National Library Workers Day: Always There When You Need Them

Allen McGinley

Director, Westfield Memorial Library

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April 21, 2026

Every morning, before the front doors of the library swing open, our staff is already inside. Someone is cleaning the building and emptying the bright blue book return. Someone else is checking-in the returned books and putting them back in their exact right space on the shelf. A librarian is already fielding a reference question submitted overnight by email about local property records or a health condition or an obscure piece of Westfield history. Another librarian is setting up the children’s area for the little ones who will arrive shortly, clutching their favorite stuffed animal, and ready to discover their next favorite story.

On this National Library Workers Day, I want to pause and clearly say what I know to be true, but what I often do not say loudly enough: the people who staff this library are extraordinary, and Westfield is immeasurably richer because of them.

Think for a moment about what our library workers actually do. They are part educator, part social worker, part archivist, part technology tutor, part community organizer. And all of this, often simultaneously, on a single Tuesday afternoon. They welcome a group of preschool students to the library, ensuring every child has a library card - their ticket to a world of possibilities. They tactfully direct a patron in distress toward resources that person didn’t know existed. They help a high school student with an essay for their college application. They fix the copier. They order the books that a grandmother specifically asked for and set them aside to be picked up at a later time. They don’t just hand you a book. They read the hesitation in your face and help you find just the right one.

As the Director of the Westfield Memorial Library, I have the privilege of watching this work up close every single day. I see our children’s librarians transform a rainy Saturday morning into an adventure that a six-year-old will carry in their memory forever. I see our reference staff resolve in twenty minutes a research puzzle that a patron has been struggling with for weeks. I see our circulation team greet residents by name, ask about the book they just finished reading, and make every patron feel that this place belongs to them.

What strikes me most is the quiet professionalism with which our staff handles the full spectrum of human need that walks through our doors. While we are home to a vast and thoughtfully curated collection of books, our library is more than just a building to store them. We are one of the last genuinely public spaces in American life, open to everyone, free to all, with no transaction required. The people who are keeping this building open seven days a week, twelve months a year, are doing something that matters deeply to the fabric of our community.

To every member of the Westfield Memorial Library staff - our librarians and library assistants, our pages, our administrative and maintenance employees, our technology specialists - thank you. Thank you for the patience you bring to every interaction, the curiosity you model for every patron who walks in, and the deep sense of purpose that keeps you coming back each morning before the doors open.

And to the residents of Westfield: if you have a favorite library staff member, please tell them so this week. For the staff who found your daughter the perfect new series to read, or who helped your father learn how to FaceTime his grandchildren, or who simply always has a warm word at the front desk, your words to us mean more than you might imagine.

The library is yours. The people inside it have dedicated their careers to keeping it that way.

With deep appreciation and pride,

Allen McGinley

Director, Westfield Memorial Library