By Amy Batista, Special Writer
EAST WINDSOR – It was time to turn the page.
Two longtime fixtures of the Twin Rivers Library, Ina Heiman and Nancy Demme, retired last week.
The library hosted a program called “Reception: Celebrating Over 40 Years of Service” at the Mercer County Library’s Twin Rivers branch to honor Ms. Heiman on March 31, the day that she officially retired. Family, friends, library friends, East Windsor Township Mercer County Library Commission representative Phyllis Anker and Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders Chair Ann Cannon came out to say their goodbyes and pay tribute.
“Ina is our longest tenured employee in the entire library system, which is one of the only five-star library systems in New Jersey,” said Twin Rivers Library Branch Manager Jeanne Murray. “So today is a happy and sad occasion. We are happy for Ina for all that she is going to experience in her new adventures, but we’re really sad that she is going.”
From the beginning, when the first branch of the library opened in 1973, Ms. Heiman – who has managed the circulation – has been a champion of the library in the community.
“It was her expertise that really helped get the branch get up and running again,” said Ms. Murray. “I think she has probably mentored every single new staff person who has come in here from entry-level library assistant to branch manager.”
Ms. Murray said it would be fair to say that Ms. Heiman has “really been the heart and soul of this branch from the beginning. We are losing a real treasure to the library.”
Ms. Cannon took a few minutes to recognize and present Ms. Heiman with a proclamation.
“To be here in front of you and to congratulate her among all the years she’s been working for this Mercer County Library System,” said Ms. Cannon. “I’m so proud to know you and to have known you.”
Ms. Cannon presented a proclamation on behalf of Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes.
It read in part: “Ina Heiman, by proving herself to be a conscientious knowledgeable member of the library staff, was promoted to senior library assistant in 1976 through her qualities of leadership and initiative, and was deemed an invaluable member of the library system and was promoted to Supervising Library Assistant in 1981.”
Ms. Cannon said that Ms. Ina Heiman has embodied the true sense of public service maintaining the highest level of performance and integrity both in her interactions with the staff and library patrons and her library expertise and procedures.
Ms. Cannon also presented Ms. Heiman with a certificate of honor on behalf of the Board of Freeholders, which was signed by all of them.
Ms. Anker next presented Ms. Heiman with a proclamation on behalf of East Windsor Township Mayor Janice Mironov, who was unable to attend the reception.
“East Windsor Township values our Mercer County Library System as providing access to information, resources and services responding to educational, informational, recreational and cultural needs of our diverse community and striving always to encourage a lifelong interest in reading,” said Ms. Anker.
She said that the Twin Rivers Branch of the Mercer County Library System originally opened on Aug. 18, 1973, as storefront library in the Twin Rivers Shopping Center in the space now occupied by Scotto’s Restaurant.
“In 1971, Ina and Carl Heiman moved from Brooklyn, New York to the Twin Rivers community in East where there were instrumental in founding a library branch within their community for the use of all of the areas families,” said Ms. Anker.
Ms. Heiman, supervising library assistant, was one of the initial employees of the Twin Rivers Library in 1973 and has been serving the library for the past 42 years.
“In 1983, a new Twin Rivers Library Branch building was constructed and Ina’s knowledge and expertise were instrumental in setting up the library in its new location, continuing to provide countless residents free access to read, learn and connect to information on all subjects and to serve as an important focal point in our community,” said Ms. Anker.
The reception concluded with Ms. Heiman providing a few comments.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said. “I’m simply leaving my job at the Twin Rivers Library. I’m not moving away. I will be here. I will volunteer in the library. I will be a member of the Friends of the Library.”
In an interview after the ceremony, Ms. Heiman said she started out as a library aide in Brooklyn in the New York City School system.
“I fell in love with the libraries,” she said.
For her, the highlight of it is dealing with all kinds of people.
“It’s very hard to say what I will miss the most,” she said. “I’m a very scheduled person. My life is not going to change very much, really, other than the fact that I won’t be coming to work.”
Children’s Librarian Nancy Demme, of East Windsor, also retired after 25 years of service.
She started with the Twin Rivers Library in 1992 and with the Mercer County Library System in February 1991.
“I got a degree in psychology and I couldn’t find a job that was interesting without a PhD and I thought, what do I really love best?” said Ms. Demme. “I thought books and libraries, so I want back to school at Drexel and got my MSL (Master’s Degree in Library Science) and fortunately landed a job at Mercer County Library.”
Ms. Demme has always been involved in the children’s programs.
“I did story time, baby time, craft time, tween programs, reading clubs, science clubs math clubs and just kind of the gamut of children’s programming,” she said.
For her, the highlight has been watching children come in as babies, then storytime, move into kids craft, then needing homework help, choosing a college and then getting married and having children and bringing those children to storytime.
Ms. Demme is also a writer who has written children’s books and novels. March 31 was also officially her last day at the library.
She said that the branch is in the midst of interviewing children’s librarian candidates.
