By Mimi Edmunds

Libraries have history and legacies. Movies are made about libraries, in libraries, about librarians. Everyone has a library story in their lives. There is something about a town’s library that represents the best of the town, the heart of the town. “They are a community’s soul,” “cathedrals to who we should be as a society,” and they “set us free from ignorance, boredom, monotony, and pain.”*

This year the Camden Public Library has a new librarian, Executive Director Kristy Kilfoyle. She recently visited West Bay Rotary at its Thursday morning meeting. She is all about libraries, their past, present, and future. She comes to Camden after 17 years of library experience in south Florida, but she hails from the Midwest, having grown up in a small town between Chicago and Gary, Indiana. Kristy says she knew at the age of seven that she wanted to be a librarian. At 14 her first job working with books was in the town bookstore, alphabetizing books and vacuuming, where she was paid under the table.

Undeterred, she went on to get an extensive education in library science and children’s literature, and to become that librarian she dreamt about. She graduated from Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana, completing a study in German Children’s Literature, earned a Master’s in Library Science from Indiana University, and then another Master’s in Children’s Literature from Hollins University. Kristy says she never wanted to be a professor. She wanted to be a librarian, driven to encourage the development of libraries that serve communities.

For the last 17 years she has worked in southwest Florida developing library services in Fort Myers and the 14-branch library system of Lee County, serving in a variety of roles: Youth Services Librarian, Senior Services Librarian, and Programming Coordinator. Her most recent position was seven years as the Director of Libraries at Canterbury School, a private prep school in Fort Myers. In 2022, she served on the Newbery Award Medal Committee to select the most distinguished children’s book published in the United States. She was on the Batchelder Award Board for her distinguished translation of a Children’s book. She serves on at least five other national library association boards, weighted toward children and young adult.

Why did she land in Camden? After meeting her husband and marrying, they both were ready to leave south Florida and move to the mountains. She laughs, saying it was more the hurricanes than the alligators that made her want to leave. She wanted to go north, and she had been told to visit the library in Camden. On that initial trip to Maine and upon arriving in Portland, they just drove through and headed straight up to Camden. Immediately she knew this was it, the right place, the best decision. Its singular beauty, sitting on top of a hill higher and taller than the tallest church in town represented something—a cultural statement, a good community dedicated to learning and commitment to community. It was magical, she says.

The library suited her to perfection as a quasi-municipal institution supported and driven by a community with 48 percent of its $1.2 million budget from the town and the rest from grants and other fundraising sources. For every dollar invested in the library, Kristy says, the community receives more than $5 in economic benefit, such as fostering life-long learning, providing 30 percent increases in both adult and children’s programs, reducing the brain drain, and supporting a thriving community with a strong sense of place.

In the future Kristy sees a role for AI in replacing as well as creating information while building a stronger base from which to grow. But Kristy is aware of the library’s current challenges, notably the roof, carpeting, and all four walls, all in dire need of repair. But she sees these as temporary and manageable. For Kristy, the mission of the library remains solid and vibrant: “ to explore, discover, delight, and see.” For now, the Camden Public Library on a high hill, with a view of Mount Battie in one direction and overlooking a picturesque New England harbor town in the other, is exactly where Kristy Kilfoyle should be.

About West Bay Rotary

West Bay Rotary is dedicated to supporting local nonprofits through service, collaboration, and philanthropy. To learn more about its initiatives and how you can get involved, visit www.WestBayRotaryOfMaine.org or come to a weekly meetings, Thursdays at 7:30 a.m. in the Community Room at the First Congregational Church in Camden. All are welcome.

* Source: School Library Journal