Jo Ann Mannino is currently the Children’s Librarian/Assistant Manager at our Wilder Branch, which is located on the city’s eastside. She has been with the Detroit Public Library for over 33 years and in 2019 was chosen as our librarian of the year! Mrs. M (as the kids call her) loves the Detroit Public Library and her favorite thing is planning and facilitating fun, educational and innovative library programs.
While Mrs. M is at home, she is hard at work creating videos for our library community—especially all the children and families she misses seeing at the branch.
“I think videos are important at this time because it allows our library children to stay connected to the library and the library staff who are missing their daily interactions with them,” says Mrs. M. Additionally, she feels that “the videos give me purpose to provide fun, easy and educational activities that help alleviate boredom during this uncertain time.”
When Mrs. M isn’t working at the library, she enjoys being the Queen of the Bella Butterflies, a chapter of the Red Hat Society, and of course reading. Her favorite children's book is "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown. She used to read it over and over again to her daughter when she was a small child. In fact, Mrs. M’s daughter found the book to be calming—a perfect choice for kids right now and available as a free e-book from the library.
An interview by Woodward the Cat