For more than 30 years Evelyn Goodell has been a part of what she calls the “heart of the community,” also known as the public library.
She has been surrounded by books, magazines, children’s stories and everyone who wishes to take part in them for going on nearly half of her life, and she hasn’t regretted a single moment of it.
But now she’s reached a new phase in her life. A time when she gets to kick back and relax after a lifetime of trying to make her world and the community’s a better place. She has finally reached retirement.
“There are so many wonderful memories,” Goodell said, reflecting on her time as the village’s librarian. “Well, I’ve always felt the library is kind of a charmed place.”
Goodell tells a story of how in all her time here on the library board, every decision was practically unanimous in all the years she worked there. And on the odd time it wasn’t, it was really “just a fun thing” that someone objected to.
“It’s a wonderful board that’s always been supportive and worked hard,” she said.
Suddenly Evelyn perks up and says, “Oh!”
“I remember one time when I locked myself out of the library, and I looked across the street, and there was one of our volunteers who had a library key,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is so magic!’”
Evelyn points to this memory as one of many reasons as to why the library has been such an essential part of her life for so long. As she put it, it’s been one charmed place to her.
“It has really,” she said. “There’s kind of magic going on there or something.”
Goodell reflected on when she first started at the library as a volunteer in 1979. At the time, she was just looking for a place she connected with on a personal level.
It just so happened at this time that the old librarian was retiring, and they were looking for someone to take over.
“So it was great timing for me,” Evelyn jokes.
From then on it was library, library, library. Nothing else was on her mind (aside from the usual), but her life revolved around that building.
“I think a library can really be the heart of the community,” she said. “It’s such a basic democratic service. It tries not to make judgements, and it makes anything anyone wants to learn about or know about.”
That’s the message Evelyn has tried to get out to the people, that it’s “their library.”
And people have taken full advantage of it. In fact, just last year the library had reached a record number of patrons.
On top of that, in Evelyn’s time as the librarian, she has seen membership rise from 500 to nearly 2,100 people.
“We’ve also increased our space three times,” she said. “We’ve been saving money for 15 years, knowing we needed to have more space. I’m really happy the remodel and expansion came out.”
Evelyn points to the community as her reason for feeling so welcome at the library.
And that’s also another reason she loves going into work in the morning.
“You get people of all ages, all walks of life, all viewpoints,” she said. “I think that really does help someone be a better person.”
Evelyn mentions the recent library event called Books that made a difference. She said in this event, you got to see just how diverse library patrons are.
It ranked from the very serious, open and honest reflections of how books had changed peoples lives, to the humorous and quirky.
“That was a really special evening I thought, and really heart-warming,” she said.
Evelyn knows she’s going to miss her life as the librarian. She knows she’ll miss working with the patrons and her staff. She knows she will be back over the years to visit and take out books herself.
Which is just what she’s looking forward to the most.
“I’m going to read more,” she said, laughing. “Read all those books that I keep checking out to people. And play more.”
Evelyn Goodell will be finishing up in April. And if anyone has earned the right to retire, it’s her.