Vaillancourt closes the book on library

For the first time in almost 20 years, Nancy Vaillancourt is looking forward to winter.

The longtime manager at the Blooming Prairie Public Library is retiring Aug. 30, after making the daily trip down U.S. Highway 218 from Owatonna.

The 18-mile commute on the hilly, two-lane road “added pressure,” Vaillancourt said. “Not being able to see the road, or worrying about sliding into the ditch … I’ve driven by accidents where people have died.”

The flip-side, though, is the hospitality she’s received from the people in town.

“I’ve had people who have let me stay at their homes; one lady even wanted to know what kind of sheets I liked best,” she laughed, “so if (the weather) came to the point of danger, I would stay here.”

Though she earned a degree in psychology and social work, Vaillancourt somehow seems perfectly suited to library work – specifically, in the small Blooming Prairie branch of the Owatonna Public Library.

In 1993, as her three children got a bit older, she visited the OPL.

“I knew the director, Graham Benoit, and told him I’d love to work there,” Vaillancourt said.

There was nothing available, he told her, but on a library visit just two weeks later, Benoit called her over.

One of the employees was pregnant, and Vaillancourt was asked to fill in for the new mother.

When the maternity leave was over, she said, “they really wanted to keep me, so they moved some things around and I was able to stay.”

While she loved the work, Vaillancourt was looking for a full-time job – and in 2007, the BP Library was hiring for the role of manager.

“I don’t know how to say this, but I’ve always felt like this job saved my life,” Vaillancourt said, becoming emotional. She was experiencing some life changes, and the full-time position felt like security.

“Part of it was the self-confidence” it gave her, she said. “One of the things I really liked was having an idea, then just trying it. Sometimes they don’t work out; other times, they’re really fun.”

Since childhood, she admitted, she was creative, “but shy. I wasn’t confident enough to try things, but you build on small successes. Now you can’t hold me back.”

And she can laugh at the things that don’t work out, like her idea of a “Fort Night” at the BPL, a play on the wildly popular Fortnite video game.

Vaillancourt put up flyers, advertising the idea of building blanket forts around the library and reading books. That’s exactly what she did – with just one boy.

She’s had many successes, but “in my mind, I would’ve liked to have done more science programs, STEM-based,” she said, as well as an armchair travelogue program, where local travelers could come in and talk about their trips.

It’s clear Vaillancourt has made her mark on the town.

“Nancy is not only our librarian in Blooming Prairie, but she’s a spokesperson and a wonderful representative of Blooming Prairie,” said Becky Noble, past president of Friends of the Library, a volunteer group that supports the work of the library by filling in the gaps of funding, awareness, advocacy and more.

“You’ve heard the saying ‘better readers make better leaders’? Well, Nancy has done her best to bring that to all of our little kids – and the elderly – and everyone in between,” Noble said. “Nobody knows how much she does for that library, except those of us who are in there with her.”

Vaillancourt is just as grateful to them.

“Without the Friends, I think it would just be status quo,” she said of the work the group does. “They’ve been able to support so many things.”

Members have created Boomerang Bags, reusable fabric bags that help eliminate plastic waste, encourage sustainability and start conversations.

They have also purchased furniture and play equipment for the children’s area, and last year completed a renovation and remodel of the work area behind the circulation desk.

“If there’s a need, I usually just ask them, and they say, ‘yep, we can do it,’” Vaillancourt said.

There will be no shortage of things that Vaillancourt plans to do, come September.

Always a history buff, she will continue her programs and tours for the Steele County Historical Society, in addition to focusing on her own business: History Happens.

Outside of the county, she gives presentations on the history of the Ku Klux Klan, and will also be doing that program at the Minnesota Library Association Conference in October.

Traveling and gardening are also on the list.

And like any good reader, she is also a writer. Vaillancourt has solo-authored one book, and collaborated on three others.

Among her plans are a comprehensive history book about the Minnesota State Public School Orphanage in Owatonna, as well as updating her own book for the OPL’s 125^th anniversary next year.

Her advice for the next library manager is a page out of her own book, no pun intended.

“I would really suggest to them to worry less about how things look, and focus more on how people feel when they come in,” Vaillancourt said. “I’ve gotten to the point here where I know the names of most people – and I think that has helped them feel like they belong here.”

It’s the people, of course, she’ll miss the most – and they, her.

“She’s just a wonderful person,” Noble said. “We’re all going to miss her. She’s one of a kind.”

A farewell party will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Aug. 30 in the BP Council Chambers in city hall.