By Frank Rizzo
JEFFERSONVILLE — The old Frank Sinatra standard “My Way” came to mind as one talked to Susan Scott on her next to last day as Western Sullivan Public Library director.
The “regrets, I have a few” part, that is, not the “I did it my way” lyric.
True, her vision, her librarianship skills have led the library through a decade of post-merger success.
But she’ll be the first to credit the collaboration of the boards she has worked with since her tenure began in 2001.
And as far as the day to day operations, she has nothing but praise for her staff, about 80 percent of whom she has hired.
“The biggest challenge,” she recalled of her early days, “was bringing three separate boards to the table and creating an understanding that we were one entity.”
The same for the three disparate staffs of the Jeffersonville, Delaware Free and Tusten-Cochecton branches.
Administratively, an early hurdle to overcome was to get the staffs together and turn them into a cohesive team.
“It is a testament to the board and the staff, that they really grew. It was a successful transition,” said Scott. “People put aside [whatever] issues they had – they wanted the library to work.”
A community library was probably the last place the Wisconsin-born Scott imagined she would end up.
With husband Peter Galbert she lived in NYC, having earned her MLS from Long Island University. She had worked in specialty and corporate libraries before landing the WSPL job.
The couple (he is a well-known chairmaker) had had enough of the city and decided to move to Sullivan County – where they had bought a second home – full time.