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12/21/2022 11:27 AMAnn Thompson says there are two reliable places to find her: either she is in the garden or the library.
But, after more than 20 years at the Essex Library, you will have to look for Ann in a different office. She has a new job.
After serving as interim director since former executive director Deb Smith left for a position at a library in Virginia last July, it is time to remove interim from Ann’s title. The Board of the Essex Library Association has chosen her as its new executive director.
Ann’s goal in her new position is to carry on the work of making the library’s services reach all residents from toddlers to senior citizens. She would like the library not only to continue, but also to expand partnerships with local groups in presenting programs. She points to the library’s showing of a documentary film in conjunction with the Ivoryton Playhouse’s recent production of The Great Gatsby. The film argued that Westport rather than Great Neck, N.Y., provided the inspiration for author F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fictional village of West Egg, where the novel took place.
The library has also partnered with the Connecticut River Museum, the Essex Land Trust, the Essex Historical Society, and the Visiting Nurses of the Lower Valley, who have conducted flu-shot clinics at the Essex Library. The pandemic, when the library was closed for several months at the height of the lockdown, has led to new ways in which the library can extend its reach electronically.
“Zoom has opened up a whole new world,” Ann says, noting that electronic programming has attracted an audience of viewers from all parts of the United States.
This is particularly true with programs by high-profile presenters like garden designer Page Dickey and cookbook author Dorie Greenspan. Viewers outside of this area can find out about library programs through posts on social media. Topics of wide interest also draw a geographically diverse audience. Ann points to a recent program on estate planning.
“We had 100 people on Zoom,” she says. “We might have had 10 in the library.”
The audience no longer has to be at the library and neither do the presenters, who, like the viewers, can give their talks on Zoom. That, in turn, vastly widens the number of available presenters the library can host electronically. Locally, Zoom programming gives residents who do not like driving after dark a way to enjoy the library’s varied offerings.
Library patrons of a certain age can remember a time when libraries were about hushed tones and whispers. That, Ann says, has all changed.
“I love to hear little voices saying ‘Mom, I don’t want to go home. Can I get another book?’” she admits.
Ann points out that libraries today function in many ways as community centers. It is all part of a library’s modern function.
“We don’t want a library just to be a warehouse for books,” she says.
Ann was born in Illinois, moved to Kentucky, and went to high school in Storrs, where her father was a business professor at the University of Connecticut. She went to Goucher College in Maryland, majoring in philosophy.
“It helped me to know what I didn’t know,” she says.
After graduation, Ann worked as a paralegal in Manhattan and later, after moving back to Connecticut, worked as a paralegal in New Haven. She left the job just before the birth of her first child. Her children Mark and Sarah are both now in their 30s.
When she lived in Avon, Ann had volunteered at her children’s school library. She was advised that if she were really interested in a career in library work, she would need a master’s degree in library science. So, she earned one at Southern Connecticut State University.
In fact, Ann had always shown a proclivity for libraries. As a child, her father made her a bookcase and, with a label maker, she labeled all her books and devised a cataloging system.
“I still have some of those books,” she says.
Gardening, too, started in her childhood. At 11 years old, her father allowed her to take charge of planting.
“It was a point of pride that I was trusted to do that. I was trusted with a trowel,” she says.
Now, Ann tends her large garden every morning from 5 to 8 before going to work. And when it is light enough, she works again when she gets home.
“There is always something underway,” she says.
The garden is divided into different areas, including one devoted to native plants. Ann often gardens with wireless earbuds on which she listens to books. She downloads the books through free library services and wishes more patrons were aware of their availability. Library staff can help patrons set up the services. Ann also listens to books on her iPhone to fall asleep.
“On very low,” she says.
Still, listening to electronic books is not the only way she approaches literature.
“I’ll read anything that is beautifully written,” she says.
As the new executive director, Ann credits the staff with the hard work necessary to maintain and expand the library’s services. She describes them, appropriately for a librarian, with the title of a classic children’s book.
“The library staff, we’re like the little engine that could. We pull together,” she says.
For more information on the Essex Library Association, visit youressexlibrary.org