Looking back on 40 years as a librarian

HURON — “There’s just nothing like a book,” said Sheila Anderson, librarian at Madison 2-3 Center.
After 40 years as a dedicated librarian at the Huron School District, Anderson has decided it’s time to call it a career, as she marks her retirement at the end of the school year.
“It’s been 40 years since I started at Jefferson. I must have been there at least 30 years, I’ve been at Madison about nine years now. When they started re-designing the schools, Jefferson was closed and the librarian here was retiring so then I came here,” Anderson recalled.
At the beginning of her time as a school librarian, things weren’t as they are now. Anderson explained that the library would be moved from room to room depending on what space was available.
The big library at Madison now is filled with books, reading spaces, colorful and bright areas for the students to come appreciate the practice of reading books.
“It was not like this when I started. I was in a classroom for a while, then I was in a little storage room and after I was in there I went to a different classroom,” noted Anderson. “Now here I am, this is best library ever; it’s beautiful. I’ve always been in a classroom or somewhere so this was worth the wait.”
From the old Jefferson Elementary building to the new Madison 2-3 Center by Rocket Slide Park, Anderson highlights some the many experiences and changes she has had over the years.
“One day, not too long ago, two policemen came in and I thought ‘great, what did I do?’” Anderson said jokingly. “Well it was two of my kids from Jefferson and now they’re police officers here in town; they’ve grown up a lot. In 40 years I’ve seen grandkids of kids that I had at Jefferson. I’ve had two or three generations of kids coming through.”

“In 40 years you see a lot of people pass by and it’s time for me to go now,” she added. “It’s fun to watch them grow up. It’s amazing when they come here in second grade and by the time they leave in third-grade to see how much they’ve changed. Some read, some don’t, then all of a sudden they leave. They’re reading and they’re almost a grown up. When you only have them for two years you wouldn’t think you’d see that much a difference, but boy, they just really grow up fast.”
At the beginning of Anderson’s career with the district, she worked a variety of other areas in additoin to running the library before the growth it has seen today.
“After they hired me I was a Title Aid for math for a while, then they said they needed someone in food service, so I had the library at the same time and I would run back and forth. Then we became the library and computer area — that’s what we did,” explained Anderson.
“We started out with the old Commodore 64, with floppy disks, and we would have to go in and load each one before the kids came in.”
Before the libraries that exist in the schools today, Anderson discussed the times when there was no coding or rhyme or reason for the distribution of books to students.
“We checked everything out by kids writing their name on the cards and in the book,” explained Anderson. “Now, we put a barcode on them, scan them and they’re gone. We don’t have cards in our books like we used to. It’s amazing to stop and think about what has changed over the years.”
With all the advancements in society, students using iPads for much of their work, it is a refreshing sentiment for many to see the students still checking out and reading books, cover to cover.
“I like to hold a book in my hands and read,” Anderson stated. “A lot of people don’t see it that way anymore but these kids are still holding books so hopefully it will continue that way. Each of our grade-level schools have really good librarians and libraries so hopefully the kids will pass it on from year to year.”
Many books fairs and fundraisers have been organized by Anderson throughout her 40 years at the school district, including a candy bar sale this past year.
“They tell me I have to come back and do the fundraisers, because I do a lot of them at the school. I’ve had about 95 book fairs over the years, I have at least two a year. At Jefferson, we always had a sucker tree; if they sold something they pulled the sucker off and see what color it was and then that’s the prize they would get,” explained Anderson.
This year, pallets of candy bars made their way through the halls and students sold them in order to win prizes.
“We went through hundreds of candy bars; they did a very good job of selling them,” Anderson said. “They would get a prize and then the funds raised goes toward the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), which buys all the weekly readers for the kids, stuff for the classrooms, parties for the kids, it’s all stuff for kids. In the spring we have bouncy houses out here so they can play; it’s just something to cover the little expenses that don’t cover the budget.”
“High sellers got to go ride in a limo and get donuts; that sort of thing,” Anderson added. “This was the first year we’ve done candy bars here but it worked out really well.”
Anderson reminisced of her 40-years as a school librarian very fondly, the relationships that have been built with families, co-workers, and the many faces that she has come across.
“I have enjoyed every moment. You have your bad days but you know they don’t last. Most memorable to me are the people you work with, it’s your own community. You’re with them all day and it’s just like one big family. As a whole it’s just a very nice work environment,” Anderson smiled.
“I’ll miss the big people as much as I will the kids. I’ve been around so long that I know their families, kids and grandkids. It’s time to get out and let someone else take it.”