“I found it interesting to go back to where I started from,” MacFarlane said. “Also, I like the idea of a new challenge.”

Before she was a librarian, MacFarlane was a teacher at various schools across the state including Phoenix Day School for the Deaf. MacFarlane said she enjoyed working with children, and intended to become a school librarian.

When she graduated from the University of Arizona with a Master in Library Science Degree, she began working as a library assistant at the Burton Barr Central Library. MacFarlane said that she ended up falling in love with the public library system, and decided that this was what she wanted to do.

“I really enjoy books and literacy, and helping people get connected to that,” MacFarlane said. “I really like being useful to the community, making an impact in my community, and connecting folks to resources. So really for my skills and for my passion, it’s a great fit.”

MacFarlane left the Burton Barr in 2009 and became a librarian in the Buckeye Library District; however, her time in Buckeye would be short. The current Maricopa County Library District Director, Jeremy Reeder, said she made a good impression on him and the director at the time, Harry Courtright, at a meeting.

“She was working in a very small library in the valley in Buckeye, and the previous county librarian and I went to a meeting there and met her,” Reeder said. “We walked out of there and he said to me ‘we have to figure out a way to steal her.’”

Reeder said MacFarlane had an outstanding passion for the job and a top-notch ability to support the community. MacFarlane started working in the Maricopa Library District, where she would stay for 14 years.

MacFarlane started out in the district as a youth services supervisor, before becoming a branch manager in 2012. By 2016 she had moved into administration, eventually being appointed as the deputy director in 2020.

MacFarlane said that the experience taught her a lot about what it meant to run a large library system.

While working for the Maricopa Library District, MacFarlane began volunteering for the Arizona Library Association. She is currently the Committee Chair of the Advocacy Committee.

“There has been a big push to limit access to certain titles that are on library shelves, be it school libraries or public libraries,” MacFarlane said. “So some of my work surrounds advocating for the first amendment, everyone’s freedom to read, some of it is just advocating for the work that libraries do in their community and making sure some of their budgets are strong enough for what their community needs from them.”

In 2024, MacFarlane came back to the Phoenix Public Library as the Director of Services. Now over a year into her appointment, MacFarlane says that she still loves the work.

“The job’s great, I love it,” MacFarlane said. “I like being connected to the community and learning more about the city of Phoenix. Everyday is a little bit different, I have a lot to learn, but I’ve learned a lot in the last year. I’m really enjoying it.”