GILROY
– Every morning at 8 a.m, Library Circulation Supervisor
Rosemarie Berry arrives at the Gilroy Public Library and prepares
for patrons. But that routine is about to end.
On July 2, Berry will end her 40-year career at the library
– and her morning routine – when she retires. She will be
presented with a certificate during tonight’s City Council meeting
for her accomplishments.
GILROY – Every morning at 8 a.m, Library Circulation Supervisor Rosemarie Berry arrives at the Gilroy Public Library and prepares for patrons. But that routine is about to end.
On July 2, Berry will end her 40-year career at the library – and her morning routine – when she retires. She will be presented with a certificate during tonight’s City Council meeting for her accomplishments.
“I just like my job, totally,” said Berry, who has worked at two other places her entire life. She spent six months as a social worker but quit because she wasn’t satisfied. She also spent two years commuting to the Milpitas library when her position in Gilroy was cut temporarily.
“I felt like Dorothy coming home,” said Berry, after her position had been re-instated in 1995.
The 1968 Gilroy High School graduate started working during high school at the Gilroy library, when it was still located in the Carnegie building on Fifth Street. She quickly became the typist after another employee had retired. At the time, Berry, 54, said, all late notices and forms had to be done manually.
In fact, Berry has witnessed many changes over her career. Before the library first switched to a computerized system in the late ’80s, Berry remembers spending the morning pre-stamping manila cards with due dates.
“We would do as many as 300 a day, because we didn’t know what circulation would be like,” Berry said. “If we ran out of those … someone would start madly punching more cards.”
Currently, Berry manages a staff of 20 employees and several volunteers.
“We’re like one big happy family,” she said. “I just want to thank them for doing a great job.”
However, Berry said the biggest change happened as she started getting older, and she realized that the young kids she used to see coming in for story time had grown up.
“I would see them coming in as adults … bringing their own children,” she said.
Berry and her husband, a tree specialist with the city of Gilroy who will retire in September, plan on traveling, camping and fishing at their favorite places. They plan on buying a trailer, hooking it up to their truck and hitting the open road.
“We’re going to do things we haven’t had a chance to do,” she said. That includes spending more time with her two grandchildren.
Born and raised in Gilroy, Berry and her husband enjoy San Luis Reservoir and Yosemite.
“We don’t stray too far from home,” she said. “There’s no place like home.”
