Not the equine Mr. Ed of 1960s television fame, but the intellectual, storytelling, oboe-playing magician, Ed Koetitz, youth services librarian of the Almaden Branch Library.

"He is truly a Renaissance man," said Suzanne Rostamizadeh, head librarian at the Almaden Valley branch. "We're fortunate to have him at the library and in this community."

Koetitz has been telling stories to tots of Almaden Valley for five years, employing his magic routine, creativity and musical talents to introduce rhythm and music—especially classical music—to little ones, some who can barely walk.

"He punctuates his storytelling with his oboe," says Rostamizadeh.

Classically trained and holding one of his master's degrees in music, from San José State University—his other master's is in Library Science, also from San José State—Koetitz says he wants to introduce kids to music at an early age. Typically playing his oboe for less than a minute before he begins his storytelling session, because he knows attention spans are short, he says he always includes a classical element, always throws in a musical term, and always tries to keep it entertaining.

Showing how he demonstrates to the children what the word largo means musically, Koetitz moves in a slow, wide-sweeping motion to illustrate how the music "looks."

"They laugh at the physicality of it," he says.

But they have heard the word and seen the motion, and he hopes they have connected the two.

"For a lot of them, that's the first time they are introduced to music in a classical-type context," Koetitz says.

They all learn what his favorite instrument is, too—the one he discovered in the seventh grade and says he thought "was the best thing since sliced bread."

"I ask them, 'Who's seen cartoons?' And of course they all raise their hands," Koetitz says. Then he plays a tune that conjures up images of a cobra rearing its head from a basket and asks the kids: "What comes out of a basket?"

"They say 'snake,' " he says. "They get a kick out of it."

He is completely devoted to music, his younger sister Ginger Fisher says, adding: "He absolutely loved the oboe."

In his self-effacing manner, Koetitz says his parents had to set limits on the time he was allowed to practice his newfound love.

"I'm sure I sounded like a wild duck," Koetitz says.

Always the extrovert, Koetitz says he has loved performing since he was a young child. When he was 6 or 7 years old, he would sing songs at veterans' homes accompanied by his piano-playing mother.

"My parents didn't have to drag me to do it," he says.

He still performs with his oboe now, at the library and with the Bethel Church, his church of more than 30 years. In its 40-piece orchestra, he is the leader of the woodwind section and performs occasionally with his violin-playing sister, Fisher.

An accomplished musician, he received a full music scholarship to attend Weber State University, where he got his bachelor's degree in political science—it was a toss-up between poly-sci and music, but since he had many other accomplishments in music to validate his efforts, poly-sci won. He has played with the Monterey Symphony for eight years, during which time he performed for Pope John Paul II. He also taught ethnomusicology at Bethany College for 11 years.

He brings an element of ethnomusicology—the comparative study of music in different cultures—to his storytelling time by handing out to the children paper-towel-roll cores that he has painted in bright colors of orange, green and yellow. Koetitz teaches the little ones how to tap two roll cores together in rhythm with the music.

He also uses magic and puppets, like his Shaggy the Sheepdog, to keep the kids entertained and keep their attention.

"You have to be real visual, super obvious, to keep their attention," he says.

As youth services librarian, his duties don't begin and end with 2-year-olds. He is in charge of a successful and growing teensReach program, where he has introduced a variety of career speakers and other involvement for Almaden Valley teens, helping them to earn service credits.

This man, who is described by friend, co-worker and fellow church member Bev Combs as a "warm, open, pleasant person," responds differently in front of a television screen when there is a football game on.

"It's fun watching football with him, because he turns into [Mr. Hyde] when he watches a game," says Harold Litfin, the associate music director at Bethel Church.

Koetitz, who as a youngster would read the encyclopedia over the summer, according to Fisher, grew up as the middle child of five in a military family, with a lieutenant colonel father, whom he credits as being very understanding of his nonconfrontational personality and very supportive of his love of music.

He spent most of his high school years in France; he would later use the French he learned to work as a translator for the California Department of Motor Vehicles. He spent his senior year dividing his time between the diverse worlds of Paris, France; Sumpter, South Carolina—where he said he was "shocked to his gills" to see fellow bandmates throwing water balloons at African Americans in the mid-1960s—to the state of Utah, where his high school graduation was finally accredited.

He saw Americans from a European point of view and saw an unforgiving South from a worldly view. This, he allows, inspired his ability to look at topics from many points of view, developing his gifts as a librarian.

Koetitz says he loves "being a generalist" and has knowledge of a lot of different subject areas, which allows him to be helpful to customers at the library.

"It's sort of like a treasure hunt," Koetitz says. "It's like finding a hidden nugget, a fact, and when you present it to someone, it's like a light goes on and they say, 'oh, yeah,' and you've got the ball rolling."