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Suncoast Pinellas News

Palm Harbor woman wins rare scholarship

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: April 25, 2009

Lois Eannel, assistant director of the Palm Harbor Library and its youth services librarian, said there seemingly is nothing that Betcinda Kettles can't do.

Kettles, a library assistant, is a true renaissance woman with a wide range of intellectual interests and accomplishments. She teaches a beginning computer course at the library, creates brochures and pamphlets with her desktop publishing prowess and leads a twice-a-month philosophical discussion called Socrates Cafe.

When not on a special project she assists patrons, fielding a plethora of questions at the reference section.

As to the question of whether it's OK to shorten her slightly unusual first name, which her mother thought up, to Cindy, Kettles' answer is no.

Since she started at the Palm Harbor Library seven years ago, Kettles has "impressed everyone with her abilities, as people person, to multitask and cross-train in different areas," Debbie Phillips, library spokeswoman, said. "Having the ability to assist in different areas is very important in these days of budget cuts."

"She feels equally at ease working in the children's section and then switching to reference to help adults," Phillips added.

Library Director Gene Coppola said Kettles is "a real asset and we are very lucky to have her."

Coppola hired Kettles to catalog materials in the library's technical services department, a job that kept her hidden from the public. Soon, however, her personality and ability to assist library patrons of all ages soon became apparent and Kettles was put in charge of youth services, Phillips said.

This month she became one of the first college undergraduates to earn a Florida Library Association Scholarship. The FLA usually gives these grants to graduate students, Phillips said.

Kettle is a student at the Eckerd College North Pinellas Center, in Palm Harbor. She hopes to someday earn a master's degree from the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Florida.

"I have always loved libraries, ever since growing up in a little town in Maine, where you had to travel several miles to get to the library," Kettles said.

She eventually worked at the public library in Bangor, Maine, before relocating to Florida, seeking a much better climate, after her grown children moved away.

Landing her job at the Palm Harbor Library so soon after arriving in North Pinellas was a stroke of good fortune, Kettles said, adding she was "always meant to live in Florida."

At the library she demonstrated an aptitude for teaching seniors how to feel comfortable using computers.

"I tell them not to stress about it, Kettles said. "It is just like learning a new language - you just have to practice."

With her software savvy Kettles has created beautiful brochures, posters and other materials for the library, Phillips said.

Socrates Cafe, the philosophical talks Kettles leads, has grown tremendously in popularity, according to Phillips.

"We just get together to discuss a question someone brings to the group," Kettles said.

The topics have included:

•"Can we control our own happiness?"

•"Does popular culture discourage critical thinking?"

•"What is courage?"

•"Can science and religion coexist?"

Socrates Cafe meets at the library at 6 p.m. the first Wednesday of each month and 1 p.m. the third Thursday of each month.

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