Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

The Howell Carnegie District Library's longtime office manager Diane McKee is celebrating 40 years at the institution. A special luncheon was held in her honor Thursday.

"I had a job before I worked here, somewhat shockingly, at a pharmaceutical wholesaler which was nicely paid, but highly stressed," McKee told WHMI News.

"It was in the Novi area, and I didn't have air conditioning in my car. I wanted something a little closer. A library is somewhere I'm always comfortable. I saw the ad in the newspaper, and I thought I'm going to try, even though I took a dollar an hour pay cut."

McKee said she had no immediate plans to retire as she reflected on all the changes she’s seen over the years.

"We still have the Dewey Decimal System, but nobody types catalogue cards anymore. We don't type overdue notices. Nobody signs their names in book cards," she said.

"When I first started working here, people would come up to the one desk that we had, and they would say 'I don't know who this Sally Smith is, but I like all the books they read, so I always look for their name in a book card.' Or, they'd say 'I read this last year, I'm not going to check this out.'"

Aside from new technology, McKee noted one other difference between 1986 and now.

"Two summers ago, right after the pandemic, there was a good sized crowd over in the children's department, and I looked over and almost all the parents had tattoos. I thought, boy I'm old."

She insists libraries still play a vital role in today’s world.

"We have really interesting programming. We're working on doing some more interesting stuff. There's a block party coming up in early June, check our website," McKee said.

"We now have an app for the library, which is actually one of the best things I think we've ever done. If you download the app, you don't have to bring your library cards, you can just check out with it. You can save books you might want to read. You can know immediately if the book is in. You can place holds. You can manage multiple cards, if you do manage your kids' cards."

Howell Carnegie District Library is planning a Summer Reading Kickoff Party on its lawn June 1.

More information is linked below.