Photo courtesy of Todd Richardson
Todd Richardson is the head of marketing for the Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest.
As the head of marketing for Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest, Todd Richardson promotes the library and its services to the community and businesses.
He works with the entire library’s departments, including its foundation, the Friends of Vestavia Hills Library and the Junior Board.
Q: How long have you been here?
A: Two years.
Q: Describe what all you do.
A: I promote the entire library to the community, to businesses. I work with all the departments and entities, including our foundation and friends and junior board, which works with the children’s department, to engage with the community and let them know about the library.
Q: What’s your favorite part of the job?
A: Working with the community. I work with the chamber. I work with Leadership Vestavia. I’m in the class for this year. [I work] with local businesses. At our back-to-school event, we had several local businesses at each event that came, set up and interacted with the community. I like when I can take the library to places that they don’t expect us. It’s easy for us to say, ‘Hey, come to the library to do stuff.’ I like it when we can take the library to them and do what they’re doing. That’s why we took the back-to-school [event] to Cahaba Heights. We took it to the SHAC [Sicard Hollow Athletic Complex] on the east side because they’re farther away, and we don’t ever do programs out there. (Editor's note: Richardson later said the library would like to do more programs on the east side of Vestavia Hills.)
Q: You work in a library. Are you a big book fan?
A: Yes, that goes without saying.
Q: What’s your favorite kind of books?
A: That’s hard for me to answer right now. … I’m working on my MBA [master’s in business administration], so all the books I’m reading right now are business books. I’ve never been able to answer that question because my reading habits change over the years.
Q: If you could read something for enjoyment right now, what kind of book would you pick?
A: I am what I call an aspiring polyglot. It’s someone who speaks more than one language. I’m not very good at it. I’ve studied 10 different languages. I barely speak English, but there is a famous polyglot who’s no longer with us [Kato Lomb]. She’s from Hungaria. She had a book about how she did it. [How I Learn Languages] I don’t know what the total number was. It’s over 20. She was the only person in the U.N. [United Nations] who could translate in three languages without notes. They wouldn’t let anybody else do it but her. She was so gifted at it. I’ve been reading one of her books on how she approached learning multiple languages. … The thing I love about working in a library is that you can just grab a book. I used to just grab five books that I had never read. I’d go read ‘em, and if it was one I liked, I’d keep reading it. Otherwise, I’d bring ‘em back and grab five more. … One of my favorites when I first started working here was a book on international bedtime stories. They had these illustrations. It was all these unique stories.
Q: Tell me about the languages you’ve studied.
A: Chinese really doesn’t count because my Chinese friends don’t want to teach me because they say it’s hard. My first language I studied was French. Probably the one I’m most familiar with now is Italian. I’m currently learning Swedish and Swahili. My son is from Bulgaria, so I learned Bulgarian when I was adopting him. I also learned Russian when I worked with orphanages in Russia. And I’ve studied Spanish off and on, but probably one of my favorite languages is Italian. I play word games in Italian. And [I’ve studied] Chinese and Japanese, and I studied German for a year and a half… Swahili I just started because I may travel to Kenya this year for another library project. … I’m trying to go back and learn them more conversationally.
Q: Do you travel a lot?
A: Not as much as I would like, but I have international connections all over. Africa is new. I have two connections now in Africa. One of those came from school. One of those came from a conference. One of them works in nonprofits, and one of them works in libraries in Nairobi, so if I have an opportunity to go there, I will go there. They’ve actually invited me for November. … I don’t ever travel for fun. I travel for a purpose. When I went to Russia, it was to work with orphanages, and so I’ve made four trips there.
Q: When did you adopt your son from Bulgaria?
A: 2019. He was 15 when we started the process. By the time we actually got him here, because of COVID, he was 17. It takes a little while. He graduated high school. He went to college for a semester. Now he’s working. He did his CPR training, and now he’s going to go into his EMT training and work on being a firefighter. Unless he has a soccer opportunity. He has tried out for some professional soccer teams.
