Training and Library Consulting
Consultant Profile

Carole D. Fiore holds a BS in Early Childhood and Elementary Education from Temple University and an MS in Library Science from Drexel University. She has worked in both school and public libraries in Philadelphia and in various locations in Florida.

Until 2006, Carole was a public library consultant with the State Library and Archives of Florida where she directed the award winning Florida Library Youth Program (FLYP). She also served as the Library Services and Technology Act Grant Coordinator and liaison consultant to libraries and library systems in rural, suburban, and urban areas. She launched her own independent consulting firm, Training and Library Consulting, in early 2005 and became a full-time independent consultant in 2006.

As an independent consultant, Fiore has worked with libraries to develop long range and strategic plans. She also works with libraries on staff development and human resources issues and coaches staff. Carole has facilitated an on-line course on Outcome Based Planning and Evaluation. She is a founding member of Partners in Literacy of the Big Bend and works with several early childhood organizations in Florida. Fiore served as Project Manager for the IMLS–National Leadership Grant funded research project, Do Public Library Summer Reading Programs Impact Student Achievement?, which was based at Dominican University.

While working for the State Library of Florida, the Florida Library Youth Program under Carole’s direction was awarded a John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award and a Davis Productivity Award for "increased performance and added value which enhances the productivity of Florida government and improve the lives of Florida's taxpaying citizens." Her consuming advocacy and leadership made Florida's library program for children and young adults the envy of the nation.

Carole has left few stones unturned in striving to ensure that all children and teens are provided with every opportunity to develop into healthy readers and learners. Under her direction, Florida was the first state to implement a statewide Born to Read program; she was also instrumental in initiating the PRIME TIME Family Reading Time® in Florida. She has served as a visiting instructor at the School of Library and Information Studies, Florida State University, and has taught children's literature at the College of Education, University of Tampa (Florida). Carole was a faculty member for the 1999 Highlights Foundation Writers Workshop at Chautauqua.

Fiore, active in local, state, and national library and youth-serving organizations, is a former member of the board of directors of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, and has served that organization as a member of numerous committees, including the 1986 Newbery Award Committee, the 1993 Caldecott Committee, and as president of ALSC, 2001-2002. She also served on the first Theodore Seuss Geisel Award Committee, 2004-2005, and is chair the 2012 Geisel Award Committee. Fiore served as the chair of the 2008 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Committee for the Pennsylvania Center for the Book.

Carole has served on the Florida Starting Points Steering Committee and the Booklist Editorial Advisory Board. She has contributed articles to professional journals such as School Library Journal, Journal of Youth Services in Libraries, and Wilson Library Bulletin. Other writings include ALSC Program Support Publications Programming for Young Children Birth through Age Five and Programming for Introducing Adults to Children's Literature. Fiore's Summer Library Reading Program Handbook, the long-awaited revision to her 1998 book, Running Summer Library Reading Programs: A How-to-do-it Manual, was published by Neal-Schuman in early 2005. Carole is coauthor of the report, Public Library Summer Reading Programs Close the Reading Gap (Dominican University, 2010). Carole also works with Neal-Schuman Publishers as an acquisitions editor.

Carole is a "Serving the Underserved" trainer for the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association, and one of six nationally recognized trainers for the Public Library Association's Planning for Results model. She has also consulted with several publishers providing advice on publishing concerns. She frequently facilitates and leads workshops and lectures throughout the United States and in England. She has lead several libraries through the PLA Planning for Results model to develop their long range plans. In 2011, she was a speaker at the FSU/PLAN symposium, The Future of the Book, the keynote speaker at the Leon County Reading Association annual meeting, and at the annual conference of the Florida Reading Association.

Carole is active in her community, serving on the Executive Committee for the University Music Associates for the Florida State University College of Music and the Advisory Committee for the Parkway Family YMCA of Tallahassee.

In her spare time, Carole enjoys gourmet cooking, traveling, needlework, and, of course, reading.