DIXFIELD — After nearly 20 years of service with the Ludden Memorial Library, Peggy Malley retired from the directorship Tuesday.

A retirement party/open house was held Friday afternoon.

“I’ve really enjoyed my job,” Malley said. “I’ve loved the library. It’s the best job I’ve ever had, other than being a wife and mother.”

But while she’s retiring, Malley has elected to continue serving at the library once a week.

“I’m going to miss my library family,” she said. “But I am still going to see you, just not as much as before, and I won’t be in charge.”

Town Manager Dustin Starbuck said this will help with the transition as Korina Lee, who has been with the library for two years, takes over as director.

“I think having that continuity is really going to help keep the library where you brought it up to,” Starbuck said. “I just want to say thank you for everything that you’ve done for the town and for the library.”

State Rep. Richard Pickett of Dixfield said, “You and I worked on the same team for a number of years while I was here as (police) chief. I appreciate working with you. I want people to know that even though I was the police chief, when I went in to get my first book, she said, ‘Where’s your library card?’ I didn’t have one.”

Norine Clarke, chairwoman of the Select Board, thanked Malley for keeping the library “running smooth, with everything the way it should be in a local library. You always acted like you enjoyed the job.”

Carlo Puiia, a former town manager of Dixfield, said Malley “is so disciplined and on top of everything. It’s such a big relief that you don’t have to worry about the library. She ran a tight ship.”

Malley said she began in November 1999 as a part-time worker. “I never thought when I started doing that that it would end up this way.”

She grew up Rumford, “so working in a local library was awesome. It was the greatest.”

Malley said that when she started at Ludden, the library was not automated at all. “We were still handwriting library card numbers on cards.”

She added, “At the time, I was in college. There were library classes for my degree, information technology. There was a project I was doing for my degree, which was getting this Dixfield library automated.”

Through the Maine InfoNet collaboration, the project was completed by 2005.
As a result, Malley said, the library became part of the statewide network, greatly improving its resources and offerings.

She is also proud of the participation in the library’s summer reading program, for which she’s brought in a number of interesting guests for children.

With her retirement, Malley said, she will have more opportunities with her husband, Bill, to cross-country ski, hike in the summer and to see the grandchildren.

bfarrin@sunmediagroup.net

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