"One" Interview with Vanessa Garbarino
Virginia Library Association Communications and Member Engagement Manager
 Your itinerary for one perfect day in Virginia:
I’d start with an iced coffee in Richmond and a visit to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts - maybe a quick trip to the Poe Museum to see the cats that wander the property. No one has a perfect day in Virginia that involves travel on I-95, but I’ll pretend there was miraculously no traffic and head to Northern Virginia. I’d spend the rest of the day in Alexandria, visiting the thrift shops in Old Town and eating in Del Rey for dinner. Ideally, it would be the week after the Fourth of July, when Alexandria celebrates a combination of the US/Alexandria’s birthday with fireworks over the Potomac, so I’d close out the evening watching those at the Old Town waterfront. In my perfect day, there is also very low humidity and it’s a breezy 72 degrees even though it’s the dead of summer.
One thing you can’t live without:
My planner - I need to write everything down to remember it and I also love the satisfaction of physically crossing off a completed task.
One project or initiative you’re most proud of from your time with VLA:
I was the chair of the Cardinal Cup Committee the year that L.M. Elliott’s historical fiction novel Louisa June and the Nazis in the Waves won the award. It felt very special to award a story about Virginia and the Tidewater region. I have L.M. Elliott's newest book Truth, Lies, and the Questions in Between on the top of my “to read” pile - I love how well researched her books are and how passionate she is about history.
 One favorite memory from a Virginia Library Association annual conference:
I found my library science program at the University of Kentucky because they had a booth at the 2023 annual conference! I was so proud to visit their booth again in 2024 as one of their students. I took almost their entire stock of pens and swag - it was genuinely hard to close my suitcase on the way home.
One piece of advice for library workers:
Don’t be afraid to get involved! For me, it was so intimidating to get started with committees but getting involved has been the most rewarding part of my career. I feel like I’m constantly learning from other committee members and that I grow from hearing the perspectives and opinions of people across the state or country.
One accomplishment you’d like to share:
One of the things I feel most accomplished about is my involvement with a virtual program run by my former library system, Alexandria Library. Their Central Branch manager Diana Price created the program Ukrainian Voices to interview Ukrainians living through the Russo-Ukrainian War and amplify their voices and activism. I’m so grateful she brought me into the program and it was incredible to speak to the people we interviewed. Our last interview subject, Victoria Amelina, was killed in a bombing of a pizza restaurant a few weeks before we were scheduled to meet with her. Her unfinished book Looking at Women Looking at War was the last book I read and one of the most impactful things I've ever read.
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