FAIRHOPE — Tamara Dean, the longtime library director in Fairhope, has announced her retirement, effective Dec. 31.
With over two decades of service to the library, Dean leaves an …
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FAIRHOPE — Tamara Dean, the longtime library director in Fairhope, has announced her retirement, effective Dec. 31.
With over two decades of service to the library, Dean leaves an indelible mark on the library and the broader community.
However, her decision to retire was not made lightly.
"I love what I do, and I love the people I work with," she said, reflecting on her years of service. "I love my staff, and we've been really blessed over the years to have really unique people in these positions, and they bring so much to the table for the community and for each other. I always tell them they make my job easy. So, I'm very proud of who I've worked with and really care deeply about them.
"So, why I'm leaving, I think it's just time. It's just time, and I think it's the right time for the library as well as for myself."
According to Dean, the library board is working with the city to find her successor, but no replacement has been named at this time.
Dean's journey to her role as library director was marked by a commitment to education and community enrichment.
After earning a degree in education from a Christian college, she spent about 15 years in administrative roles at private Christian schools. Though she found the work fulfilling, she decided she needed a break and transitioned into working with the library. Initially, Dean worked in the youth services department, a position she said she found rewarding, and stayed in for eight and a half years.
"First, I was the head of the youth services department, and I loved that. That was just such, well, it's all been such a blessing, but I really enjoyed that," Dean said. "And the unconditional love that the kids give you and just working with the parents — it was just wonderful."
In time, she honed her administrative and leadership skills and became the library's director, a role she has held for 15 years.
"The community has been wonderfully supportive of our library, and it has been great fun and great joy to see the community respond to our different needs along the way," Dean said. "But I really think the fondest memories are just the day-to-day going about our business, doing what we do to serve the community and it bringing us such joy, and also bringing joy to the staff and to the community and to the kids, whether it's the little bitty ones or whether it's our older ones, close to my age, that we engage with. It's wonderful. It's a service that we do, and it's wonderful to approach it as a service. So, my fondest memories are just — it's all been great."
Dean's leadership has been defined by a collaborative approach, fostering a strong sense of community within the library staff.
"I love working with a team, and our team, our department heads and myself are our leadership team. So we do a lot of collaborating on almost every kind of decision that's made here at the library, and I love that kind of interaction with my staff," Dean said. "I think that's one of the reasons we've had some people stay as long as they have because there is that feeling of sharing, of community. You know, every library, every organization has its own culture, and when I'm hiring people, I'm looking to see if they're going to really fit into our culture, you know, and we've just been so, so blessed."
Dean acknowledged that her tenure has not been without challenges.
She cited recent issues within the past few years surrounding what she says is censorship as particularly difficult.
A recent movement has been asking city council, which does not mandate library content, and the library board to move books that include certain "material containing obscenity or explicit content," such as race and sex, and characters in the LGBTQ+ community, out of the children's section. The group has also previously called for the library board to review the employment of a librarian based on a review of her personal Facebook page, where, according to previous reporting from Gulf Coast Media, they "found her support of mandatory masking, people who identify in the LGBTQ+ community, abortion and 'other Marxist ideology.'"
New state guidelines mandate libraries comply with requirements regarding books available to minors and require parental approval for children checking out materials from adult collections. Under Dean's leadership, the library adapted to meet the new guidelines established by the Alabama Public Library Service (APLS).
"Every day, we are trying to help people understand that we're a public library, and we serve everyone in the community," she said. "So, we furnish resources for everybody in the community, and it doesn't mean that you have to check the books out or your child has to check the books out; you check out what you want your child to read and what you want to read, and then let everybody else do the same."
Dean said she is proud of the library's accomplishments, including earning a Gold Star Library designation from APLS during her tenure.
Another aspect she said she is excited about is laying the groundwork for the library's expansion and renovation. She said she is even more excited to see it come to fruition, something she and others have been dreaming of for 17 years since they first moved into the building. According to Dean, the grand opening for the space, which will include a new teen area and maker space, is expected to take place after the start of the new year, possibly in January.
A Southerner through and through, Dean grew up in Georgia and lived in South Carolina before moving to the area.
Though she wasn't born in Baldwin County, Dean's love for the region is evident in her reflections on the community. Having lived in the area for 39 years, she has watched her son, who was in first grade when they moved, grow up and now have children of his own. In addition, she has witnessed the area's growth and transformation.
"I just, I love the way Fairhope, particularly, but the whole Eastern Shore, is just a wonderful nucleus of people with very like-minded hearts and minds," Dean said. "I think it's the community, and it's just the openness of the community, to like-minded people as well as the people that think and believe and value different things than we do, but we're all part of the same community. And I think that if we can learn, all of us, this whole country, can learn to share ideas and not be offended or upset, we'll be stronger for it."
According to Albert Einstein, "The only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library."
Dean said she believes this statement is true, perhaps even more today than in Einstein's time.
"Because of the resources we have here, because of the fact that people can gather here, the programs, the services that we provide — I just think the library is just critical to a community," she said.
While some may say libraries are a thing of the past, Dean doesn't see it that way.
"I find it just amazing when the circulation staff says, 'We created so many new membership cards today,' and I'm like, 'Wow, I thought everybody already had a membership,' but we keep getting all these wonderful new folks that want to be a part of the community and want to share and, you know, take advantage of the resources that we have at the library."
She emphasized the role libraries play in fostering equity and hope.
"I think libraries are a real hub of the community in the sense of the resources that are available, the stabilization to the community. It's equitable to all. It welcomes all. It levels the playing field for all of us," Dean said. "So, I feel like it brings hope, is the way I see it; it brings hope to a community to have a public library."
As she prepares for retirement, Dean said she is eager to relax and spend more time with her family, citing her son as someone she thinks of as her hero, and her grandchildren, who she says are "the joys of my heart."
However, she did say she will miss the library and the community it serves.
"I wish everyone could enjoy their career as much as I've enjoyed mine," she said. "It's been a privilege to serve this community, and I'm grateful for every moment."
