Beatrice Agnew: Palisades Free Library Director for Almost 40 Years
A Remembrance by Carol Elevitch
When Beatrice and I met and became friends in the 1960s, she confided that upon first coming to the United States from France, newly married and with a small baby, she would sit in Washington Square and imagine how it would be to own a bookstore in Greenwich Village. But when she came to Palisades in the mid-1950s, it was through our small public library that she became involved with books.
She spent ten years volunteering and serving as a Library Trustee. As it so happened, RCLS (Ramapo Catskill Library System) had been chartered recently by the NY State Board of Education to serve 49 libraries in Rockland and other New York State counties. They offered professional consultants to train staff and trustees in how to build and order adult and children’s collections, a children’s consultant to help develop programs, and a reference consultant. Since the Palisades Library didn’t have the funds to hire a professional librarian, the trustees invited RCLS in and down they came. Beatrice was able to get all the training she needed from them.
When Beatrice was hired as Library Director in 1968, she continued calling on their expertise and never stopped. Soon the Palisades Free Library was cited for its outstanding small library reference collection. By 1975 the book collection stood at over 10,000 volumes. Staff was hired and trained; Marie Firestone came in 1972 and became Beatrice’s “right hand,” Johanna Lo joined in 1995 and soon found her place at the reference desk, and Martha Bosch, followed by Lillian Gunther, took over the very successful children’s programs.
Over the years there were other concerns and responsibilities. While Beatrice’s role was to “make a library,” she also worked with a Board of Trustees elected by the community. There were requirements to maintain the library’s charter from the NY State Board of Education, the yearly budget to be presented to the Town of Orangetown in order to receive tax funds, policies regarding library use and issues such as censorship. There were worries about funding. In 1970 a law was passed that allowed the Town Board to collect taxes for the four hamlet libraries, which then met yearly to divide the funds among themselves. The law worked well but the arrangement was threatened several times and required firm action by Beatrice and the Trustees to protect the interests of the Palisades Free Library.
Throughout the years, Beatrice’s mantra was space. Finally, in 1996, after years of planning and working with many Boards of Trustees, she oversaw an expansion that doubled the library’s size. It also allowed the library to embrace new technology; Beatrice was proud that Palisades was the second Rockland County library to put images of its local history collection on line and to offer free, wireless Internet access and downloadable books.
But Beatrice is best remembered for the attention and care she gave to the book collections. She was always in touch with the needs and interests of the community, and succeeded in creating an ambience that encouraged lingering, browsing, and picking up books to read a page or two. Beatrice loved books, and envisioned the library as a place to bring the community and its children together around common interests. We salute her passion and the commitment, which did not falter over the nearly 40 years she gave us.
Today the Palisades Library has 1,083 registered borrowers and a total circulation of 18,846 books. There are 23,880 books in the collection, electronic materials total 68,470, and the attendance at adult and children’s programs in 2007 was 2,642. We’ve come a long way, much of it thanks to Beatrice.