Dee Neff retires from the Annville Free Library on Friday, July 19, celebrating a career as a librarian that spanned more than three and a half decades.
Dylan Fye became the new library director, effective Monday, July 8.
According to a release from the Annville Free Library, a retirement party at the library is scheduled for Friday, July 19, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with a short program starting at noon. Those who wish to contribute to a memory book should send 8.5″x11″-formatted stories, notes, photographs, or drawings to the library by Friday, July 12. Those who wish to send Neff gifts should send them to the library by Friday, July 19.
Neff, 71, was born in Ephrata and lives in Annville with her family. She has a husband, who is seven years her junior and retired at the end of June, as well as a son, and a daughter, who also happens to be a librarian.
In the early 1970s, Neff lived in State College, attended Penn State’s University Park campus, and earned a bachelor’s degree in English. She continued to live in State College post-graduation as she figured out her next career steps.
“I fell into it. It wasn’t like this was a career choice,” Neff responded when asked what inspired her to become a librarian. She earned a position at Pattee Library on the University Park campus and worked there for a decade.
During her time at Pattee Library, Neff worked in the cataloging department, the interlibrary loan department in which she was responsible for processing requests and sending materials to surrounding schools and businesses, and the government documents department at the reference desk.
“You had to know the collection, and you had to be able to find things,” she said. “And people came up for help, and they needed this, or they needed that for a report. And this was all before, it was just right in the very beginning, of computers, because we had a huge room that was just a card catalog bigger than, or probably as big as, this space, the addition, which is full of card catalogs. So, I was there when that whole change happened, which is really kind of cool.”
Neff then met her now-husband. They welcomed their daughter and, about a year later, moved to Hershey. They continued to live in Hershey for a few more years, during which time they welcomed their son.
“We were in an apartment,” Neff said. “It was really cool, though, because it was like — the apartments aren’t there anymore — they were Hershey apartments, and they were right across from the big cocoa bean silos … and the zoo.”
The family then moved to a house in Cleona. They lived there for about seven years, during which Neff accepted the director position at Annville Free Library. They moved to Annville, close to the library.
“Well, my husband was on the board, and they were looking for a new director, and they couldn’t find anybody,” Neff said. “And then, I guess, they found out that I had worked in a library, although it’s an academic library, which is really not the same as what you deal with in a community library, it’s a whole different animal. And I got hired, and he had to leave the board.
“And that was the start. I was really new. I mean, I’d never run anything before. So … there was a big learning curve there. But at the end of … 35 and a half years, [I’ve] learned a lot, made mistakes, somehow, you know, just nothing major, and you just keep going and do what you think is going to be the best to do.”
Neff said that there were only a few computers in the library when she became director. During her time in the position, the library became the first library in the county with hotspots, the first in the county to dedicate a space for youth, and the first in the county to lend ukuleles, according to Neff.
“And we’re the only library that has a dedicated maker space, although they don’t call it a maker space, they call it a creativity center,” she said. “I’m trying to get it up and running before I leave. And that is really one of my passions. I mean, I really, I will miss doing that because it’s something I really like.”
Over the years, Neff has taught crafts, such as paper crafting, crepe paper flowers, needle felting, and sugar skulls.
One major difference that she noted between academic and community libraries is the different ways in which they are funded, which, in turn, place differing levels of pressure on library staff.
“No one there [at Pattee Library] was worried about funding,” Neff said. “But here [in Annville], we do how many fundraisers a year? And you’re always thinking about that: How can we raise more money? What can we do? Because we could do so many neat things, but we just don’t have the money to do it.”
Another major difference that she noted “in working in a small public library in town is, we don’t really get reference questions. People are here. They want to read. That’s what they’re interested in. I can’t remember the last reference question we got.”
She said that public libraries in cities, such as Lancaster, have business sections, and people use databases and other resources to find information that they’re searching for.
“I have a passion for books, but I also have a passion for information. … And I really like the internet, and I like working with computers,” she said. “And it’s fun to hook somebody up with an author, like, ‘Oh, I like an author,’ and say, ‘You’re going to love this person. Read these books.'”
The soon-to-be-retired librarian shared with LebTown that her favorite reading endeavors center on science, specifically the natural world and medicine, as well as creative nonfiction, horror, the supernatural, and fantasy.
When asked what her experience as a working mother has been like, Neff said, “If I ran the world, if you have kids, you would be home with your kids because it is a job.
“It’s hard to be a working mom. It really is. But I was very, very fortunate that I didn’t do this until my son, my son who’s the younger child, was in second grade, I think. So, they weren’t going to daycare. And I also wasn’t working full-time then either. When I started working here, I was only working 25 hours a week. So I could juggle, I would be home when they were home, that kind of thing.”
In 2008, Neff earned a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh. That same year, her daughter earned her high school diploma. Neff noted that it was difficult to return to school.
Although the MLS degree was not required for her position at the time, Neff said, “I’m really glad I got it because it gives you a certain perspective that you wouldn’t have had before.
“And I thought Pitt’s program was really good. I’m sure it still is,” she said. She completed the program in two years and was required to travel to the main campus once per semester.
Neff went through the program with the same cohort of students. She said that the majority of her peers were already working in libraries, with only a few of her peers coming straight from an undergraduate program, and that they wanted to get the MLS degree to advance in their library careers.
“So, I was always wanting to retire at 70,” Neff said. However, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the Annville Free Library’s expansion project. “And then, I said, ‘Well, I’m not going to retire while the project’s still going on because that’s not fair to anybody.’ And I just wanted as smooth a transition as we could make it. So, that’s why I stayed.”
Read More:
- Annville Free Library cuts the ribbon on once-in-a-generation expansion project
- Annville Free Library opens addition, begins renovations on original building
- Annville Free Library expansion salvage gets ‘Next Chapter’ through reuse as art
- Take a tour of the Annville Free Library’s ongoing $4.4 million expansion project
- Annville Free Library hosts groundbreaking ceremony for addition
At the time of the LebTown-exclusive interview, Neff said Annville Free Library was rewriting the job description to update its listings on existing job-searching platforms and distribute listings on additional platforms. She also mentioned that she saw “at least one, if not more, job offerings for library directors” each week. This spoke to the volume of job vacancies in the field and the lack of people who wish to fill the positions.
“I know that we would like to have overlap, and really, we need to have overlap,” she said. “There’s going to be some transition because this job has changed dramatically from when I first started. There are all these little moving parts that you just have to be aware of. And it can feel kind of overwhelming.”
According to the job description, the library director position is a 40-hour-a-week position with some benefits. The library director is responsible for managing the library and its operations; recruiting, training, and managing six library staff members; leading efforts to develop programming, community outreach, and fundraising campaigns; presenting monthly and annual reports to the board of directors and the Office of Commonwealth Libraries; collaborating with the board; and other tasks.
On Monday, July 8, the Annville Free Library announced that Fye, who has a bachelor’s degree in history and geography from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Library & Information Science degree from Penn West Clarion, became the new library director. Neff has kept her word and will help the library transition over the next two weeks.
How will Neff spend her newfound free time in retirement now that the Annville Free Library has found a new director? “I’m not worried about things to do,” she responded.
“Well, I’m getting a puppy,” Neff said. “I love dogs. We lost one of our dogs in January. So, I’m going to be home, I’m going to have time, and that’s one of the things I’m going to do.” She is working with a breeder, who told her that the puppies were due on June 18 and that her puppy would be ready to bring home in mid-August.
In retirement, Neff also plans to clean her house, tend to her garden, and continue her involvement in the book and crochet clubs.
“This is an amazing library, and this library has such a connection with the people in this town. And they’ve always been there,” she said. “They’ve always been there and supported the library from the beginning, when, in 1939, Lillie Struble started it. And I just think that’s really amazing, and that’s something everybody should really be proud of because we’re here for them.”
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