Donna Miller Reflects on Her 26 Years at the Avon Free Public Library

Looking back on her time at the Assistant Library Director Donna Miller remembers the time a squirrel got into the technical processing office in the library.

With staff watching through a window in the closed door to the room and Library Director Virginia Vocelli by her side, Miller coaxed the squirrel into a pail so she could bring it outside.

“These are the duties of the assistant director,” Miller joked in her office on March 4 as she went through 26 years of files in preparation for new job as director of the Lucy Robbins Welles Library in Newington that starts April 4. “Directors and assistant directors have to do a lot of things that aren’t in the job description.”

Miller began working 20 hours a week as a part-time reference librarian at the Avon library on Nov. 29, 1984, hoping to become a full-time librarian. A year and a half later, she got that wish and her position was extended to full-time. By May 1989 she was promoted to assistant director, a position that was previously combined with children’s librarian duties.

In 26 years, Miller has done much more than remove a squirrel from the library.

She helped establish the library’s tax assistance program through the Internal Revenue Service when she started in 1984. The library had just been built at its Country Club Road location in 1982.

“It was a big job getting that implemented …. It’s a nice service,” Vocelli said. “It helps people with income limits.”

Miller also helped develop the staff as it grew to have more than one reference librarian.

“I feel proud of building an excellent reference team … Over the years we’ve been able to get a few more librarians, including two full-time and one part-time staff members,” Miller said.

When she became assistant director, the library reorganized staff roles, separating the children’s librarian and assistant director positions.

“I think the circulation statistics really did leap once we developed more comprehensive programs for adults and children,” Miller said. “The library became busier and busier.”

Now the library will have to reorganize its staff again. Vocelli said the library and town have not  decided whether to fill the assistant director position. In the meantime, Miller has been organizing her files and preparing a detailed account of the tasks that will be redistributed among staff members when she leaves.

“We’re sorry she’s going, but this is a wonderful opportunity and we’re very excited for her,” Vocelli said. “Any time you have longtime staff member leave, you examine how things are done to see if there’s any other way you want to do it differently. We’re reassigning her other duties and taking a look at what’s worked and what trends are down the road.”

“The flow of services will be different too and this is an opportunity for them to reorganize where the greatest needs will be addressed and do that within budgetary restrictions,” Miller added.

For instance, Miller has been running the Avon Free Public Library Web site and frequently updates a library expansion blog to inform patrons about the progress of the construction, which she looks out on every day through her office window. The library also has a Facebook and Twitter page.

Julie Styles, head of technical services at the Avon library, will take over the Web site, Miller said.

“I have a lot to learn,” Styles said. “I’m learning Donna’s 20 plus years of technology knowledge.”

The necessities of the library and its patrons have evolved since Miller first joined the staff. As the only reference librarian in her early years at the library, Miller was chosen to train in continuing education technology classes at Tunxis Community College to upgrade the library services.

In 1996, the library was renovated and reorganized, and Miller was instrumental in bringing in more technology. Since then, the number of computers in the library has increased from 12 to 47.

“Bringing the library from a small network to 47 [computers] has been a lot of work,” Miller said. “It shows how much the technology was needed…. It will probably double in the expansion.”

She is responsible for the local area Internet network that the library has, and since 2004, there has been wireless access in the library and parking lot for all patrons.

The Avon library is also one of the first libraries in the state to have a self-checkout computer for books, according to Vocelli and Miller. Miller also helped incorporate e-books and e-readers into the library's inventory, which are available for patrons to borrow, and an iPad is now available for use in within the library.

She helped put together the library expansion proposal that was presented to the Town Council, Vocelli said. That includes the technology, equipment, wireless networking and phones that the new library will have. She is also making sure that the library is wired for radio frequency identification, which requires installing electronic tags in books so that the infrastructure is there for the future.

She noted that while she is leaving one expansion project behind, the Newington library staff is drafting conceptual plans for renovating the town’s public library and she will be able to lend her expertise.

“I’ve really enjoyed working on the expansion project,” Miller said. “Newington is planning on expanding its library, but is only in the conceptual stage. It’s nice that someone’s already done preliminary study.”

Miller is sad to leave the Avon library, which she said was like a family to her.

“Part of working in a library is the serendipity of it,” Miller said. “You never know who you’re going to meet and sometimes the most spontaneous things are the most fun. Some of patrons that come in here used to go to the old Avon library on Route 44. We have a really loyal patron base and they get to be like a family after awhile."

She said she is excited to advance in her career to library director. Miller already knows some of the library staff in Newington and said that the library has a good reputation and supportive town manager, board of directors and "friends of the library" group.

“My mission there, right now, is to continue the great services they have now and keep them as close to the cutting edge of technology as possible, always,” Miller said.

Even as she looks back fondly at her time at the Avon Free Public Library, she remains an Avon resident and will still be able to visit her former workplace as her hometown library.

“I’ll still have an Avon library card,” Miller said.

Her last day in Avon is March 23 and she will start in Newington on April 4. There will be a celebration honoring Miller at the Avon Free Public Library from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.