Lillian Phipps to Join Shepherdstown Public Library Staff

Lilly processing Senator Byrd’s papers in the Reading Room.

by Ray Smock

The Byrd Center is losing a great archival assistant and office manager in the person of Lilly Phipps. Fortunately she is only moving a few blocks up the street to the Shepherdstown Public Library, where she will be the Children’s Books Librarian. Lilly began her service with the Byrd Center as an intern when she was an undergraduate at Shepherd University in 2009.

Upon her graduation in 2010 she became a full time employee, just about the same time that Senator Byrd died. The Byrd Center received a vast influx of the Senator’s papers that summer and Lilly’s excellent organizational skills as well as her muscle in hefting large boxes of records made her an invaluable asset in the smooth transfer of more than 1,500 boxes of archival records. She played an integral role in the successful processing of the bulk of Senator Byrd’s legislative files over the next three years.

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While working full time for the Byrd Center, Lilly earned a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Clarion University in Pennsylvania and has now launched a new phase of her career with the Shepherdstown Public Library.  The entire staff of the Byrd Center wishes her great success in her new position and her new career as a librarian.

Lilly’s position will be filled by another graduate of Shepherd University who has interned for the past two years at the Byrd Center. Mr. Jody Brumage will begin his full time work with the Center on June 10. Jody graduated this May, magna cum laude, with a B.A. in Public History. He comes to this job with two years of experience processing Senator Byrd’s papers. Jody is active as volunteer historian and curator for the South Mountain Heritage Society in Burkittsville, MD.
The Byrd Center has benefited greatly from the work of Shepherd Universi
​ty students serving as volunteers or as paid interns. Several of the interns we have had over the years have gone on to get Master’s degrees in the library or archives fields and they found the intern experience at the Byrd Center helped them make career choices