Ellington brings gardening love, growth plans to Quisenberry Library

By Sarah Grace Coleman

Quisenberry Branch Manager Kim Ellington

As of June 2025, the Quisenberry Library has had a new branch manager, “Kim” Kimberly Ellington. Ellington had never worked as a branch manager for a library before, but, when she found herself looking for a job, she came across one posted for the Quisenberry position.

“I’m not really good at just sitting at home, so I was looking for a job,” said Ellington.

Prior to working at the library, Ellington had worked at Belhaven University from 2017 to 2024 under several titles, including the Director of Graduate Research Support from 2023 to 2024. Then in 2025, she took the year off to care for her mother and focus on moving her family from Raymond to Pearl.

That spring, she decided that it was time for something new.

As she was job-hunting, she came across the open position at Quisenberry.

“I was like, ‘do you think I could do this?’ – and guess what, I can!”

Ellington says she was motivated by her love for reading as well as her desire to help and work with others.

“The library is perfect, because we can talk and get to visit with people, but we also get to work with books and help people with resources and programs and fun things,” said Ellington.

Ellington is married to her husband of three years, Christopher Ellington. She is the mother of three grown children, Logan, Elyse, and Aiden, as well as the grandmother to Lucas, who is now sixteen months old. She is also an animal-lover, being a caregiver to six cats: Alfred, Declan, Rivvie, Arya, Pickles and Pippin; and four dogs: Loki, Rey, Finn and Shrek.

She is originally from Alabama and has lived in Germany as a result of her father’s military career. She attended Belhaven University, where she received her bachelor’s degree in intercultural studies in 2017, and her master’s in business administration in 2021.

Ellington also spends a lot of time gardening, a passion she brings to Quisenberry.

Currently, she is collecting seeds from her own garden at home, including marigolds, rudbeckia and zinnias, which she plans to distribute at the library in the spring. She is also responsible for tending to the library garden, a project she began this past summer after noticing interest from teenage patrons.

“I talked to the manager at Lowe’s, and they donated the whole thing – the plants, the fence, everything we needed,” said Ellington.

While it started with the idea of engaging teens, Ellington’s hope is that it will eventually grow into a community garden.

“If you’re interested, come in and talk to us, because we would love the help.”

Unfortunately, to date, the project has not produced as much engagement from the teen demographic as she had hoped, a recurring challenge faced by the library.

“That’s one thing we want to figure out: how to get teens involved. [It’s] always hard, because [many of them] can’t drive, they’re in school, and they have after school activities,” said Ellington.

Some ways Ellington and her staff are attempting to counter this is by creating a space in the library specifically for teens that includes “teen-friendly” furniture, as well as starting a once-a-month “teen craft time” on Saturdays.

The library has already moved the teenager reading section, once located in the children’s reading section, to the stacks. Ellington also hopes that by emphasizing Dungeons and Dragons in Quisenberry’s tabletop gaming service, more teenagers will be drawn in.

In the meantime, Ellington seeks to use her position to continue providing resources, services, and hosting a variety of regular programs, such as Quiz-enberry trivia nights, LEGO Club, bingo and weekly story times.

For more information about the Quisenberry Library and its offerings, stop by at 605 East Northside Drive, or call 601-924-5684.