It’s the end of an era for Nakusp to see librarian Evelyn Goodell retiring after so many years of service. But in every dark cloud there’s a silver lining, and Sabina Iseli-Otto is bringing her energy and excitement into the new job and, in her words, hopefully carry on the library as well as her predecessor has.
“This is the warmest welcome I’ve ever received in my life,” Iseli-Otto, 32, told the Arrow Lakes News. “I feel so lucky to be here.”
Sabina said she wanted to be a librarian since she was 12-years-old and her mother became the town librarian in a place called Rimbey, Alberta.
“I grew up on a dairy farm,” Iseli-Otto said. “But one day we sold the dairy cows and my mom became the town librarian. And ever since then I wanted to be one.”
But it would be an arduous journey before Iseli-Otto landed the gig here, and plenty of education and odd jobs before she came back to her childhood fantasy.
She grew up on a farm outside of Rimbey until she was 18-years-old. As soon as she could, she decided to go to the University of British Columbia (UBC) to study botany and geology.
“I took all the courses I wanted,” Iseli-Otto said. “I wasn’t committed enough. There were people in class who were just brilliant.”
Sabina said she took any classes that seemed interesting to her and after a few years, she graduated with a general sciences degree.
And what did she do after that?
“Well, I worked as a bike mechanic,” she said, smiling.
Iseli-Otto would keep this up for a year before moving around the world including France, the Gulf Islands, Alberta and finally Ontario, where she would go for her library science degree.
“It took two years but I got it,” Iseli-Otto said. But she would experience a similar whirlwind of places and jobs.
Working at libraries in Ottawa, northern Alberta as well as the B.C. library services.
It wasn’t until she stumbled onto Nakusp through her provincial government job that she really felt like this was a beautiful place to be in, and when she saw the job posting come through, she knew she had to jump on the opportunity.
So she camped here September long weekend and fell in love with the community.
She finally learned she earned the position a bit later that year and started her transition into the position at the beginning of March.
“And I have no plans to leave,” Iseli-Otto said. “I’m just really happy to be here.”
As much as Sabina has her own plans for the library, she wants to know what the public thinks as well.
“I want to hear what people think,” she said. “The library is ultimately for the community.”
So far, Sabina says working with folks such as the library workers, volunteers and even the tech people that she’s so grateful to be here.
If you have time, pop down to the Nakusp Public Library and look for Sabina to greet her into the communit. And from the Arrow Lakes news, welcome!
