Staff Spotlight: Donna Bachowski

by Elise Aiello on Apr 25, 2023

Each month, we highlight one of our talented team members. This month, our Staff Spotlight will focus on Donna Bachowski, Director of Implementations!

Who is Donna Bachowski?

Donna recently celebrated 5 years at ByWater Solutions! She came to ByWater with 23 years of public library experience and started out on the Education team. Since then, she has worked with hundreds of libraries, written countless blog posts, and answered infinite questions. Nate Curulla, CRO at ByWater Solutions, commented:

Since starting work here in 2018 Donna has made a huge impact both on the hundreds of parter libraries she has trained over the years as well as with the team members she works with here every day. Her sincerity and willingness to help regardless of the issue at hand shows her dedication when it comes to libraries and open source and we are thrilled that she has taken on her new role as Director of Implementations. Donna’s colleagues describe her as a gifted trainer who is dedicated to ensuring that our partner libraries receive the best education possible prior to going live with our services. They go on to say that she is organized and cool under pressure, being able to work around any challenges that present themselves while training our libraries."

What Inspired Donna to work in the Library World

Since Donna is being recognized during National Library Week, we thought it would be fun to ask about what inspired her to work in libraries.

"Starting in 7th grade, I was dropped off at school extra early, and since I had always been a voracious reader, I would go to the library and read. There I met the school librarian, Mrs. Margaret Baltz (rhymes with waltz as she would say). Mrs. Baltz was a classical librarian - perfectly coiffed hair, cat eye glasses on a chain, cardigan around the shoulders with a clip to hold it on, and a very elegant "shhhhhing" motion. Since she saw me most every morning, she would ask questions about what I was reading and offer suggestions (she told me about Encyclopedia Brown!!!). Naturally, I wanted to learn more about the library so she started having me help her, and through our work together, as I learned more about what librarians did, I knew I had found my calling. She was so excited when I dropped by when I was in college and told her I was getting my BA in library science and had been accepted into a MLS program. I think she was more excited than me! So thank you, Mrs. Baltz, for introducing me to librarianship!"