Waupaca library director leaving in 2022
By Angie Landsverk
When Peg Burington retires from the Waupaca Area Public Library in 2022, she will do so after working in the children’s and teen departments, serving as assistant director and being the director.
“It just felt like it’s the right time,” she said of her decision.
Her husband Chris retired eight years ago, and they have a grandchild.
Living through the COVID-19 pandemic of the past year has made many think about how they spend their time.
It was the same for Burington.
Last month, she notified the Library Board of her intent to retire.
Burington also noted her plan on March 16, when she presented her monthly report to the common council.
“This year has held its share of challenges. The library team has really stepped up to provide services in an unconventional and extraordinary way. I’m very proud of all of them. I’ve never worked with a group of people that I admire more,” Burington wrote in her letter to the Library Board.
She further wrote, “In the past 10 months we had to change course numerous times and it has taken its toll. I have decided that I am no longer the best leader for this organization and will be retiring at the beginning of 2022.”
Burington said it is time for someone younger with more energy and new ideas to lead the library.
She plans to retire sometime between March and May of 2022.
Transition
Burington’s idea for the next year is to prepare the organization for a leader and make it a smooth transition.
“It’s a full year,” she said. “We have time.”
That amount of time gives the Library Board the luxury to think about what it is looking for in a new director, she said.
The timeline for hiring a new director was discussed briefly when the library’s Personnel Committee met on March 17.
Burington said there will be at least a three-month gap between when she retires and when a new director begins.
The city’s policy is to wait until retirement payouts are covered before rehiring for positions.
Other than Burington, there is no one on the library’s staff with a master’s degree in library science.
That means there is no one on staff to serve as interim director.
Two staff members will take on more of a role during the gap.
Burington said the library system is supportive and able to assist as well.
Two decades at library
When Burington retires next year, she will end a more than 20-year career at Waupaca’s library.
She began working full time at the library in 2000.
That is also when she decided to start working on a master’s degree in library science.
Burington said she wanted to understand the library and be able to work in more of a capacity there.
In 2001, she was hired to be the assistant director.
In the fall of 2007, Burington was hired as director, following the retirement of Jerry Brown.
Prior to her library career, she was a teacher.
Burington has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and taught at schools in Oklahoma, Illinois and Ohio.
It was a position at Churny Cheese for Chris that brought the family to Waupaca in the spring of 1992.
As soon as they moved to Waupaca, she started visiting the library with their children.
After Burington did not get a teaching position here, Brown called her that fall for an interim position.
After she was done working for the library, Burington was asked if she wanted to continue being involved in the library by being the president of its Friends organization.
That was in 1993 – the same year the library opened at its current downtown site.
She remembers giving a speech.
The following year, Burington was hired to be the part-time technical services librarian.
In 1995, the family moved to Ohio, where she worked at a small, independent library and also taught third grade for one year.
After Chris transferred back to Waupaca in 1998, Burington said, “The first thing I did was go back to the library.”