Old Town librarian resigns to fill state post

OLD TOWN – Valerie Osborne has served as the city’s library director for 25 years, but now she says she’s ready for a new adventure.

“I’ve had several opportunities over the years, but I just didn’t feel quite right about going, and this time I do,” Osborne said Wednesday.

The longtime librarian and Old Town resident presented her resignation to city councilors on Monday and will become Northeast libraries district consultant for the Augusta-based Maine State Library.

Her new job: Assist librarians in northern and eastern Maine in a variety of ways, providing them with professional advice regarding collection management as well as assistance with development of library policies and personnel issues.

“It’s going to be a new adventure,” said Osborne, 57. “At my stage in life, a new adventure’s a good thing.”

While she’s proud of the impact she’s had on the library and the community, Osborne remains modest about her accomplishments.

In 1986, she was named Woman of the Year for her outstanding dedication to the community by more than 200 eastern Maine members of the social and cultural organization Beta Sigma Phi.

She has served as president of the Maine Library Association, was named 2003 Maine Library Association Outstanding Librarian of the Year, and won the University of Maine Maryann Hartman Award in 2002.

But beyond any official award, Osborne has gained the respect and admiration of the community and those who have worked with her over the years.

“We’ve got an awful lot to thank Valerie for,” Howard “Bucky” Merrill of Old Town said Wednesday.

Merrill was the campaign chairman for the 1991 expansion of the library and worked closely with Osborne, whom he has known for more than 20 years.

“Valerie was a student at the University [of Maine], working on some kind of thesis or project that had to do with libraries,” Merrill said.

He recalled a presentation she made to the council when he was a member, and “from there, the next thing I know, we hired her.”

Osborne is known for a variety of projects and efforts at the library, but the most significant was the $1.5 million expansion and renovation to the facility that hadn’t been touched since it was built in 1904 with a grant from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation.

Osborne was so passionate about the project that others were inspired, and the campaign fund quickly grew beyond its goal. The extra money, about $140,000, was put toward an endowment for periodicals, books and programs at the library.

“When we started this expansion plan, there wasn’t a computer in the place,” Merrill said. “She adapted very, very well to that change.”

Advances in technology are what Osborne said has changed the most during her time at Old Town.

“That technology is going to change even more in the future,” she said.

But Osborne is confident that she’s leaving the library in a good place to continue to grow and adapt to the needs of the community.

Over the years, she’s been responsible for drastically increasing the number of books at the library by the thousands, broadening the number and ages of patrons, and adding numerous programs to the facility over the years.

In 1996 she held a cooking safety class in which children threw dinner parties for the city’s firefighters. The class filled up within 10 minutes.

She’s created the library’s Web site, lobbied for library funding from the Legislature, kept the community’s history alive through oral history projects, and made a place for teenagers to feel comfortable talking about their difficulties.

“Our Number One priority has always been good service,” Osborne said. “What has always been important to me is that when we work with kids, we make them feel connected to where they live. That community connection is so important.”

Linda Lord, deputy state librarian at the Maine State Library, said she can understand how people in Old Town feel, “and if I were them I’d feel the same way.”

“But she’s going to have a much broader playing field now, and she’s going to be able to impact that playing field in a really wonderful way,” Lord said.

Osborne is to start her new job in the next couple of months, but has told Old Town city officials she intends to make the transition as easy for them as possible.

“I love this library,” Osborne said. “It’s been a part of me for a long time.”