Homecoming for Waupaca native
By James Card
Eric Bailey grew up reading at the Waupaca Area Public Library and now he is the director.
It’s a homecoming that took a circuitous route but one that makes a perfect fit. Both Bailey and his wife have family in the area.
“This was the library that first inspired me and founded my love of libraries. I have a lot of memories attending a lot of programs at the old Carnegie building [current location of the Waupaca Historical Society, the city’s former library]. When this new building was finished, I was incredibly excited. As much as I loved the cool, old Carnegie building, this to me as a 12-year old, it was cool and modern and new. I’m really glad to see it’s been taken care of,” said Bailey.
Bailey grew up in Waupaca and is a 1998 Waupaca High School graduate. He went to UW-La Crosse and studied history and archeology. He graduated from there in 2003 and married his college sweetheart who was from northern Illinois.
They moved back to where she grew up and a couple years later, her parents packed up and moved to Saxeville in Waushara County. They had a cabin for many years on Pearl Lake and it was a place they always figured they spend their retirement years.
While working as a director of technical services at Lake Bluff Public Library, he earned a master’s degree in library science in 2009 from Dominican University in River Forest. In 2012, he became the director of the library. Lake Bluff is similar in size to Waupaca with a population of 5,616.
Community ties
When Bailey read in the Waupaca County Post about former library director Peg Burington planning to retire, he considered the possibility of relocating back to Waupaca. His wife was excited about the idea – she has memories of visiting the area and their children could be closer to their grandparents.
Bailey and his wife have three sons: a teenager, an elementary school-age boy and one preschooler.
Bailey’s mother lives in Hortonville and his father is in assisted living residence in Madison, close to his sister who is a nurse. That left the family home empty near Spencer Lake.
“My sister and I both grew up there and have a lot of fond memories. We worked it out and we wanted to keep the house in the family. So that’s where I moved in,” said Bailey.
He is familiarizing himself with the director position and will be wrapping up the summer reading programs.
Bailey has a deep understanding of how modern libraries work in the digital age and the services they can offer but he cited an article from the New York Times that showed people of all age groups preferred to read physical paperbound books over electronic versions.
“It’s about striking that balance. It’s about staying relevant to the community but we don’t want to run so far ahead that you’re leaving behind the things that people know and love us for already,” said Bailey.
There is one new initiative he is excited about. This summer Waupaca was awarded a grant from T-Mobile that is earmarked for city square projects and some of those funds will be put towards outdoor furniture. Soon a library patron will be able to check out a book, step outside, drag a chair under shade tree and have a relaxing reading experience.
“It will be something out there and available. The chairs and the collection is intended to be moveable so it’s adding to the possible uses of the space—rather than mounting stuff in concrete and limited the ways that space can be used,” he said.