Two-time state chess champion Daniel Roffman, above, found his professional niche as Kaimuki branch manager in the state public library system. It was not a career move he had expected.
Book ’em, Daniel
Daniel Roffman worked his way up
through the state library system to
become a branch manager
Daniel Roffman has a head for books. Not only does he like to read them, he now manages a library full of them, after starting as an assistant in the state library system 23 years ago.
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Who: Daniel Roffman Title: Branch manager, Kaimuki Public Library Job: Oversees library operations, including book inventory, personnel, building and budgetary matters.
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Roffman, 57, is single and lives in Kalihi, just a few blocks away from where he grew up.
He also is a former state chess champion, sharing the Hawaii Chess Federation open title in 1972 with Antonio Balayan and claiming it alone in 1978.
Question: How long have you been the library branch manager in Kaimuki?
Answer: About two years. And it's interesting how it happened: Florence Yee was the branch manager before me, and in October 2002, she was asked to do a special assignment with the administration. So she asked me if I would take over on a temporary basis. We thought it would be just a few weeks, but her assignment stretched out.
Eventually, Joann Schindler became our state librarian, and when she did, Florence was asked to go to another special assignment as head of the Hawaii State Library (the main library downtown). So I just continued on.
Later, Florence became official head of the Hawaii State Library, and at that point my position became vacant and available to anybody in the library system. I decided to apply for it and was given the permanent appointment.
So it was a totally unexpected career move.
Q: How long had you been working at the Kaimuki library before that?
A: Since 1994, after the library opened after renovations. I started with the library system way back in 1981, so I've worked my way up through the system.
Q: Are you comfortable being a manager, in charge of other people?
A: For the most part, yeah. That's really because I have a great staff. I probably wouldn't have had accepted this job in the first place if I had expected a lot of tension. We generally get along pretty well and we work pretty efficiently. So I'd really like to commend the staff.
Similarly with the administration, there are problems we have to deal with, but they generally are very supportive, too.
Q: What are your responsibilities as manager?
A: There's a lot of things. One thing I do twice a month is sign payroll papers for everybody. It's about 25 people. Also, if there are any problems that come up, I'm the person that goes and over and tries to solve them, whether it's people trying to pay fines, building problems -- whatever comes up like that. And then there's a budget that I have to manage.
Q: What's your role in picking new books for the library?
A: Each librarian has a budget and is basically responsible for their selections. I oversee it in a general way.
Q: What are your guidelines for picking new books?
A: We look at reviews. Where possible we try to look at the book themselves. Where it's not possible, we try to rely on recommendations from other librarians and the public, that sort of thing.
Q: Do you do a lot reading in your spare time or are you burned out on it?
A: No, I like reading. Before I became branch manager, I was the young-adult librarian, and I developed a taste for that kind of stuff (young-adult books).
One part of that job was called "book talking," where I would go to schools and speak before a class and tell them about the books I liked. My specialty there was after reading a book, I would write a page of poetry about it.
One thing I always do in my poetry is make it rhyme, make it have a rhythm, and be humorous, and that seemed to work.
Q: What's the last book you read?
A: "House of the Scorpions," by Nancy Farmer.
Q: Is that a recent book?
A: It's not that recent.
Q: Is it a young-adult book?
A: Yes, it is. But I didn't do a poem on that one.
Primitive Secrets
A review by Daniel Roffman of Deborah Turrell Atkinson's"Primitive Secrets: An Hawaiian Mystery" (Poisoned Pen Press, 2002):This is the story of Storm Kayama,
who's suddenly caught in a fast-moving drama.
She finds a dead body, her mentor and boss,
and then has to cope with the feeling of loss.But there is no time to sort out her grief,
as she's hit in the face by a quick-moving thief.
Although Storm is hurt in this vicious attack,
she saves her possessions by hitting right back.She finds that her boyfriend has got a new lover,
and then dumps some chili right on his bedcover.
She rushes straight home and gets out of her car,
then sees with a shock that her door is ajar.Through working, and grieving, and thinking awhile,
she thinks that the answers are in a lost file.
Though many things happen, and at a fast pace,
she learns many secrets, most kept to save face.Hawaii and lawyers and health care and crime,
are mixed in a story that's well worth your time,
for this is a book which I must recommend,
as I find it absorbing, beginning to end.
