From books to iPads, sewing patterns to apps: 37 years at the public library

After a career that had equal footing in two centuries, Gary Ramsay has retired from the P.E.I. public library.

When Ramsay began as a reference librarian in Charlottetown 37 years ago, his time was spent flicking through card catalogues and leafing through the heavy tomes that indexed journals and magazines. It's all computerized now, and the types of questions he answers has also changed.

"When I first began, we would have old ladies calling us up asking for a pattern for a tea cozy," Ramsay said.

"Now we have old ladies calling up and saying I think I need an app. My grandson says I need an app. Can you help me out?"

The entire nature of the library has changed, he said.

What was largely a book repository in the 1980s has become more of a community centre, with programming to appeal to a broad range of people, and an expanding number of things people can borrow and ways people can borrow them.

"We subscribe to the entire Sony database of music. We have telescopes We also tried snowshoes this winter but we had no snow," he said.

"It's great to have those paper books, but if you're going to Australia or somewhere you can take 10 books on your iPad. You can get your library anywhere on the planet and borrow books."

As he watched staff grow younger around him, Ramsay felt increasingly it was time to close the book on his library career, but even in his first days of retirement he is finding he missed the work, and the constant flow of people through the doors. He is considering starting up a retired persons support group.

He thinks the group could meet at the library.

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