Snider grew up in the Portland area, where his passion for reading and books first started. He remembers the excitement of the Scholastic Book Fairs at his school and used those to help build his personal library. That collection is now up to 1200 volumes and books still sit on a bookshelf that was made by his grandfather.

Snider graduated from Milwaukie High School, with honors, in 2004. He attended Portland State University and studied areas such as philosophy, linguistics and English and also worked in the school bookstore.

From there, he went to the University of Washington and earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in 2013, with an emphasis on Latin and Greek. While at UW he also worked as a language learning lab assistant.

In 2015, Snider did master’s work at the University of Georgia, where he studied Latin and Greek. He also taught Latin and Writing for UGA’s Franklin College.

Snider returned to the Pacific Northwest and the University of Washington and completed a master’s capstone in information management in 2017.

His library experience began many years ago when he was a circulation and reference volunteer at the Multnomah County Library’s Woodstock branch, where he processed returns and retrieved holds.

Snider first started as a substitute librarian with the Rainier School District earlier this year and spent the past few months transitioning into his new role.

“The City is happy to have someone with Allen’s experience and education working in the library,” City Administrator W. Scott Jorgensen said. “He brings a level of expertise and customer service that continues to serve the library’s patrons well.”