Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Nassau Library System is a cooperative of 54 libraries throughout the county. While each one is supported by local taxes and governed by its own board of trustees, the NLS provides services, materials and programming to all member libraries.
“One of the largest services we provide are delivery services five days a week,” NLS Director Caroline Ashby said. “We enable libraries to share resources with one another. So when a patron in Levittown wants to use a book only owned by the Elmont library, we’ll pick it up from Elmont, sort it in our facility and send it to Levittown the next day for the patron to check out.
“We save Nassau taxpayers thousands of dollars a year,” Ashby added, “by resource-sharing this way.”
Ashby, a native of Port Washington, began her library career with the New York Public Library while studying for a master’s in library and information sciences at the Pratt Institute. “I was a volunteer in the adult literacy center as a tutor,” she recalled. “These were people from their 40s to their 70s who’d made it that far without real literacy skills.”
At the center, Ashby built relationships with patrons and learned about the challenges they faced, such as a lack of technology skills. She decided to teach those as well, helping with internet browsing, setting up emails and teaching them Microsoft. “Because to be able to work,” she said, “you need to have a resume, submit your application over email, and know how to use Word.”
After finishing her degree, she worked at the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library, in Manhattan, part of a nationwide network that provides reading materials to patrons who are blind or visually impaired. Ashby, who worked with patrons by phone and email, and suggested braille and audio materials, credits this experience for broadening her perspective of library services.
In 2014 she was hired as assistant director of the NLS. “I wanted to come back home and serve a community closer to my heart,” Ashby said. In 2019 she was promoted to director.
NLS delivers more than materials to local libraries. Technology is a major aspect of its service, as it provides libraries with broadband internet service and organizes the shared-material catalog. The online catalog allows any cardholder in the county to view materials available at system branches.
NLS offers continuing education for library staff. “We provide training to library trustees on their governance responsibilities, we provide training to library administrators on management and legal compliance topics, and training for public-facing staff on outreach and best practices,” Ashby explained. Through its networking opportunities, she added, the NLS encourages librarians to “learn from one another so the service provided at public libraries in Nassau can be as consistent as possible.”
She also leads NLS’s advocacy work, connecting with local and state elected officials to ensure that libraries receive the funding and support available.
“The more NLS can do to support member libraries,” Ashby said, “the more freedom those libraries have to serve their communities in close, responsive ways.”
