Meet Todd Krueger!:An RT member profile by Tess Goldwasser

By Tess Goldwasser

Todd Krueger is a selector in the Collection Development department at Baltimore County Public Library in Towson, MD. They circulate over 10 million items a year! Todd selects books for teens, graphic novels, fiction audiobooks, video games, and nonfiction (areas of religion, science/math/nature, and history/travel). He says, “It’s truly a dream job, with amazing colleagues.” He also serves as board member, discussion facilitator, and social media coordinator for Capitol Choices, a group of DC/MD/VA area librarians who discuss kids’ and teen literature and create an annual best-of list. He served on the 2012 Printz Award committee, and is currently serving on the 2015 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction committee. He says, “It is an incredible honor and joy to examine and analyze literature, come to a consensus, and make authors and publishers happy!” Todd would like to one day serve on the YALSA board, and dreams of service on ALSC committees such as the Newbery or Sibert.

In addition to Todd’s longstanding membership-at-large, he is currently serving on a committee to plan and present a GLBTRT-sponsored Preconference in San Francisco for ALA Annual 2015.

Todd has been with his partner Michael for over 12 years. They enjoy dining out (especially local seafood), traveling to warm-weather destinations in the winter (Todd’s “lengthening bucket list” of places to visit one day includes Australia and central Europe), and working on their home and garden. They are very dog-friendly but currently don’t share their home with any furry pals. Todd also enjoys tennis, TV and film dramas and documentaries, and reading “devastating” novels and memoirs.

Todd’s passions in life are iced tea, lemon desserts, apples with peanut butter, the perfect crab cake, and correcting misinformation.

I asked Todd if he could be an animal, what would he be, but it was too tough a choice to pick one. He picked three: a fox, his totem animal/namesake, for its clever, stealthy nature, an otter, for its sleek playfulness, and a mockingbird, for its flight and song.

If he could have a dinner party with five culturally or historically significant figures, living or dead, he would invite Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Wanda Sykes, Lauren Graham, Connie Britton, and Alison Janney. He says, “I’d want a group of smart and funny women who would make for a light and breezy, casual event, with simple food catered by Ina Garten.”