Meet Paula

The Burlington County Library System is so lucky to have a team with wide-ranging knowledge and diverse interests. While many customers may know the names and faces of librarians at their local branch, we want to take the time to introduce more of our staff from around the system.

Photo of Paula Manzella

Hey there, I’m Paula! I’ve been working with BCLS for more than 20 years and currently serve as an adult services librarian at the Burlington County Library. I work with a team of librarians and other staff focused on developing our digitization efforts, an important part of preserving the history of our community and the library collections. I also help select which audiobooks and DVDs are purchased, maintain our New Jersey Collection and organize genealogical resources and programs.

If you’re interested in starting to explore your own genealogy, I can’t recommend a better place than the library. On March 7, we hosted Family History Day! It was a great opportunity to hear experts speak, share effective research methods and highlight our vast collection of resources. It doesn’t matter where you are in your genealogical search or if you’re an expert, a librarian can always point you in the right direction. We're sure to have something that can help.

That’s something you can’t say about many places, but it's always true about the library. There’s something for everyone. Always evolving to meet the needs of our community, BCLS is a place where you have no excuse to be bored! The job is always changing as we embrace new technologies, methods and practices. The greatest reward is seeing the different ways that an ever-evolving library benefits staff and patrons alike!

A few fun facts about me:

  • Coffee... (‘nuff said)
  • I always knew I had a calling to librarianship. When I was about 10 years old, I shelved books in my hometown library for Miss Dean Marshall, librarian and author, and my special reward was being able to check out the holiday books out of season!
  • I’ve seen a play spoken completely in Irish Gaelic at An Taibhdhearc, the national Irish language theatre in Galway, Ireland. Irish is one of the languages offered in our Rosetta Stone resource.
  • I'm from New England, but don't like seafood!
  • Volunteerism is important to me. I’ve been active in my kids’ schools and civic organizations.
  • Audiobooks are my jam, it's so easy to access and listen to everything with Libby.
  • Cape Cod is one of my all time fave vacation spots and whale watching off Plymouth is a long-standing tradition. I’ve seen a humpback whale named “Salt” on every trip I’ve been on over the years. Salt was the first humpback ever named. She has 13 calves (baby whales), 14 grand-calves and is now a great-grandmother.
  • In my 20 years at the library, I’ve had many roles, including managing the New Jersey Collection and the newspaper index projects, coordinating the Mobile Library, branch manager, project manager, etc.
  • I have fire engine red stapler that I don’t let anyone else use… ever!
  • The Masked Singer is one of my guilty pleasures. Do you know who's under the mask?