COASTAL OBSERVER

For decades, Sheila Sullivan was a fixture at the Georgetown Library. 

Sullivan, the head of children’s services for the county library system retired last week after 50 years on the job.

“I’ve loved it from the beginning,” Sullivan said. “Honestly, this has been my life really even though I have children. I gave a lot of time to the place.”

“We’re going to miss her,” library director Dwight McInvaill said. “There’s a bit of melancholy.”

When Sullivan started, the Georgetown library was on the corner of Screven and Highmarket streets. The library relocated to Cleland Street in 1989.

The building recently went through a year-long remodel and expansion.

“People’s reactions are what make me happy,” Sullivan said. “That makes it for me; the public’s reaction. The kids, the parents and everybody. It’s what they see and how appreciative they are. It makes a big difference.”

It was Sullivan’s idea to have an artist paint murals in the children’s area of the remodeled library. Included in one of the murals is a tribute to Sullivan: a picture of an adult duck reading a book to a brood of baby ducklings. The title of the book is “The Golden Librarian. 50 Years of Memories.”

Sullivan has always been a voracious reader. When she was young, if her mother needed her to babysit her younger sisters, she would take a book away from Sullivan so she would pay attention to them.

“To me reading has always been essential,” Sullivan said. “I want other people – whether they’re young or old – I want them to enjoy it. It’s an enjoyment. It’s an expansion of where you are and what you’re doing.”

Sullivan said it is very important that parents read out loud to their children – and with their children – when children are very young.

“The words are important. Your voice is important,” she added. “You can’t start too soon.”

Sullivan recently read a news story about the state Department of Education wanting to make the decision on what books to pull from shelves in school libraries. The argument is that it would take the decision out of districts’ hands.

Sullivan doesn’t agree.

“I know what they’re saying, it takes the pressure off the media specialist or the principal or vice principal as far as making choices,” Sullivan said. “Each community is different and our librarians know their community. If they send me a book and say ‘I can’t put it on my shelf,’ I tell them ‘then don’t put it on your shelf.’”

Sullivan told her librarians to never stock a book they can’t defend.

Sullivan respects a parent’s right to choose what their children read. She does not agree with one parent, or a group of parents, getting books banned, which takes the decision out of other parents’ hands.

“The public library serves the public, everybody. I don’t care who they are or what they are, or what color they are or what gender they are,” Sullivan said. “We represent that. It’s your choice to pick that book off the shelf and check it out. Or not to.”

McInvaill called Sullivan an “excellent” storyteller and suggested that she consider it as a second profession. For years she brought storytellers from around the state to Georgetown for a festival.

“At that time storytelling was much more vibrant in the state,” McInvaill said. “She organized that festival for 12 years. My job was to find the funding for it. It was a great time.”

Sullivan said the festival got so big that she couldn’t do all the work herself and it eventually ended.

Sullivan and Sue Cross came up with the idea for the library to host tutoring for people to learn English.

The library even hired a part-time bilingual librarian to help people.

“I think it’s made a difference,” Sullivan said. “A lot of our people are Hispanics that want to do better, want to understand their doctor, want to understand their teacher, want to be able to communicate.”

McInvaill said Sullivan is respected across the state. 

A University of South Carolina professor once analyzed the library’s children’s collection and labeled it the best in the state, he added.

“I just never looked back, honestly,” Sullivan said. “I’ve been very blessed with meeting so many great people all over the state.”