Retired Librarian Reflects on a Career of Public Service

When Genie Donovan came to Fayetteville from Lubbock, Texas in 1969, she had no idea she would become such a fixture in the town's library world. After a few years, with a husband teaching history at the University of Arkansas and all three children in school, she found herself wondering how to fill her free time. She thought about playing bridge, but decided to become a librarian instead.

She learned the business volunteering in the library at her children's school. She walked into the Fayetteville Public Library to ask about qualifications and came away with a job offer. Genie went from being a reference librarian to being the Reference Librarian and finally the Adult Services Librarian, ultimately retiring from that position in 1993.

When she wanted to add to the library's audio-visual collection but found that the need was larger than the budget, she and a few other people she knew formed the Fayetteville chapter of Friends of the Library. She served on the Friends' board for eleven years and is still active in the organization.

Donovan, who describes herself as “politically interested,” just completed a term as president of the League of Women Voters in June. In the course of her work with the League, she has raised awareness of environmental concerns in Fayetteville and reached out to the populace by offering voter services during elections and sponsoring a civil liberties forum in conjunction with the University of Arkansas School of Law. Genie was also president of the board of Cooperative Emergency Outreach at one time, and is a member of the American Association of University Women.

Genie Donovan does in fact still have some leisure time, which she spends gardening, reading, being with her four children and ten grandchildren and traveling. She has enjoyed all the places she visited during her travels, but tends to favor Paris and all of Ireland .

When asked to reflect on her twenty years in library service, “The library is the best place to work, anywhere,” Donovan says with a smile. “The ‘living experience' one gets while working in a library environment is a great reward.” She notes that the biggest change during her time with FPL was technology. She was pleased with the convenience and options that things like an automated card catalog and public use computers brought, but firmly believes that staff is a more important element, and is paramount to a good library climate. “A library takes on the personality of its staff, and that is very visible to anyone who walks in the door.”

Reflecting on her years in Fayetteville bring no thoughts less fond. Donovan likes the fact that Fayetteville values the environment, history and most of all, its people. “It's difficult for a fast-growing city to keep an eye on its industry and business and still value quality of life, but I think Fayetteville has mastered that skill,” she said.

Many years in a library in combination with an English degree bolstered Donovan's already great love and respect for the value of learning and reading. “There is no substitute for the value of reading,” she says. “Besides being a necessity for daily life, it helps individuals know themselves; they discover new viewpoints from the books they read that they never would have had.” Her favorite reads come from the works of Jane Austen, Barbara Pym, P.D. James and Tony Hillerman, and she highly recommends Shirley Hazzard's World War II novel The Great Fire. “It's a blend of history, diplomacy, philosophy and culture—one of the best-written, well-crafted, beautiful books I've read in a long time.”