BRATTLEBORO-Starr LaTronica became a librarian for the connections it allows her to make with other people.
“It’s serving people,” she recently told The Commons. “That’s what I’m about. And that’s what I’ll always be about. I know my strength is a passion for community engagement. I know that I have a lot of other weaknesses. And so I’m grateful for my staff for picking up the pieces and making this place keep going.”
LaTronica, 72, became head librarian at Brooks Memorial Library in 2015 after a distinguished career as a children’s librarian and library director. She will be retiring on Saturday, May 9.
Julie Perrin, from the Jaffrey (New Hampshire) Public Library will replace her beginning on Monday, May 11.
“I think my greatest accomplishment here is that I have hired and retained a fabulous staff, so that helps me sleep easier at nights,” LaTronica said. “And although I’ve only met her a couple times, the person that’s going to take over the office looks to be a crackerjack. So I’m really excited for the town and for her.”
When LaTronica came to Brattleboro, she set about becoming deeply involved in her new community. She succeeded so well that she became a one-name celebrity — just say “Starr” and everyone knows who you are speaking about.
“I tend to be civically minded — it’s hand in glove with my profession — and the best way to get to know my new home and meet people was to attend public events like meetings, forums, concerts, lectures, the brown bag chat that happened at noon in the River Garden, even Selectboard meetings,” she said.
“I loved — and still love — that there is somewhere you can connect with your fellow humans on almost any given day in this neck of the woods,” LaTronica continued. “The calendar in The Commons proves my point.”
Why did LaTronica work to make herself so connected?
“I wanted to meet people and hear what they wanted from the library,” she said. “And I wanted to see where the library could meet their needs, or find a way to connect them with resources.”
Doing so “also gave me a chance to let people know about the great things the library was already doing,” she added.
“I haven’t been able to attend many events recently, since I’m trying to tie up loose ends, but I am looking forward to getting back in the swing of things, volunteering and attending all kinds of gatherings, including finally getting to some of the great events that are going on at the Broad Brook Grange in Guilford,” LaTronica said.
Praise and honors pile up
Ever since LaTronica announced she was retiring, the town, the county, and even the state have been celebrating her.
On April 25, the library was packed with people who came to her first farewell party. There were speeches, music, and food provided by the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library.
“It was just what I’d hoped for, which was just all kinds of folks coming together, having a good time, chatting with one another,” LaTronica said.
“It was great to see so much interaction and conversation going on. And then some people said some nice things about me, which is always lovely. And I got to see some folks that I hadn’t seen in a while,” she added.
“And it was great because I saw little toddlers and preschoolers all the way up to, you know, people even older than me,” LaTronica said.
Then the Vermont House of Representatives and the Vermont Senate passed a proclamation honoring the “amazing” LaTronica at the request of state Reps. Mollie Burke, Ian Goodnow, and Emilie Kornheiser of Brattleboro; Zon Eastes of Guilford; Leslie Goldman of Rockingham, Emily Long of Newfane, Mike Mrowicki of Putney, and Laura Sibilia of Dover, plus Windham County Senators Wendy Harrison and Nader Hashim.
The proclamation pretty much summed up LaTronica’s effect on Brooks and the wider Brattleboro community.
“Whereas, as the Brooks’ new librarian, she immediately immersed herself in the Brattleboro community, gaining valuable insight into why Brattleboro is a special place,” began the proclamation, going on to praise her as “a powerful champion against censorship.”
It also praised her for nurturing a “broad library collection encompassing informative and stimulating books and serials, as well as sundry other items, ranging from Brattleboro Museum passes to snowshoes.”
LaTronica was acknowledged for bringing a variety of speakers and diverse programming to the library, and for ensuring that “there is now internet access for all patrons.”
Lastly, the proclamation praised her for the way she has helped the library continually confront “the demanding realities of homelessness and addiction in Brattleboro. And under Starr LaTronica’s thoughtful leadership, these challenges have been addressed compassionately and creatively.”
She had a wonderful day at the State House, LaTronica said.
“It was really, really, really lovely,” LaTronica said. “And my family came, and [Town Manager] John Potter came, and [Selectboard Vice Chair] Oscar Heller came, and a bunch of staff members and some friends of the library. it was really an amazing recognition.”
If anyone has missed these opportunities to celebrate LaTronica, a third day of celebration will come on her last day, Saturday, May 9, when from 10 to 11 a.m., LaTronica will tell her favorite stories. From 4 to 5 p.m., Fred Breunig and Andy Davis will play some of her favorite tunes for the last hour of her last day.
After all that, will LaTronica stop being a librarian?
Of course not. She plans to use her retirement to be a volunteer librarian in the Gill and Montague, Massachusetts school systems under her daughter, Ramona, who is also a librarian.
“She’s got three different libraries she oversees, and so I’m going to help her,” LaTronica said.
Leading in tumultuous times
When LaTronica took over at Brooks, the whole concept of having a public library was being challenged.
“The controversy about the libraries 10 years ago was: Were they still relevant, were they still necessary to a strong community and a thriving community?” LaTronica said.
When you think about it, there have always been libraries, even in ancient times. People still talk about the partial burning of the Library of Alexandria by Julius Caesar in 48 BCE. There are law libraries and academic libraries and of course there will always be private libraries.
But the concept of a public library was developed only at the beginning of the last century when the first one opened in Peterborough, New Hampshire.
“It’s such an enlightened concept, the concept of the public libraries,” LaTronica said. “It’s so idealistic that people understand that it benefits the entire community when we share. We pool our resources and then we share them with one another. And some people pool more resources because they pay more taxes or they donate to the library, but then those resources are available to everyone.”
Public libraries have always been community centers, LaTronica said. Some of the earlier ones had public showers and even swimming pools to serve an immigrant population.
“This was a time when people didn’t have ready access to those things,” LaTronica said. “And so if you pooled everything together, then everyone would benefit.
“If immigrant families have a chance to achieve education, and if people who are working in factories all day have a chance to come and hear lectures at night or read, then the library becomes the university of the immigrant, the university of the less privileged,” she added. “And that’s what it is. It’s the people’s university.”
Brattleboro’s library may have started as a subscription library, LaTronica said.
“It was a place where people literally pooled their resources by bringing in books,” she said. “But then public libraries came along that were supported by the populace and available to all.”
So are public libraries still relevant? “I think we’ve had the answer resoundingly,” LaTronica said. “In this community, absolutely yes. And so that’s incredibly gratifying.”
‘That about killed me’
The hardest time for LaTronica came during lockdown in the early days of the pandemic.
“I would have these Zoom meetings with Peter Elwell, who was the town manager at the time, and the first couple times I tried to meet with him, I burst into tears and couldn’t stop crying,” LaTronica said.
“It was because all my professional life, it’s been, ‘Come to the library.’ ‘Please come to the library.’ ‘Oh, get into the library.’ ‘I’ll meet you at the library.’ And then I had to lock the doors!
“That about killed me,” LaTronica said. “That just did me in, that that I couldn’t let people in here. It was a huge, huge blow.”
The staff did what it could to serve the public. The children’s room staff created bundles of similar-themed books that families could check out.
“We’d put them on the table outside and close the door, and then a person could walk up to 6 feet and get them and walk away,” LaTronica said. “And we had care packages with thermometers in them, because not everybody had a thermometer at home, and then all of a sudden you needed to take your temperature every day.
“We worked with United Way on that, and Out in the Open, and Youth Services [now Interaction: Youth Services and Restorative Justice],” she said. “We hired a local company to make cloth masks, which unfortunately we now know weren’t as effective as we hoped. And we provided Badger Balm for people because they were washing their hands like crazy.”
Creating a community resource
Today, “we get our content in so many different ways,” LaTronica said.
“We recognize that people have so many different ways of accessing knowledge and culture and entertainment, whether its from a lecture or a program or seeing live birds of prey on the main floor of the library,” she explained.
“That’s why libraries have worked to bring content in a myriad of forms to to everybody. That’s why you see more and more programming in libraries.”
One such addition is the Library of Things, “because we recognize that we have different kinds of learners in the world,” she said.
“We have visual learners and verbal learners,” LaTronica said. “And we have people that like to see things in real life. We have people that like to do do stuff with their hands to learn. That’s why we have a tool shed and cooking equipment and things like that.”
It takes only a glance at the library’s weekly online newsletter to see evidence of LaTronica’s programming skills. Among the activities: a fiber group meeting to knit, a circus-style exercise program for seniors, an art group (also for seniors), a science fiction reading group, a military experience reading group, a tech group — plus a variety of children and teen events.
A crowning achievement is the recently launched online directory of every community organization and agency in the area available to help people, which “eventually will expand to include cultural institutions and educational opportunities, all these things, so that people can go and access all these wonderful, wonderful organizations in this area that are are doing amazing work,” she said.
“It’s hard to know about all of them, and it’s hard to see how they all fit,” LaTronica continued. “So we’re inviting agencies to put their information into this directory, which will also help keep it up to date.”
Now, “if somebody comes in and says, ‘I need help with my heating bill,’ or ‘I need food,’ or ‘I’m worried about my neighbor, I’m worried there’s domestic abuse there,’ they will have a place to find help,” she said.
Upgrading the plant
LaTronica came to Brooks at a fortuitous time because the library had just received an unexpected $1.2 million bequest from Ronald Read.
Read, of Brattleboro, was a gas station attendant, a mechanic, and a janitor. He was also a gifted investor. After his death in 2014, he left approximately $6 million to Brooks and other various charities for a stunned and grateful community.
“That has really enabled this library to move forward and to flourish,” LaTronica said. “We would not be anywhere near where we are if we hadn’t had that.”
Library trustees put most of the money in an endowment. Brooks Memorial Library draws down 4% of that endowment every year to supplement town funding.
“So that means that they were able to take over the purchase of books and other materials,” LaTronica said. “Half the periodicals budget, professional development for staff, and all programming is paid either by the endowment or by the Friends [of Brooks Memorial Library, a nonprofit that supports the library and its programming].”
The financial relief “allowed the town then to hire people and bring staffing levels up so that we could restore the hours that had been cut earlier,” she added.
The Read money also enabled LaTronica to update the 1967 building. Slowly, so as not to disturb the flow of people to the library, new flooring and carpet were put in, bathrooms were upgraded or created, a teen reading room was developed, new office space and meeting rooms were carved out, and now, thanks to funding from the American Rescue Plan Act under the Biden administration, a pavilion is being created in the grounds behind the library.
“We also created the art storage room, which actually has become our archive room,” LaTronica said. “So Jeanne Walsh, our reference librarian, is putting together the Special Collections in there for people who come and do research that is connected locally.”
The library “completely refurbished” the children’s room, she said.
“We also replaced the ceiling, which had 50 years of grime around the vents, [and that] made a huge, huge difference,” LaTronica said. “We also replaced the HVAC system. The endowment paid for half of that, and the town covered half.”
Helping the helpless
During the past few years, one of the library’s biggest challenges has been the rise in homelessness. Many of the dispossessed seek shelter in the library, which is open to the public for long hours. It is warm in winter, and offers — besides free reading materials — computer access, free water, and open bathrooms (although the two by the children’s room are kept locked).
Sometimes, often at closing time, people do not want to leave the safety and warmth of the library. A few times there have been disruptions. Once or twice there has been violence.
The creation of the Brattleboro Resource Assistance Team (BRAT), a group of uniformed but unarmed personnel focused on public safety, has helped enormously, LaTronica said.
“You’re bringing in uniformed police officers, which sometimes gets everybody a little on edge,” she said. “But we recently had a woman come and say, ‘All of a sudden, I feel really faint. I don’t feel well, and I don’t think I can walk home.’ There’s no cab in Brattleboro. What can we do? We called BRAT, and they gave her a ride home because she couldn’t get there on her own.
“I feel we are really, really lucky to have that resource in town, one that helps people,” LaTronica said. “And one that will come in if somebody is in crisis, or somebody is really struggling.”
Memorable moments
The most memorable moments for LaTronica have been “the little delightful daily details of things,” she said.
“Like I keep a little box of fake snowballs in my office. So when kids come to see me in my office, they can throw snowballs off the balcony at the staff,” LaTronica said.
“And one time, the citizens’ police committee was meeting here, and this little girl came to see me in my office. I’m like, ‘Take these snowballs over there, to the room with the policeman.’ She did it, and it was great. And she came to my party last Saturday, and her favorite memory is that she got to throw snowballs at the policeman.”
Another time, LaTronica wanted to see paper planes sail off the balcony into the reading room, and the former circulation librarian organized a paper plane derby — “a really, really great night,” she added.
LaTronica is proud of having upgraded the library’s art collection, including complete restoration of the William Morris Hunt plaster sculpture of horses, which now has a new frame and display case, LaTronica said. “We hung it, and it’s gorgeous.”
She has noticed the same horses at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. “But I know ours is nicer. And I love that we have a Faith Ringgold quilt hanging in our main reading room. It’s an amazing piece.”
LaTronica said it has been wonderful meeting the writers who live in the area.
“Getting to interact with Karen Hesse and Eileen Christelow, who made us a library card,” LaTronica said. “I’ve wanted to meet her since we both lived in Berkeley at the same time, but I had to move to Vermont to actually meet her. And Ann Braden and Jessie Haas, and my wonderful office mate, Anna Monders, who has a new book out.
“So just being able to interact with real luminaries. And then there was the night that it was standing room only when [New Yorker writer] Jill Lepore came and talked here. That was a wonderful thing, too.”
The human connections still mean the most to LaTronica.
“I am not fishing for compliments or looking for reassurance,” she said. “I am saying that every librarian I know has devoted themselves to public librarianship. It’s part of their soul. I always say, I believe that I can save the world through libraries. That’s the only way I can figure out how to do it. We all believe that.
“From the time I was a library page in Albany, California, I saw the difference that it made to kids when they came in and interacted with me and the rest of the staff,” LaTronica said. “I really, really believe we are all in it for the heart.”
In some under-resourced urban libraries, librarians are just patching stuff together, LaTronica said.
“They are keeping the staff and public safe, and they do it because they believe,” she said. “And my colleagues in little, tiny libraries in rural areas, some are horribly under-resourced. I know there were librarians I worked with in upstate New York that were making minimum wage and buying summer reading materials out of their own pockets.
“So, they really believe in what they’re doing, and they’re heroes, and I’m really happy to be among them,” LaTronica said. “That’s what I want to say.”
This News item by Joyce Marcel was written for The Commons.