Mary Constance ‘Connie’ Barrington 1951-2018
Mary
Constance "Connie" Barrington, of El Centro died at her home January
22, 2018. Upon moving to the valley, Connie pursued teaching as a career,
receiving an award for Student Teacher of the Year from San Diego State
University. She went on to teach at Westmorland Elementary and Brawley Union
High School.
Her extensive volunteer work in literacy inspired her to pursue
her Masters of Library Science from the University of Arizona. She worked at
Brawley Public Library and Camrena Memorial Library, before becoming the Head
Librarian for the Imperial County Library. During her tenure
as County Librarian, she received numerous awards for her work, including the
Celebrate Literacy Award awarded by the International Reading Association.
After her retirement in 2016, her passion for reading led her to continue her
work as a volunteer.
County
Librarian set to retire after 15 years
After
serving Imperial Valley for more than 20 years, the last 15 as the County
Librarian, Connie Barrington is now set to retire.
The new county librarian will begin on March 4.
“It
was hard to make the decision, I really enjoyed it,” Barrington said. “It’s
time for someone young with a new vision to continue to expand on what we
have.”
Barrington
who is from Chicago came into the valley with her husband in the 1980s after he
convinced her to come and experience living in the Valley.
She
held several positions early in her career, before getting appointed as the
county librarian Barrington was an assistant to the director of the Brawley
Library where she began to get involved with the Adult Literacy Program in 1989.
