Photos by Kelli S. Hewett.
Director of Library Services Michelyn Reid at the North Shelby Library.
On paper, director of library services sounds pretty formal. For Michelyn Reid, it can actually mean anything from planning watercolor classes and toddler storytimes to climbing onto the rooftop to move PVC pipe so the drains don’t back up.
Reid oversees both the North Shelby Library and the Mt Laurel Library, but she certainly didn’t plan on it.
“I never thought I would be in a public library,” Reid said.
Fresh out of library school in North Carolina, the Florida girl followed her husband to Alabama and started job hunting.
She had come from the academic world, working at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business library, where the work was brisk and buttoned up.
“It was more serious; it wasn’t as relaxed,” Reid said. “It took me a minute to slow down.”
In 2004, she landed a reference librarian role at the North Shelby Library, and that’s where things clicked.
“I realized that building relationships with the people in your community was really what it was about,” she said.
There’s plenty to keep the 10 full-time and 15 part-time employees busy.
Children’s storytime attendance is up 30% in one year as young families have joined the area neighborhoods.
Adults pack the art programs, especially watercolor, and book clubs have grown so much in Mt Laurel that they’ve split into two groups.
Meanwhile, the $1.4 million budget (for both libraries) has to cover everything from digital books to leaky roofs.
Director of Library Services Michelyn Reid at the North Shelby Library.
That’s how Reid occasionally finds herself on top of the building.
Gusty storm winds sometimes blow some connecting PVC drain pipe loose, causing leaks in the building. At upwards of $400 a service call, Reid — usually with back-up from other employees but occasionally by herself — has been known to scale the submarine-style ladder to the roof hatch.
“Going on the roof to adjust the drain saves money instead of calling the repair guy every time,” she said with a shrug.
Team members appreciate her approach.
“She has trust in her employees that they do their job, and we do our job well,” said North Shelby Library Circulation Manager Dee Green, a co-worker of more than 20 years. “And she’s really fun.”
Away from the stacks, Reid’s life is anchored by her three children and husband Gary, an industrial sales rep she met in Minneapolis at an Elvis impersonation night at a polka bar. They married in 2001. Her love of books began with a teacher mom who took her to the library, a grandmother’s “love story” books, her dad’s westerns and, eventually, Jane Austen.
When she isn’t working, she’s with her family, paddle boarding at Oak Mountain, squeezing in nonfiction or fantasy reading, or unwinding with a crochet project.
Reid said she stayed in North Shelby more than two decades because of the people — from patrons who return to say thanks after months of studying to pass the bar or graduate from nursing school to co-workers who are now the “cool” team she leads.
“We’re just independent thinkers, typically very open minded,” she said. “We love information. That was what drew me to being a librarian. Period. I love information, finding it and helping people find it.
“It has been a sweet place to work,” Reid continued. “That’s what has kept me here. It’s been good to me.”
