Joy LeBaron Retires After 37 Years As A Librarian

Joy LeBaron Retires After 37 Years As A Librarian

Joy, a native Vermonter, was born in Montpelier, the first child born to two veterans of World War II, Mabel and James Wright. Growing up in small towns around the city of Montpelier, she attended a grade school in Berlin Corners, which had four grades in each classroom and then graduated from Montpelier High School. The oldest of eight children, she had many family responsibilities, helping to care for younger siblings. She lived in a rural neighborhood, had a family milk cow, walked to school and spent many hours outdoors playing with the neighborhood kids. The only library available was the Kellogg Hubbard Library in Montpelier. That was where Joy had her first paying library job during high school, shelving books for 50 cents an hour after school!

Joy attended Wells College in Aurora, New York for two years and then returned to Vermont to attend the University of Vermont where she graduated with a B.A. degree with a major in English Literature and a minor in American History. During her college years as a summer job, she traveled around Central Vermont on a Bookmobile, working for the Vermont Department of Libraries. After graduating from UVM, she continued her education at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, receiving her Master’s Degree in Library Science in the summer of 1969.

Joy’s first job after library school was as Children’s and Young Adult Services Librarian for the El Paso Public Library System in El Paso, Texas. After working there for two years, she returned to Vermont where she has lived and worked ever since. Her first job in a Vermont school was Elementary and Middle School Librarian in the Milton schools in 1971-1973. For the second of those years, she drove past Fairfax every day since she lived in Westfield, Vermont and had a long commute to her job.

In 1973, Joy was hired as librarian for the North Country Union Junior High School in Derby, Vermont. John Barker was the superintendent there at the time. She worked there for five years. That is where Joy met and married her husband Christopher. In 1978, Joy was hired again by John Barker, this time to be the Community/School Librarian at Bellows Free Academy here in Fairfax. Twenty-seven years later she is still here!

Joy says, “I have enjoyed working in a library that is unique since we are the only combined school and public library in a pre K through twelfth grade school in the entire state. My job has been extremely rewarding and challenging. Many changes have occurred in the library during the years that I have worked here. The school population has grown from 550 students in 1978 to about 950 students now. Not only is the library located in a different space than it was when I first came, but we now use computers to manage our collection and to access information in many ways. In the past few years we have benefited from the Freeman Foundation VPLF grant which helped us to greatly expand our offerings of library programs, build a book on audio and CD collection, and improve our computer software and database accessibility.”

After 37 years working as a librarian, Joy is looking forward to having time to spend with her husband and to travel to visit her two step-daughters and their families who live in Seattle, Washington and their daughter Maura and her husband who live in Cambridge, MA now, but will be moving to San Francisco in 2007. Traveling, spending time with her family and getting to enjoy fiber arts hobbies are some of the things she anticipates doing.

Joy says, “I will still be going to the library, but now I will be on the other side of the counter, being a library patron and not the librarian!"

To honor Joy LeBaron, there will be an “Open House Reception.”

For the past 28 years, Joy Le Baron has served as the Fairfax Community Library Director. She has overseen all the financial, managerial and instructional aspects of the school library. What she has really done is to touch the hearts and minds of the children of Fairfax by instilling in them a love of books. At the end of June, Joy will begin her retirement. She will now have time to pursue her craft projects, travel and catch up on all the reading she has never quite gotten to!

The Library will be hosting an open house reception to honor Joy on Sunday, June 4 from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Fairfax Community Library. Everyone is invited to stop by and wish her well. For those who are unable to attend, please send cards or greetings to:

Mrs. Joy LeBaron
Fairfax Community Library
75 Hunt Street
Fairfax, VT 05454