Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
Joe Marcantonio didn’t want to be any library’s director — he wanted to be the director at the Winfield Public Library.
That’s because he was raised in Winfield, and started working at the library as a shelver at age 16. Coming full circle feels surreal, says Marcantonio, who started as director there in June.
“I love this community and the people in it,” he says. “I’ve already had my first patron call me Joey — which I haven’t been called in 35 years — because she remembers me from when her husband was my little league coach.”
During his first months in his new job, Marcantonio plans to take time to observe how the library functions, get to know the staff and meet the patrons. “I want to make a library that every person in Winfield can be proud to call their home library,” he says.
Born in Chicago, Marcantonio was adopted as a baby; his birth parents were of Italian heritage, and his adoptive father is Italian. Growing up, his family celebrated St. Joseph’s Day, and continues to cook Italian recipes passed down from his grandparents.
Marcantonio got his passion for books from his grandmother, an avid reader. “To the surprise of most people that sweet older lady got me into horror novels because they were her favorite, too,” he recalls.
Marcantonio’s educational background includes a bachelor’s in English language and literature/letters from Northern Illinois University and a master’s in library and information science from Dominican University.
He worked as a store clerk at Borders bookstore and then as a before/after school and summer camp counselor for several years before being hired as a young adult assistant librarian at the Plainfield Area Public Library. He spent 12 years there, including a promotion to young adult librarian, before he joined the Schaumburg Township District Library as teen manager in 2018.
Marcantonio has been described as “an innovator in services to teens and young adults” and has presented on the topic at state and national library conferences.
Most recently, he created a record label for the teens at the Schaumburg Library. The teens are taught to use music software and recording equipment and then can release their music across streaming platforms, he explains. The library pays the cost of the distribution while the teens earn 100% of royalties and retain ownership of their music. When he left earlier this year, the program had 12 artists who had amassed over 1.5 million streams of their music, he says.
As for his thoughts on how to get young people to read books, “Young people do what they see,” he says. “If they see their parents and the trusted people in their lives reading, they will be readers. Read to your kids and they will become readers.”
Marcantonio lives in Plainfield with his wife Lara, an art teacher at Joliet Public Schools District 86, and their children Luca, 10, and Luna, 5. Both kids love reading —they, too, love horror books — having grown up going to the library and being read to every night by their parents, he says.
Libraries have been under attack in recent years, between groups advocating for book bans and cuts to funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
It’s essential for libraries to continue providing access to quality information, Marcantonio says. Patrons can help with financial support, volunteering and being active on their local library’s board or “friends” group, he adds.
“It is a difficult time for libraries, but on the flip side, we’ve been shown an incredible amount of support,” he says.
