David Scott was named the director of the Warren County-Vicksburg Public Library in February. Scott has previously served as the collection management librarian.

Scott said he was excited to be taking on the position and sees this as an opportunity to bring some of his ideas to the table.

“I’ve always had ideas and so everyone wants to be in a position to bring those to fruition,” Scott said, adding, “Not that I was inhibited or blocked, but, you know, now it’s a lot easier and I can expand on that.”

Scott said he sees his position as one of being responsible in listening to the ideas of others.

“You know, everyone, to a certain extent, wants to be their own boss and and make the decisions, but at the same time, you know, now you’re responsible and you just have to remember that not all your ideas are good, and you have to listen to other people,” he said.

It was Beverly Cleary, the American children’s and young adult fiction writer, Scott said, that inspired him to become a librarian.

“I was 25 years old and trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I was thinking I wanted to go into history,” Scott said. But that all changed when he was leaving the Dallas Public Library after doing homework there.

“I had packed up my stuff and was walking through the aisle to leave and Beverly Cleary’s autobiography was on display. And I said, oh, I loved Beverly Cleary when I was a kid. So, I picked it up and I took it home and I read it,” Scott said. “It turned out she (Cleary) was a librarian and everything that she talked about in the book was what I wanted to do. And the next week I applied to library school.”

One of Scott’s goals for the WCVPL is for it to become more interactive with the community.

“For me that means more outreach and connections with our community,” he said. “Libraries everywhere, but especially since COVID, have seen huge drop-offs in traffic and we are trying tobuild back up to where we used to be.”

Currently, the WCVPL has been partnering with the Vicksburg National Military Park and the United Way of West Central Mississippi, and Scott said they are looking to broaden their partnerships with other entities in the community.

Scott is a native of Texas. He graduated from the University of North Texas in 2003, where he earned a master’s degree in library science.

Upon graduation, Scott took a job with the San Francisco Public Library before moving to Vicksburg in 2017.

“The first time I set foot in Mississippi,” Scott said, “was the night before I interviewed for the job and then the second time visiting Mississippi was moving here for the job.”

Scott is married to Katrina Scott.