Board of Library Trustees candidate profile: James Griffith

James Griffith said that he has always loved libraries and has been fortunate to spend a lot of time in them as part of his career in academia, and that’s why he’s running for the Board of Library Trustees.

Griffith is a retired professor who taught microbiology and infectious disease at UMass Dartmouth for 42 years and described himself as “very active” in the scientific community. He is also the chair of the Dartmouth Democratic Town Committee.

“During the time that I was an academic at the university, I had occasion to spend a lot of time in libraries and I just loved being in them,” he said, adding that he even has a habit of stopping at local libraries whenever he’s traveling.

“I’ve spent time at research and scientific libraries all over the world,” he said. “Whenever I go on vacation somewhere, if I can find a library, I go look at it and see how it’s set up and that kind of thing.”

Griffith said that his love of the institutions is a product of his natural curiosity and his family’s modest means when he was growing up.

“I’ve been amazed most of my life — and I should have probably outgrown this by now — but I’ve always been amazed by how stuff works,” he said. “So, I’m curious about everything and I think that has probably influenced my interest in libraries.”

Griffith said that as a grad student at the University of Minnesota he once went to the library for a specific book and ended up getting so engrossed in others that he found along the way that the library closed with him still inside.

He said that he now just wants to pay back into a system that has given him so much.

“I love the library and so for me this is just an opportunity to give back,” he said.

Griffith said that one of the biggest things that pushed him to get involved was the strong commitment the town has shown to libraries by maintaining Southworth to a high standard and even building a new library on the north end of town.

“To me that is just an expression that the Town of Dartmouth is interested in itself; is interested in the people; is interested in all kinds of learners,” he said. “So on a personal level, that means something to me.”

Griffith said that one of the biggest challenges to managing the libraries will always be maintaining the right mix of knowledge and resources to meet the changing needs of its users — especially at a time when young people rely heavily on the internet for information.

“It is now and will continue to be a struggle as to how to place the correct resources before our learners in Dartmouth,” he said. “That’s the struggle and I would just like to participate in it.”