Sue Crites Szostak announced she is retiring Jan. 23, 2023, from the Poplar Bluff Municipal Library. It will be the day after her 10th anniversary as director there. This also will close the books on her 45-year career as a librarian.
The library’s Board of Directors is currently advertising for a new director and conducting an open search on through the Missouri Library Association and on their website.
Szostak’s history with the library extends back 62 years, beginning when she got her first library card at age four. Growing up in rural Butler County, books were a primary source of entertainment, teaching her about the world and fueling her imagination.
“I think I was a natural librarian but didn’t know it for a long time,” Szostak said. “When we were cleaning up my grandmother’s house, I found a little index box in which I had made a card catalog of her books.”
After graduating from Twin Rivers High School, Szostak earned her bachelor’s degree and then her master’s in library science from the University of Missouri. She interned at the Poplar Bluff Municipal Library in 1977-78, before moving to Tennessee and working in the Dyersburg State Community College. She later worked for Columbia State Community College and Motlow State Community College school libraries, as well as the Brentwood Public Library in Nashville.
She actually retired in Tennessee before moving back to Poplar Bluff, when a good friend found the job listing for director at Poplar Bluff Municipal Library and insisted she apply.
Szostak has always loved her job.
“I love what I do. I love what reading does for people,” she said.
Digitization is one of the biggest changes Szostak has seen in libraries, and she is proud to have been involved with it from the beginning. She took coding classes in basic COBOL and Fortran at the University of Missouri in the seventies, followed by PL/I in grad school and a database class after that, then brought interest in computers with her into her librarian career. She does not describe herself as a programmer, though, but rather an effective user of the technology available to her.
“I think I’ve been fortunate to have been a part of that history in librarianship and technology,” she noted.
She was an early supporter of library automation, and in the mid-1990s she transitioned a college library to a CD-ROM network database that could serve classes outside of campus.
Today, the Poplar Bluff Municipal Library has a strong digital presence including digital library cards, a streaming service, ebooks and audiobooks. She credits an innovative staff with the success of these services.
“This is a great staff. We’re really fortunate to have the people we’ve had in this library, good people who care, so they move forward,” Szostak said.
The library has also expanded since Szostak came on in 2013, in large part because the Poplar Bluff Municipal Library board was the first library in Missouri to pass a sales tax in its library district. Besides staying atop trends in technology and growing its resources, the library also recently acquired the Ridgel branch on Highway PP.
Szostak announced her retirement plans to the board last year to give them time to think about what they wanted in a new director. The process brings up many emotions for Szostak, but “the time was right.” Her only disappointment is retiring while the pandemic grinds on.
“I think the biggest disappointment in my whole career is to get to the end ... with a pandemic getting in the way of us doing some great things in this world,” she said. “So what we’re trying to do is figure out how we can still do great things with the pandemic.”
She and the library board are currently looking ahead at the next 5-10 years. Their first projects will likely be updating the roof and HVAC, but bigger changes may come as Interstate 57 is completed, the city’s population grows and revitalization efforts continue downtown.
The Poplar Bluff Municipal Library will need to change and expand as well to keep serving the community, which may entail adding onto the present building or even constructing another location.
“I’m looking forward to the next chapter. And I’m looking forward to watching the next chapter here. Because I know I’ll get to see it. I think things are moving fast now. I think that we’ll see a lot of a lot of difference and a lot of change,” Szostak said.
Between board members who care deeply about the success of the library and access to its resources, and the innovative and hardworking staff therein, Szostak is confident the future of the library will be bright.
In retirement, she plans to continue serving the community through the University of Missouri Extension and to spend more time at home, but will eagerly watch what is in store for the Poplar Bluff Municipal Library.
“I always tell people, on my tombstone I want it to say ‘she did the best she could.’ And that’s what I hope I did in these 10 years is the best I could to set the library up to go further into the future,” she said.