As the director of this wonderful institution called the Gardiner Public Library, I get to supervise some wonderful staff members. Do you know everyone who works at the library?
A library is only as good as the staff that works within the institution and Gardiner’s employees are such a dedicated bunch. Scott Handville, our assistant director, makes me look good every day by his professionalism, his kindness and yes, his sense of humor and wonderful laugh! Charlene Wagner passionately advocates for the kids in our community by creatively hooking them with books and making them lifelong readers, and, lifelong supporters of libraries. Ginni Nichols has a very enviable position; she gets to impact our teen population by offering them space, books, games and a friendly person to discuss almost everything. The free popcorn every now and again makes her a teen hero! Ann Russell makes the main desk hum and thrive as our technology librarian. She hasn’t met software that she doesn’t like and she CAN get you to the point where you can download titles, I promise! We were so lucky to add Dawn Thistle to the staff as our Special Collections Librarian. She is an expert researcher and she acquaints many genealogists with their lost relatives. She makes history come alive for adults and students and her preservation skills have allowed the Gardiner Library Association to identify how best to handle their very fragile and rare artifacts. Audrey Littlefield’s skills at book repair have saved us from losing rare titles and keeping them available to all. Bob Fagan will kindly help you with your library needs and he is our Interlibrary Loan guru who packs up and empties totes delivering over 38,920 titles throughout Maine. Sarah Duffy is new this summer; she started as a volunteer and her wonderful presence made it an easy transition to library aide. When she isn’t here working for us, she is the director of the gifted and talented program at RSU#5. Rounding out the staff is Ross Littlefield who happily works for us every Saturday by shelving books that never seem to stop coming. I am pleased to welcome Chris Miller as our new custodian, boy have we kept him busy as well!
So, the next time you find yourself in the library, say “hi” to the staff, they really are here to help!