PUTNAM COUNTY
The first time Abrielle “Abby” Boatfield visited the Eatonton-Putnam County Library, she entered as a little girl through the old entrance facing Church Street.
These days, a major renovation has repurposed that same entrance into the exterior glass wall of her office as the library’s new manager.
“Honestly, when I walk in the doors here and I'm not just going to the service desk, I'm actually coming in here to do the behind-the-scenes-work, really, I'm just floored. But I'm thrilled, too,” she said. “I just can't believe it's a dream come true that I didn't even know was something I wanted to do. It’s kind of surreal, really.”
Boatfield spent her very early school years in Eatonton, but briefly moved to South Georgia before returning for good in the late-1990s. In 2010, she was in the first graduating class from the then-brand-new Putnam County High School north of town.
And all the while she clearly recalls attending programs at the Eatonton library as a kid, checking out novels and research books after searching the stacks for materials or information not readily available at school. The library was always a big part of her young life, she recalls.
Upon graduating from Putnam High, Boatfield says she enrolled in a computer programming program at Central Georgia Technical College, attending classes at the GCTC Putnam Center alongside Hwy. 441, across the highway from the Putnam County administration building.
She soon realized, however, that programming wasn’t meant to be her future, so she instead joined her mother in a custodial job at the same GCTC facility she’d attended as a student.
Boatfield says that what she thought would be just a temporary role while she figured out her next move turned into a six-year stay until 2017 when she responded to an ad by the Azalea Regional Library System (AZRLS) for part-time help at the Eatonton-Putnam Library.
“I applied, but honestly, I didn't think I would get the job because I thought I’d need to have a degree, but then I got a call the next day and they said, ‘No, it's fine. You'll be a library associate, not a librarian.’ And that’s how I got started.”
For nearly two years, Boatfield says she held on to both jobs at the GCTC center and the Eatonton-Putnam library, but after doing some substitute work in 2019 at the Greene County Library under branch manager Jackie Jones-MacDonald, by April that year she was asked if she’d be interested in traveling daily to work there full-time under Lonya Jackson-Sarden, who took over when Jones-MacDonald retired.
“I said, ‘Absolutely, of course,’” Boatfield recalls. “I didn’t get to work a lot with Jackie, who unfortunately has since passed away, but I got to work very closely with Lonya. I assisted her with just about everything and as I worked under her I got some management experience, too.”
Within a year, though, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, severely curtailing public library use, but providing Boatfield with opportunities she might otherwise have never seen.
She explains library associates typically spend most of their time at the circulation desk, but with only curbside service offered during the pandemic, it freed up much more time for taking courses and learning more about library operations and customer service.
“These were all through the Georgia Public Library Service Niche Academy,” Boatfield said. “So, there's a lot of different courses, webinars, that we can take and get certificates for each one, so it’s more for the credit units that we can add to our personal portfolio.”
Boatfield has convinced her willingness to complete extra training, combined with a genuine enthusiasm for the job, is what led to her being hired as the Eatonton-Putnam Library manager. That, and doing a good job stepping up early this year to fill in as Greene County Library manager when Jackson-Sarden had to miss some time due to illness.
Boatfield describes receiving a call late in February from AZRLS Director Stacy Brown, who revealed the current E-P Library manager would soon be leaving for another opportunity and Brown suggested Boatfield apply for the position.
“Had I not gotten that phone call, I don't know that I would've even known about the position,” Boatfield said. “And I don't know that I would've even applied, not knowing that someone like Stacy actually knew and saw what I was doing. But she highly recommended that I apply, so that’s what I did.”
She still had to interview with Brown and even after that, Boatfield admits she remained unsure about whether she’d get the job, especially since she’d never previously served as an official library manager.
“After the interview, she (Brown) sent me an email that said, ‘You are indeed the ideal candidate for this position,’ and that’s how I learned I got it,” Boatfield said.
Now that she’s the official leader of the Eatonton-Putnam Library, Boatfield said she wants to make sure it remains involved throughout the local community and likewise, that the community is aware of what the library offers and does.
“There's a lot of misinformation out there. And for the most part, when you come to a library, we do everything we can to make sure the information here is accurate. We have a lot of literature on different subjects, different topics that have to be cited and sourced, and you can't always find that online,” Boatfield said. “I think the library is kind of transitioning into this hybrid kind of world where we do a lot of in-house, but we also do a lot of things virtually. We have to keep in touch with everybody.”