The Library’s long-time ambassador of cheer is retiring this week after decades of front-line service and behind-the-scenes work making sure all the books fit.
“I’ve worked here for 25 years and I’ve enjoyed every one of them. I’m not leaving because I don’t like my job – I’m leaving because it’s time,” says Brenda Snowdon.
In her years with Access Services, Brenda developed knowledge and skills that not many—if any—other people in the library have. It’s fair to say she knows more than anybody in our library about shelving and the mechanics of shifting a large, ordered collection. It’s a tough task.
“I think I am safe in saying I have moved every book in this library, except the government documents,” she says, adding she took on the task of space expert “as a matter of survival.”
“Somebody needed to do it. We were running out of space and we needed to be creative. It comes from my need to have things in order.”
Indeed, just a week before she retired she scouted out some unused shelves in the ground-floor microform room and had a plan.
“I've noticed that there is a tight section in the Mary Mellish room which I would like to fix before I retire,” she wrote in an e-mail. And voilà! The space is fixed.
She also has a talent for design. 
“I like to create a homey atmosphere for the students and I like to make them smile when they go through the door by the dog,” says Brenda, who is one of the people responsible for making the R.P. Bell’s mascot—a Dalmatian statue—festive for all occasions. Not surprisingly, she says she’ll miss students and staff the most.
Her advice to students? “There’s so much knowledge at their fingertips. If they need to know anything they can come to the library and find out!”
Brenda will retire to the small farm in Wood Point where she has lived for 43 years. Her five children now have 16 children of their own, ranging in age from one to 18. “It’s pretty much one a year,” she laughs. “It’s wonderful. I am very blessed.”
In her early days in the library, the farm had a “full barn” with four cows and four horses. “I milked in the morning before I came to work,” she says. Today, farming in Wood Point consists of one horse, chickens, and some cats. And a lot of vegetables—she and her husband still grow enough corn to single-handedly feed attendees of the yearly Wood Point Baptist Church corn boil. She’s also known around the library for her giant bouquets of gladioli—spreading cheer in a way that is effortlessly Brenda.
Brenda’s final shift in the Library is Sunday, September 30 from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. Please stop by to wish her well.
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