She reads voraciously, downloading audiobooks from MCPL's elibrary, and shares her book recommendations with a growing list of customers seeking reader's advisory. Patricia lives with her spouse of 24 years and a very talkative Cornish Rex cat.
 
Fran Kaplan is the head of children's services at Aspen Hill.
Fran Kaplan, librarian at Aspen Hill
Fran Kaplan
She has worked for MCPL for 40 1/2 years. She began her career at the Four Corners library and then helped open Long Branch in 1977. From there she worked at the Special Needs library for 14 years and ran the computer room, which housed adaptive technology. She learned how to translate documents into braille and helped select and introduce customers to software and hardware to help their individual needs. Fran worked at the Olney branch for 10 years as a part-time children's librarian and then was promoted to a Librarian II in children's services at Aspen Hill, where she has been working for the past 12 years. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and her Master’s in Library Science. She is fluent in Spanish and also has a working knowledge of Sign Language. Fran is married with two adult sons, three dogs and a talking Quaker parrot. When not at the library, Fran enjoys making jewelry, cooking, singing karaoke, connecting with friends and family on Facebook, traveling, and reading.

Sue Koronowski
Sue Koronowski
Sue Koronowski is the Librarian II for Adult Services at the Aspen Hill. Sue came to MCPL in 2008 from Massachusetts where she was a library director for over 10 years. Since arriving at MCPL, she has been the Branch Manager at Kensington Park, Twinbrook, and Potomac. Sue is enjoying her new position as it allows her more time to work with the community, customers, and the collection, which are some of her favorite librarian responsibilities. In her spare time Sue enjoys reading and traveling. Most of all she and her husband enjoy spending time with their son, daughter-in-law and especially their only grandchild, two-year old Josie, who live in DC!

Ken Lewis and colleague.
Kenneth S. Lewis is the Manager at the Aspen Hill, having been transferred from the Little Falls branch in Bethesda, where he spent approximately eight years, also as the Branch Manager. Ken, as he prefers to be called, was born in Trinidad, West Indies, and migrated to the United States in January, 1970.

Libraries have been both a contributing and building factor in his early years, and he has fond memories of walking approximately ten miles to the Carnegie Free Library from his residence in Trinidad to utilize the library services, and ten miles back from the library to his home. Years later he explained to his parents that he utilized the money given for transportation purposes to treat himself, while walking to and from, and used the opportunity to explore all the neighborhood areas which were previously undiscovered by him.

After graduation from his high school, Ken migrated to the United States where he attended Howard University. At Howard University, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Spanish, and a Master’s Degree in Afro Hispanic Literature. Ken returned to Trinidad where he worked as a Documentalist at the University of the West Indies. While working at the university, Ken took some time off to complete a Master’s Degree in Library Science. In 1988, Ken returned to the Maryland, where he has resided over the years with his family.

Ken loves music, and reading biographies, which he finds inspiring, as ‘life stories” are shared and celebrated.    

 Kathleen Uy is currently a Librarian I in adult services. She has worked for MCPL since 2000 starting as a librarian for Long Branch on Wheels. She has worked as both a children's and adult librarian. Prior to working for the library she taught school for ten years including bilingual Spanish/English classes, and English as a Second or Other Language. She speaks three languages: Spanish, Portuguese, and English and is attempting to learn French. She holds two master's degrees, grew up in a bilingual household, and is the first in her family to attend college.

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