North Adams Library Director Heading to McCann Tech
 Rick Moon's last day at the North Adams Public Library was Friday. He resigned to head the McCann Technical School library. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Richard G. Moon Jr. laughs that he's learned the library trade from the bottom up.
"I don't think ever in my wildest dreams I would have said I'd become a library director," he said. "I was a business person, accounting ... ."
The North Adams Public Library's director capped a dozen-year career there last week by recalling how he started as "the computer guy," among other things.
"I learned right from the bottom, I was shelving, I was cleaning toilets, vacuuming," Moon said. "I learned the whole trade. ... You never know what's going to happen."
It included more than cleaning and shelving. Moon was technology director and earned his master's in library science online from Clarion University of Pennsylvania while working full time. He was appointed interim director and then library director in 2010 after the retirement of Marcia Gross.
Now Moon is headed down the road to McCann Technical School, where he'll be overseeing the renovation and upgrade of the school library.
"I haven't been able to grasp it yet," he said, showing pictures of the blank box that awaits him at the high school. "I'm still packing up at the library."
Moon's excited about the new venture, which came at a time when he'd been looking at other possibilities. He will have to get a teaching certificate but the salary is higher and the schedule aligns with the school year.
"I was reading the job description and I wondered if this is where I supposed to go," he said. "It seemed the right thing," chimed in his wife, Tammy Moon. "We both graduated from McCann."
Rick Moon graduated from the machine technology program and went on to get a bachelor's degree. When the electronics company he was working for started cutting staff, he volunteered for a layoff so "people with families could keep their jobs." A year later, a meeting on the golf course with then Mayor John Barrett III turned into the library job.
He laughed recalling how his involvement in the library really began as "a literal mistake."
He'd gotten an invitation to a meeting around 2000 about fundraising for the library's expansion project. Curious as to why he'd been asked, Moon attended the meeting of library supporters and city officials.
"I'm sitting there and looking around," he said. "I have no idea why I'm here."
Well, participants explained, they were thinking of doing some outings — whitewater rafting, etc. — as fund raisers. That's when it clicked: They thought he was the Rick E. Moon of Dick Moon Sporting Goods.
Moon had to dash their expectations, but did jump in to help the "Library Pursuit" fundraiser.
"I put that all together and had to prove to them that we could do this electronically ... that was my start at the library - volunteering."
The new McCann library will be a high-tech media center, but Moon believes his people skills as well as his technological skills will be valuable.
"Over the years, I've been able to work with a lot of people, patrons who are older and youth, and been able to understand their needs," he said. "It's going to be a definite change but I'm getting comfortable with it."
Moon has a list of accomplishments he was involved in at the library, from its becoming the first green library in the state to being part of the Digital Commonwealth Project in electronically archiving historical documents to improvements through judicious use of gifts and fundraisers. One that he hopes to bring to McCann is a grant-funded project to digitize yearbooks.
"You never know what you have done until somebody tells you," he said. "And I'm getting that now as I'm leaving."
The library director's job was posted last week. Moon hopes his replacement will appreciate the library's importance.
"I hope that the next library director has as much enthusiasm and love for what that library's about and keeps it in the forefront of people's minds," he said. "The library is the cornerstone of the communty.
"When people move to a community they ask about the police, hospitals, schools and 'do you have a library?'"
Tags: McCann, public library, school library,
