Longtime Killington library director to step down in 2014

Ruland Herald

By Josh O’Gorman
STAFF WRITER | December 12,2013

 

KILLINGTON — Filled with more than 22,000 books, magazines and DVDs, the success of Sherburne Memorial Library speaks volumes about Gail Weymouth.

Since 1984, Weymouth has been the town’s library director, but she plans to retire in February, drawing to a close a 30-year tenure during which she led the transformation of the library from musty and rustic to state of the art.

On Thanksgiving Day 1983, Weymouth, now 58, moved with her husband to Stockbridge, into an old farmhouse that she described as “always a work in progress.” She came from Maryland, where she was a librarian in a large state library.

Pregnant with her first child — a daughter who’s now 29 and was married this summer — Weymouth answered an advertisement looking for a part-time librarian in what was then called the town of Sherburne.

“What I took as a part-time job for minimum wage became the most rewarding job of my life,” she said.

While the library is currently firing on all cylinders — it’s one of only 30 libraries in the United States to receive a five-star rating from Library Journal magazine — that wasn’t the case when took the reins in January 1983.

At that time, Sherburne Memorial Library contained approximately 6,000 books and was housed in the roughly 750-square-foot former one-room schoolhouse most recently home to the Killington Teen Center. Also, it wasn’t used nearly as much as the current library, which is the busiest municipal library in the state by population.

“It was this old building with brown siding and it was about the size of the department I managed at my library in Maryland,” Weymouth recalled. “I sat, literally for three weeks, waiting for someone to come in.”

The first step to drumming up community interest in the library was getting books people wanted to read, such as National Book Award winners or bestsellers from the New York Times. More books meant more visitors, but also more problems.

“I had created a monster,” Weymouth said. “The floor started sinking under the weight of the books.”

In 1999, the library moved to its current 7,250-square-foot home on River Road, which includes plenty of computers and wall-to-wall wireless Internet access.

Weybridge paid respect to the support the library has received from Select Board members during the years, as well as from second-home owners who frequent the space in the winter.

“Once we proved we were a valuable resource, the support from the Select Board was just incredible,” she said. “So much of our patron base is second-home owners, and they’re able to say, ‘Here’s something we’re getting for our tax dollars.’”

And what are Weymouth’s plans after Feb. 1, her last day on the job?

“I’ve always put the library first. I’m just hoping to spend time with my family and do some traveling,” she said.

The library is looking for a new director. Job information is available on the library’s website, sherlib.wordpress.com.