10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2016
Tucker: World of libraries has changed during her career
In retirement, Tucker —
whose favorite work of ic-
tion is Ernest Hemingway’s
short novel “The Old Man
and the Sea” — plans to
travel with her husband, Jon
Lingel, and focus on family,
writing and art.
Continued from Page 1A
“She had a tough time
when she irst got here. There
were drug dealers and drugs
— needles and things being
used in the library. She’d
have to go around and pick
things up. Security was bad,”
LaMear said. “It was hard,
and she did a good job turn-
ing it around.”
Tucker, who has been
deeply involved in the public
library division of the Ore-
gon Library Association, said
she will continue volunteer-
ing for Libraries ROCC.
This
week,
Tucker
attended her inal Library
Board meeting, a joint work
session where board mem-
bers and the City Council
discussed the future of the
library and options for reno-
vating the facility or building
a new one.
Ruth Metz, a library con-
sultant, told the large crowd
at the party that when Tuck-
er’s time came to leave, “she
wanted to leave you with a
really splendid library, and
I know there’s a disappoint-
ment for her in this, in a
way.”
But,
she
continued,
Tucker, in addition to set-
ting up the library’s many
programs with her staff and
co-workers, “created a plat-
form for the next thing.”
The library building has
suffered from decades of
deferred maintenance and
doesn’t meet many of the
needs of modern library
users. But, David Oser, a
Library Board member, said
“I have never, in any area of
business, seen anyone who
has been able to do more with
less than Jane Tucker.”
The number of yearly
visits has risen from about
50,000 to almost 90,000
since 2007, even though the
library’s hours of operation
haven’t changed, according
to data Oser provided.
At Tucker’s party, City
Manager Brett Estes gave
Tucker an engraved pew-
ter plate commemorating her
service.
‘Read and read’
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Jane Tucker laughs with friends and colleagues during her retirement party Thursday evening at Astoria Public Library.
“Jane is really the reason
I’m a librarian,” said Sea-
side Library Director Esther
Moberg, who worked as a
librarian for Tucker in Asto-
ria before pursuing her career
in librarianship — a decision
she made with her mentor’s
advice and encouragement.
“I feel like I owe so much to
Jane, and it’s part of the rea-
son I came back here to be
library director: When I saw
that Jane was still in Astoria,
it really made a difference.”
Connecting to books
Tucker began bringing
books to readers as a 15-year-
old bookmobile page in her
hometown of Fairhaven,
Massachusetts.
Her high school English
teachers had recommended
her for the job with her local
library — the grand Millicent
Library built by Henry Hut-
tleston Rogers in memory of
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Library Director Jane Tucker shares a laugh during a Li-
brary Board meeting Tuesday.
his deceased daughter.
From then on, Tucker’s
path, she said, was “pretty
clear: connecting people to
books.”
Tucker, a library and
information science gradu-
ate of Simmons College in
Boston who has worked as
a librarian throughout the
country, said the profession
is not without dificulties.
Budget constraints pre-
vent libraries from purchas-
ing books on every topic the
community wants to read
about. And staff must make
sure their collection rep-
resents different sides of an
issue.
Librarianship, she said, is
a profession for people hun-
gry for knowledge and grate-
ful for literature.
“Most people go to work
to exercise the expertise
they’ve already gained, and
to hone it a little more,” she
said. But, every day, librari-
ans confront what they don’t
know. “Every day of my life,
I’ve learned something new.”
Her job, she said, hasn’t
been to inluence patrons’
lives so much as “give them
what they need to inluence
their own life” — to empower
them by helping them learn.
“I can’t believe that I’ve
been able to do something
this wonderful for this long,”
she said.
The world of libraries
has changed during Tuck-
er’s career, which saw the
rise of online technology. But
“the basic values of librarian-
ship, I believe, are still there:
You’re bringing information,
and you’re bringing reading,
to people.”
Whether the reading is
done with a digital device or
a printed page, “you’re still
connecting people with lit-
eracy,” she said. “And liter-
acy is still the foundational
skill ... No matter what else
you want to do, you need
literacy.”
A growing emphasis on
early childhood literacy has
also shaped libraries in recent
decades.
“Your child starts learning
to read the day they’re born,
and those early growth years,
birth to 5, are so important,”
she said. “There’s a little bit
of a science to it, and there’s
a deinite advantage in hav-
ing heard more words by the
time you go to school.”
Tucker remembers her
very irst visit to the Millicent
Library. She and her mother
had been talking about things
and places in their town that
cost money.
As they entered, “I said
to my mother … ‘Do we pay
to come in here?’ And she
said, ‘No, the adults in your
community give you this.’
And I said, ‘Oh, you mean
like Auntie Joan and Auntie
Helen?’ And she said, ‘No —
all the adults in this commu-
nity, even the ones you don’t
know, pay to give you this.’
“And over the years, I
just thought how fabulous
that was, how amazing that
was,” she said, “and what a
gift it became to a child like
me who just had to read and
read.”
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