Volunteer Profile with Lynda Shamitz

The Japanese language has a slang word, tsundoku, that means, “the phenomenon of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one’s house without reading them.” I don’t know about you, but I resemble that remark.
And so does the BLL volunteer Lynda Shamitz.
When I asked Lynda, “Why do you volunteer at the BLL?” her immediate and enthusiastic response was, “Who doesn’t love a library?!”
Lynda and her husband Stephen moved to Brewster 38 years ago after living in various towns and villages in Massachusetts. When they lived in North Attleboro, Lynda went to the fiction section of the library there and started reading her way through the A’s. And she did the same here in Brewster. “I’m still in the A’s,” Lynda says. But that’s because she takes breaks to read other kinds of books. She keeps lists of what she’s read and what she wants to read: non-fiction, history, biography, anything. “I have hundreds of books stashed everywhere at home.”
These days, Lynda listens to one of two books in the mornings (usually one fiction and one non-fiction) while she’s on the computer catching up on email and correspondence. When she still worked, Lynda would have three books going at at the same time – one at home, one to listen to in the car and one to read at the office on lunch break.
In addition to checking books out, Lynda buys books at the BLL book sale. When she’s finished with them she passes them along – donating them to the little free libraries, local books sales and the Council on Aging in Brewster. The COA is another place Lynda can be found. She’s a knitter and moved with the group who used to be at BLL. In addition to knitting, Lynda sews. As she surveyed her clothes for the day she said “I made this purse, my jacket and knitted my socks.” A lot of the materials used for these domestic arts are also from her stashes of fabric and yarn. “I’m a stasher,” she said with a grin.
After volunteering at BLL for 10 years, Lynda knows her way around every inch of the library and loves all the nooks and crannies where people can hang out. She’s also proficient in all the volunteer tasks. Officially, her schedule is an hour and half on Thursdays with Devon. But when you ask the staff, Lynda is appreciated greatly for her cheerful willingness to volunteer when needed for just about any work that needs doing – from the parade to decorating for the holidays to the book sale.
When patrons come to the BLL, it wouldn’t work to have nothing but tsundoku stacked around. Instead, we have good order. And Lynda is one of the many people that make our experience seamless. Unread books are pulled from the shelves after seven years of idleness. Interlibrary loans need to be pulled to be shipped in a practice called “paging.” Shelves themselves need “reading,” to make sure that they are in alpha and numeric order. New books only remain in the new book shelving area for one year – and sorting them out and adding them to the regular shelves is part of Lynda’s volunteer work.
Libraries, Lynda says, are great places for people to come to be recognized and welcomed. We don’t have to whisper. There are programs, movies, music and great community at the library. Books aren’t banned, but celebrated. “Young people need to read about people who are just like them. There are so many different differences. It helps people to just read a book about someone who is like you. Identity is important – we can be loved for who we are. Maybe one book that others might ban will be life changing for someone.”
There’s anticipation in Lynda’s eyes as she smiles. “The library is growing all the time, especially with our current staff and new director. Everybody that I talk to says they love it here.”
“Any suggestions to make people love it even more?” I ask this wonderful innovator.
Laughing, Lynda replied, “Well, everyone should try and put the books back where they found them… and there really should be cookies at the movie nights, in addition to the popcorn.”
Thanks, Lynda, for 10 year of helping to make the library that place in town that everybody loves.
And someone, please, get her some cookies!