Colleen Willis

After completing her undergraduate degree in Speech Pathology/Audiology from Northern Arizona University while working as a shelver in the college library, Colleen Willis proudly announced that she was never working in another library again. Three years later she had an MLS degree from the University of Arizona, completed while working in the Arizona State University Law Library. Having taken advantage of the three major universities in Arizona, she decided to give the public library a shot and moved to California to follow her true passion, working with children.

Colleen has spent the last ten years working as a children’s librarian for the Anaheim Public Library. She got her start in storytelling because she can imitate a pig snort that can be heard all the way from the back of the room. That and her excellent puppetry skills were enough to hook her on children's storytimes. Five years later her supervisor asked if she would be interested in doing a storytime for babies. Colleen had just had her second baby and was excited to try something new. After an initial slow start, word got around and the programs became a success. She shares her wealth of experience with baby storytimes in her "Simply Irresistible" workshops for the California Library Association and for Infopeople.