On Saturday April 12th, 2025 the South Windsor Public Library was renamed to honor long time director, Mary J. Etter.
What started as a small collection of books housed in The Wood Memorial Library and Museum, has expanded into a source of knowledge and a staple within the South Windsor Community.
For 38 years, Etter has watched the development of this library unfold from her directorial position. Prior to her time in South Windsor, Mary J. Etter was a Children’s Librarian in Andover, Bloomfield, Meriden and surrounding towns in Massachusetts.
In an interview with The Bobcat Prowl, Etter explained her motives behind becoming a librarian, emphasizing the importance of the profession and calling it a “human service.”
From a young age, Etter observed her parents’ love for teaching, with her mother being an english teacher, and father holding the position of an elementary school principal in Springfield, Massachusetts. Her parents believed in teaching as not only the classroom pedagogy, but a public service.
Bonding over her love for people, information, and literacy, Etter would accompany her father to school committee meetings, where he discussed the happenings of his elementary school. It was moments like these that made Etter debate whether her career path would resemble that of Elementary Education.
If it weren’t for her part time job observing the children’s department at a local library during her high school years, Etter might not have discovered her future as a children’s librarian.
“I realized children’s services in a public library resemble the same goals of starting literacy, without the pressure of projects, tests and assessments taking the fun out of it,” Etter told The Prowl.
It was this realization that was the catalyst for a 14 year career as a children’s librarian, where Etter had the privilege of working in thriving children’s departments across New England.
Turning her attention to South Windsor Connecticut, and assuming the role as the South Windsor Public Library’s director in 1984, Etter oversaw the renovation and expansion of the library building in 1992.
Outgrowing the space the Wood Memorial Library provided, Etter was present for the purchasing of the South Windsor Public Libraries current home. However, the process of securing and moving into this building was long and intricate, taking an expanded time of over a decade.
Ready for referendum in 1995, 10 years later the building was approved due to the efforts of Etter. Along with the other board members, Etter campaigned door to door, pitching the referendum to any resident willing to listen.
“The price tag [of the building] was pretty high for the day, as it tends to be, and so it had failed a couple of referendums trying to get the money approved to build the building,” Etter explained.
Persevering through the setbacks, federal block grant money became available to fund this project. Although 40% of the original design was lesioned in the process, Etter and her team utilized this money to kick start the build.
After securing the funds, a new dilemma was presented. Where would the mass amounts of books reside during the time of construction? Etter found herself residing in a shop in the Geissler’s Plaza and South Windsor High School for nearly nine years, while the construction occurred.
Requiring even more space than this, Etter rehomed books by the hundred to South Windsor residents.
“We borrowed grocery carts from Geissler’s, and had volunteers pack adhesive labels in envelopes. They would pack 100 labels in every envelope and people who wanted to could borrow a hundred books for the time of the construction project, and take care of them for us,” Etter told The Prowl.
As it was in expansion mode from the beginning, the new building was an adequate home for these books to return to. Study rooms, high quality computers, an array of artwork and of course books now reside within the South Windsor Public Library.
When recounting the memories of her time as director, Etter emphasized the importance of evolving with technology in an information based building. She was a witness of the technological advancements that the public utilizes today.
“When I started, the library owned two computers, we had just allowed the first one for the office and bought one for the public, they were coin operated,” Etter explained.
As a source of possible congestion and noise, Etter agreed to place the public computer near the children’s department, as she believed that section of the library to be quite noisy already.
Overtime, the library evolved from owning 2 coin operated computers, to approximately 50 modern computers that are available to the public. In order to supplement this shift in technology, a young man, who was 14 at the time took it upon himself to educate older folk on technological literacy.
The newly named Mary J. Etter Public Library is a hub of literacy, education and community engagement largely due to Mary J. Etter’s leadership.
“I hope that people will remember [the library is] a part of the community and a part that you would notice if it were missing,” Etter told The Prowl.
