Residents celebrate completion of library meeting room

Packard honored for 22 years of service

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    GUILFORD — Linda Packard really didn’t want anyone to make a fuss over her retirement as Guilford Memorial Library director.
    But she was coaxed to the June 30 open house, signifying the completion of a project that she wanted for many of her 22 years of service: a community meeting room.

Observer photo/Mike Lange

    SUCCESSOR — Former Guilford Memorial Library Director Linda Packard, left, who retired after 22 years in the position, is pictured with her successor Heidi Dow.

    Many people paid tribute to Packard that evening for her dedication and perseverance in what Town Manager Tom Goulette described as “times of turmoil as well as recent times of growth and harmony — because any library’s attraction is related to both its offerings and the personality of its librarian.”
    Goulette described the library as “a source of pride for our town; and as we gather to enjoy it, I wish to address how we got to this point and recognize Linda Packard for her major part in making this possible.”
    Library Journal, a national trade publication, has also rated Guilford Memorial Library as one of five “Star Libraries” in Maine for 2013.
    The meeting room project, which began in 2003 — 10 years after the library underwent a major expansion — received a huge boost from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation with a $25,000 grant. An anonymous patron who passed away also left a sizeable donation to the library last year.
    Michelle Fagan, president of the library board of trustees, said that the new meeting room in the formerly unfinished basement and storage area will serve many purposes. “Non-profit organizations, community groups and clubs now have a comfortable place to meet,” Fagan said. “In addition, it’s a good location for tutoring because you have more privacy than upstairs in the library itself.”
    Fagan said that the next project is to supplement the library’s inventory. “Budgets are just so tight right now that we’re reaching out to the community through the ‘Fill Our Shelves’ fundraiser,” she explained. Cash donations can be made and donors can designate what they want the money to be used for: paperbacks, magazine subscriptions, DVDs, hard-cover books or large-print publications.
    The library will have a “Fill Our Shelves” display at Riverfest on Saturday, July 26.
    Packard’s successor, Heidi Dow, worked as a library assistant for the past two years, and said that she was looking forward to her new position and various programs the library offers. “We’re a very busy library for a town of this size, but we have so much community support,” Dow said. “I see people all the time with parents and grandparents who have been library patrons for years. They’re already donating to ‘Fill Our Shelves’ as a way to give back to the community.”
    Dow and her husband, Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department Investigator Guy Dow, have three daughters.
    At the conclusion of the formal recognition ceremony, Goulette did grant Packard her one wish. “Linda didn’t want a big deal to signify her exit; she only wanted a library card,” said Goulette. So she now has a lifetime pass “for the use of all the resources at Guilford Memorial Library.”
    More information about the library is posted at the link on the town’s website — www.townofguilford.com — and at the library’s new Facebook page.