Allen Jon Kinnaman, director of the James E. Nichols Memorial Library from 2005 through 2020, will retire at the end of the year.  Library Assistant Glenn Walter retired earlier this year.  Circulation Assistant Lois Brady will provide interim services while the Board of Trustees conducts a search for a new director. 

Mr Kinnaman sent a letter of appreciation to the Center Harbor community. which can be read in full here: “It is hard to imagine it’s been fifteen years since I stood outside the Nichols Library on a freezing second of January, waiting for the former librarian to meet me at the door and welcome me in as the new director. Words cannot express what a pleasure it has been to greet you at the library and help you find the right book or movie to make your day.

People have sometimes asked why I became a librarian.  It was not my original intention in life.  That said, there is something uniquely satisfying about the work. In One Long River of Song (which I highly recommend, by the way), Brian Doyle says:

“an leabharlann (the ancient Irish word for library) is where your community stores its treasures. It’s the house that imagination built. It’s where all the stories that matter are gathered together and shared. People come to it seeking for something that’s deep and ancient. Who you are as a town is in the library.”

I hope that as I have come to know you that the Nichols Library has grown in a way that reflects your treasures and inspires your imagination”.