Executive Director Retires after 26 Years
Photograph and Article by Claire Cox
Denis J. Lesieur has left a far different place than the one he entered 26 years ago as Executive Director of the Lenox Library Association. When he came in 1983, the book stacks stood in rows on only one floor. On his departure from the 194-year-old building on November 20, there were three levels filled with thousands of items, from children’s books to computers.
In a wide-ranging farewell interview before his departure for Charleston, South Carolina, Lesieur said that in his time here he had seen the collection expand from 65,000 books, magazines and records to 95,000 items including videos, audios, CDs, books on tape, DVDs, computers, and a system for electronically checking out books from 300 libraries in the Massachusetts library system.
“When I started here,” he said, “the library was much smaller physically and in terms of books, which were only on the first floor. There was no visual or audio material. The second floor was mainly for storage. Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic was on the third floor. All the other rooms were for storage or for collections. The basement was unusable because of flooding. And that was it!
Now we have computers on the internet. They are used a lot for homework, writing resumes and checking e-mail. The children’s library with a part- time librarian was much smaller than it is now, and there was not as much programming for kids as there is today. The music department was small, and the once limited reference department fills the dome room on the top floor. There were about six employees in 1983, while now there are fourteen.”
Lesieur, a native of Chicopee, Massachusetts, received a master’s degree in history from Boston College and a Library Science degree from Syracuse University. He came to the Lenox Library after eight years as director of the history department at the Athenaeum in Pittsfield. He hopes to write about the history of Charleston after he and his wife, Shirley, settle into their new home there.
Several years after he came here, he joined the staff and board members in laying the groundwork for expansion of the library with major renovation and restoration. When the work began in 2002 the Library moved to temporary facilities in what was then the former Lenox Country Shops. On completion of the two-year job, which cost $3.5 million, the library reopened on its home site.
“We pretty much did the complete interior, including the basement for stacks and some storage, and went from one floor to three,” Lesieur said. “The restoration was one of the high points of my 26 years, but there were a lot of them.”
What were some of the others? “Certainly,” he responded, “one was expanding the children’s department, creating separate spaces for music and art, and getting the Welles Gallery back to being an art gallery after years of being used for other purposes. We also put a new roof on the building with a National Endowment of the Arts grant of a couple hundred thousand dollars and completed some renovations and enhanced some collections.” Has he achieved all that the planners had hoped for? “Oh, we never do,” he said.
A major hope still to be fulfilled is formulating a new long-range plan for the library – where it will be in the next five years. Lesieur said that will be up to the new director, working with the board.
It did not take long after he took the job that he found it meant far more than being “just a librarian.” “I had to learn a lot of things,” he said. “That’s what has made the job so interesting, always learning something new. There were no computers to learn when I came. Now I can’t live without them. I had to learn all the financial and legal aspects of running a nonprofit organization. Fund-raising was new to me.”
There were challenges, the most difficult one being the library’s debt to the Bank of America. It was settled when the Town of Lenox bought the building and grounds for the $1,000,000 needed to pay off the debt. “The big challenge of raising money never goes away,” Lesieur said. “The Town provides us with $240,000 a year toward our $600,000 budget. We have to raise the rest, year after year. It is satisfying when people donate money. They are telling you they are valuing what you are doing, but it’s a constant challenge, especially at this time.”
What about the next five years? “It’s hard to anticipate what is going to come along in the future,” he said. “Nobody anticipated the internet and the way it developed. Who’s to say what’s coming next? Programming will be an important part, with more programs for children and adults. Increasingly, libraries have to develop more and more use of the internet along with new types of technology that are developing. We’ve been trying to move out into the community more, with surveys asking people what they value and what they would like to see in the library. That will have to be part of the planning process, giving people who use the library what they want. They control the direction of the library.”
Asked if reading habits had changed in the last 26 years, Lesieur said that “Lenox has always had a pretty sophisticated selection for reading, with a lot of nonfiction, biography, fiction and current events. A lot of the fiction is not necessarily on the New York Times best sellers list.”
“People have always enjoyed coming into the reading room to sit in a corner and read. Now there are more places to sit than in the old days. We also see lot of people with laptops working on the wireless internet.”
“It is always heart-warming to watch kids from daycare centers coming to the library for children’s programs. We did children’s programs before, but they have grown over years. They work pretty well in getting kids into a program oriented around getting them to read.”
As he prepared to clear off his desk in his small office on the third floor, Lesieur said he is going to miss his busy life here. “The biggest thing I’ll miss is the people who work here and the board members. They have always been the greatest strength of the library. Probably my greatest pleasure has been getting to know the people who come to the library. You meet so many people who are talented. The opportunity to meet people and learn from them just never stops. In 26 years you get to know a lot of people.”
In closing, Lesieur offered a bit of advice for the new librarian who will take his place. “It will take a while to learn the community and the people and organizations,” he said. “The first challenge will be to integrate into the community. It takes time. It is one of the pleasures of this position. It has been a learning process for me. Over the years I have gotten to know the Lenox people and what they want.”
Lesieur said he plans to return to Lenox for a week or two to help the new director get started. His advice: “Learn by talking to people.”
In his absence, Lisa Berkel, will serve as interim Executive Director. Lisa has been with the library for twenty three years and will continue her role as director of development while serving as interim Executive Director.