Scarsdale native wins major librarian award

Phil Shapiro, SHS ’79, is honored for his outstanding work in the field.

Doing volumes for his community Shapiro not only helps library patrons during work hours, but also delivers computers to those who can’t afford them.

Phil Shapiro connects library patrons with the tech and learning tools they need.

BY DEBORAH SKOLNIK

Phil Shapiro may live in Silver Spring, MD, but his heart is still very much with Scarsdale. “I have fond memories, including playing with my friend Bruce Jordan at his Greenacres home on Huntington Avenue. I’m still in touch with him today, 50 years later,” he says. He attended the then-Scarsdale Junior High, followed by SHS, from which he graduated in 1979. “I remember I had a favorite math teacher, Mr. Cappuci. He was stunningly good, and so entertaining. He told me one day, ‘Phil, you don’t have the same math talent as other students, but you work harder than they work,’” he says. “My friends in class would catch up faster, but I was determined, and I would work very hard on my homework and stuff.”

These days, in his role at Takoma Park Maryland Library, Shapiro helps others learn and grow as well. “I've been working at this job for 20 years—I am what's called a library associate. So I'm not an official librarian, but I do almost everything that librarians do: I answer people's questions, and I'm a computer expert, so they have me run the computer center. Whenever somebody comes in and they need to print or apply for a job, or even just figure out stuff on their phone, I'm their person.”

A moving honor

Shapiro is far more than the library’s resident techhie, however: Library Journal has voted him one of its Movers and Shakers for 2004, an award bestowed annually upon about 60 innovative librarians who are shaping the future of libraries. The publication praised Shapiro for championing digital inclusion and outside-of-school learning; he’s coordinated the delivery of hundreds of community-donated computers to families in need of one.

“It's a little hard for people to wrap around one’s head that somebody might deliver 800 computers, but I did it with the help of friends—It wasn't not just a personal project,” he says. “One of the people I helped was a student from Ethiopia. Her family was low income, and they didn't have internet at home. I bought her a computer and she taught herself how to do touch typing. By the time she reached middle school, she was typing at like 50 words a minute.” Now a young woman, she recently graduated from Yale.

Teaching himself, and others, technology

“I really like this job. I can't even tell when I'm working or not, because technology happens to be a hobby of mine. So I show up at work and I just do what I like to do, and they give me a paycheck,” Shapiro shares. “And then I always teach myself new stuff, because the technology field is always changing, I've been teaching myself some A.I. in the last year or two.”

He’s so determined to share his knowledge with others that he even works to overcome language barriers. “We have 92 nationalities in our town, and they call come to the library. “I’ve helped people who do not speak English,” he explained. “When you have an intent to communicate, then communication is possible.

Shapiro also attempts to learn phrases in his patrons’ native languages, from Amharic to Arabic. Having grown up in countries all over the world himself—his father worked for the United Nations—”I love assisting [immigrants] in pursuing their academic, create, and career goals,” he said. “When you have an intent to communicate, then communication is possible.” He also reaches out to the planet on the whole through Pairs, a paper-based math game for preschool through middle school that he created and distributes for free worldwide.

The keys to computer success Shapiro with a favorite former student, Dottie Brown, then 96 years old.

From law to library

Shapiro’s path to a library career was a winding one. Although he was accepted to M.I.T. as a high school senior and wanted to attend, he had a strong incentive to go elsewhere. “The United Nations would pay half his tuition since his father worked there—but only if Shapiro chose to study in another country. (“I don’t know how that rule came about,” he said.) And so he headed father north than Massachusetts, to Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

There, he found the academic curriculum hard and the school’s policy overly stringent. “They had a large freshman and sophomore engineering class, and they would whittle it down— they would accept a larger number of students then could actually graduate. And so they had a forced attrition,” he said. “I told myself, ‘I'm done with that, but I still love engineering and love physics and stuff.’ I didn't say goodbye to my love of the field. I just had enough of their games.” He switched majors and graduated with a degree in philosophy.

Following college, he then enrolled in Howard University School of Law in 1986. “I went to the law school where Brown vs. Board of Education [a seminal 1954 lawsuit through which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional] was planned. That was the reason I chose that law school,” he shared. “I was one of very few white students at the law school—it’s maybe 97% African American—but they made me feel very welcome. I didn't like law school that much, but I enjoyed the other students.” While a student, he often participated in anti-apartheid protest marches.

After failing the bar exam, however, his enthusiasm for a career in law wanted. “I created a career for myself without any credentials other than I'm good at what I do. I found different teaching jobs with my specialties and because I'm strong at technology. So I taught elementary school, I taught preschool, and then also college and graduate school,” he said.

Computers and adult classes

These days, Shapiro’s library career takes up much of his time, as does his computer-delivery endeavor, which received recognition in an article by the Washington Post. He sensed a need based on the library’s clientele: “People would show up and they'd say, ‘I need help buying a computer.’ And then with just a few questions, I was able to figure out they didn't have the money to buy the compute, and then I would say, well, let me drop something off for you,’” he explained.

Gradually, the news spread by word of mouth that Shapiro was furnishing used computers to those who lacked the funds to buy new ones. “People just drop them off,” he said. “Somebody will say, ‘Can you find a home for this computer? I just bought a new one.’” His oldest client may be the a woman he furnished with a computer when she was 96 years old. She then enrolled in a computer class he was teaching, “and she liked it so much she took the class again at 97,” he said.

Library love ”I really like this job,” Shapiro says.

Small library, big recognition

Shapiro is honored to have received country-wide while working for a local library. “The nice thing is there’s no bureaucracy here because it’s very, very small,” he said. It’s neat that a national magazine was able to recognize my talent and energy.

During his time in Scarsdale, he made a big impact locally as well, working as a freelance photographer for the Scarsdale Inquirer. “They paid me money and it was so cute. I'd send them invoices and they would give me an assignment. This was right before I was driving, so I’d get on my bicycle and I'd go out for my photography.” Little did Shapiro know that one day he’d be making headlines himself.

Shapiro has a YouTube channel with about 1 million views. To visit his online profile, click here.