Amber Westall Briggs, director of the Avery-Mitchell-Yancey Regional Library System, recently received the prestigious N.C. Library Director of the Year Award for 2024, the highest statewide honor for a Public Library Director.
Briggs was hired as Director of the AMY Regional Library System in 2015. Her love for reading led her to volunteer with the Yancey County Friends of the Library in 2007. At Yancey Library, she taught computer literacy classes through Mayland Community College in 2009 and started a young adult afterschool program in 2010.
She was hired as the Associate Librarian at the new Yancey Library location in the former YCI building, then served as Regional Programming Director six months prior to being named director of the AMY Regional Library System.
Briggs holds a BA degree in Literature and Master’s Degree in Library Science, and is certified as a NC Public Librarian by the State Library. A graduate of Mountain Heritage High School, she attended NCSU, WCU, and ASU.
“I am deeply honored to be nominated and receive the votes from my peers across the state for this award,” she said.
She was nominated for the honor by Melanie Morgan, director for Neuse Regional Libraries, who introduced Briggs by stating that she has served on local, regional and state literary, community, and library science boards and committees, and has created safe spaces where the public can gather to learn and share community resources. Morgan said Briggs has worked tirelessly to find and fund programs and resources that that take services and learning outside the library walls in her rural communities.
“In part due to Amber’s strong leadership and help from community partners, the AMY Regional System has been able to address and find funding to bridge the digital divide and accessibility with numerous projects that will impact patrons of all ages at the libraries in the counties the regional system serves.”
Morgan continued, “While a few community members attacked the foundational system we hold essential for library services, which is the freedom to read, she gathered community support to continue the fight. Amber’s true testament as a library director has been her unwavering advocacy for upholding the First Amendment and standing steadfast that the public library should be representative of all people.”
“Amber is not only an incredible human being who loves her community, she also serves in countless ways through leadership, programming, and access. She continues to inspire her community and to inspire us as library professionals,” Morgan concluded.
In accepting the award, Briggs acknowledged the support of the AMY employees who have gone above and beyond as they served their communities during this past year while being harassed by a handful of individuals. She also acknowledged the support of community members who have offered unwavering support for the employees and the libraries.
Briggs stated, “The library world is constantly changing as the new identity of the public library shifts from a repository of books to a full-fledged community center. I have welcomed challenges, they excite me, and I want to know how we can better support our communities, and I believe we can do it with passion and a dedication to developing alliances which impact all citizens, particularly those who are disenfranchised or economically challenged.”
To that end, she has been both facilitator and organizer in numerous region-wide and state-wide collaborations to meet those challenges.
Under her leadership, AMY Regional Library System has recently obtained the following grants for libraries in the system: $225,000 from High Country Council of Governments that funds a Digital Inclusion Librarian, laptops and accessories, WiFi hotspots throughout the counties, WiFi at rural churches, continuing education training for staff, and evaluation by NCSU; $270,000 digital literacy grant from Dogwood Health Trust that will provide affordable internet service, internet devices, digital literacy training, and technical support; $5,000 Public Library Association grant; and a $5,000 national grant from the Association for Rural & Small Libraries, one of only three awarded in NC.
In addition to being a member of the NC Public Library Directors Association, she has served as a committee member of the NC Continuing Education Committee, Chair of the State Library Broadband Committee, Chair of NCPLDA Regional Library Directors Committee, State Library Youth Services Advisory Committee, serves on the seven-member board for the State Library LSTA Grant Committee that provides federal grants to public and college libraries in NC, and as a judge for the NC Center for the Book’s “Letters About Literature” competition.
Regionally and locally, she has or is serving on boards for High Country Workforce Development, Mountain Community Health Partnership, Parkway Playhouse, Yancey County Literacy Council, Traditional Voices Group, The Yancey Fund (an affiliate of The Community Foundation of WNC), co-chair of the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival board as well as co-chair of the Festival’s Program Committee and School Outreach Coordinator, and vice-chair of The Listening Project. She volunteers with Hospice and local schools.
The daughter of Forrest and Sabra Westall, she grew up in the South Toe River Valley in a then 900-sq. ft. log cabin (the original Westall cabin built in the 1850s was where famed author Thomas Wolfe interviewed his uncle, who was her great-great grandfather).
Briggs says her childhood was spent reading books, playing in creeks and woods, and listening to highly entertaining stories from the neighbors who visited her grandmother Ruby Westall’s country store/gas station. After living in Raleigh during her young adulthood, she and her husband, Shane, moved back to Yancey County and the mountains they missed. They have three children. She says that being a mom is her greatest adventure.
Provided by: NC Public Library Director’s Association
Melanie Morgan, Neuse Regional Library, Kinston, NC
