Valerie Lichtman is a retired District Librarian from Rim of the World Unified School District. Before moving to San Bernardino, she was an English teacher and school librarian in Kent, Washington. Valerie received her undergraduate degree from the University of Pittsburgh and her MLS degree from the University of Washington School of Library and Information Science.
Growing up near Pittsburgh allowed her to benefit from the many Carnegie Libraries in the area. Thanks to Andrew Carnegie these libraries provided many unusual services such as a swimming pool and swimming lessons and are still flourishing today.
Valerie has lived in the City of San Bernardino for over 40 years. Ten of these years Rabbi Norman and Peggy Feldheym were her neighbors and friends. She has served on San Bernardino City's North End Neighborhood Association Board for several years, was a Regional Representative and State Governmental Relations Committee member for the California School Library Association, is a retired member of the American Library Association and the American Association of School Librarians, was President of the Rim Teachers' Association, was a member of the California State Teachers Association State Council, is a longtime member and current Treasurer of the League of Women Voters, and is a member of the San Bernardino Valley Community College's Bond Oversight Committee.
"Access to knowledge is the superb, the supreme act of truly great civilizations. Of all the institutions that purport to do this, free libraries stand virtually alone in accomplishing this mission."
Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1993