Retiring Children's Librarian Looks Forward to Reading More "Grown-Up" Books

The following "thank you" to long-time town employee Ann Russo was written by fellow librarian Kim Tolson. Russo recently retired after working many years at the library and, before that, as an elementary and middle school teacher in town. She is now looking forward to reading more "grown-up" books. 

Children's Librarian Ann Russo Retires, By Kim Tolson

Ann grew up north of New York City, in a small town much like Medfield.  She came to this area for college and stayed because she loved Boston so much.  She has lived in Medfield for 33 years!  She has two daughters who went through the Medfield School system, and graduated from college a few years ago.  They used to visit the old library that was next door.

Ann came to the Medfield Public Library after a teaching elementary and middle school classes for a number of years in Lincoln and Medfield. She wanted to spend more time with her daughters, so was pleased to receive an offer to join the Medfield Library staff which required fewer hours than teaching.  When Ann started in the spring of 1998, the current library had just been built.  The collection was much smaller and there was no puppet stage or kitchen set in the play corner.  The room originally had desktop computers, audio tapes and video tapes.

With the help of the other Children’s Librarians, Ann worked hard to increase the number of story times, create new activities, and expand programming to offer more fun events for families of Medfield. She was always thinking up new ways to draw kids into the library and to share the many resources that we offer.  The Children’s collection was reorganized three years ago when the library received new carpeting.  Shelving was moved to make the space more user-friendly.  It now has the latest technology including DVDs, CDs, ebooks, audiobooks, and Wii games. 

Over the years, Ann has brought in puppet shows, music performances, story tellers, authors, pajama story times, science and animal shows, art programs, skits, magic, picnic story times, cooking, parent programs, and more!  More recently the Children’s Room has offered Legos groups, chess club, foreign languages, and reading with a wonderful therapy dog. 

Ann has especially enjoyed decorating the room to make it attractive and welcoming to Medfield families, including displaying seasonal materials and highlighting artwork by the children of Medfield.  We have also received many wonderful donations from patrons which everyone can enjoy.  

However, the accomplishment that Ann is most proud of is when parents tell her how much their child is enjoying reading and loves the library, and attributing their success to her.  For Ann, that is the most important and most wonderful achievement of all. 

She has also loved finding books for children and watching their faces brighten and smiles appear.  She has been able to watch them grow up and move on confidently to other parts of the library.  She also enjoyed the challenge of searching for reference materials for a project, remembering authors’ names, or suggesting the “perfect book.”

Looking toward the future, Ann hopes that the Children’s department continues to remain up-to-date in technology, including offering the best devices to simplify the public’s entertainment and search for information.  Ann believes that the interaction between a child, a parent, and reading material will always be important, no matter how technology influences this.   She also hopes that the Children’s Department will continue to focus on patron service and satisfaction. 

In this new phase of her life, Ann is looking forward to having more free time.  She plans to read more “grown-up” books, play golf, paint, and travel before deciding to take on her next challenge.  She thinks that she might try teaching English as a Second Language, tutoring reading, or volunteering in a museum.  Of course who knows what might turn up!

Ann would like to thank the Medfield Girl Scouts, students, senior citizens and scores of volunteers of all ages, whose help over the years has been invaluable.  The Children’s Room was able to maintain its robust schedule thanks to their help.   The Friends of the Medfield Library have been very supportive by willing to sponsor so many programs.  Ann have taken pride in the Children’s Room and will be back occasionally to see how it’s flourishing.  She will miss all her library friends, big and little.