Best thing about libraries? 'Books.'
After 32 years of public service, reference librarian Pam Schofield of the state library has come to The End.
Schofield, who's taking the Baker administration's early-retirement incentives, may have helped more people, and seen more changes, than anyone else in the State House. Reflecting on her years at the library on her final day, she contrasted the week's major Supreme Court announcements to the way it was decades ago.
"When decisions came down then, people would be gathered around this desk, waiting for the copies of the printed decision to be ready," Schofield said, in a gleaming, renovated atrium rendered far less bustling than in years past by the advent of Google and Twitter.
What was that first day like for her? "Terrifying," she recalled. "I was sure all the representatives would be smarter than I."
With her customary understatement, Schofield did not elaborate on whether experience bore out her fear, but said helping people, from the powerful to the homeless, has been her biggest satisfaction.
She acknowledged, though, that far fewer need help than when she first walked into the soaring two-story space she's tended for so long. In those days, a wire-cage elevator with hand-operated doors shuttled people from the first to second floor of the public space, and the main floor was dominated by wooden card catalogs.
Schofield recalled the summer and fall of 1988, when she learned to distinguish between two groups of people lined up in the summer heat in a time before the State House was air-conditioned.
"There were the Dukakis people," doing favorable research on the governor-turned presidential nominee, "And there were the people doing the opposition research." They recognized each other by allegiance as well, she remembered, and generally kept out of each other's way.
What has been the worst thing that's happened to libraries in that time?
"Budget cuts," Schofield promptly replied, speaking for herself and colleagues from Hyannis to Hancock. The nadir of those came, she said, when former Gov. Deval Patrick floated the idea of closing the state library in 2009.
And the best thing about libraries? That hasn't changed in 32 years, Schofield said, answering with the simplicity and eloquence befitting a literary person:
"Books."
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