Margaret Prescott, Catonsville Library Branch Manager, Retires

On the Baltimore County Public Library calendar for the month of March, there is a quote from E.L. Doctrow that says, "The three most important documents a free society gives are a birth certificate, a passport and a library card."

Catonsville Branch Manager Margaret Prescott said she thought the timing of the quote was perfect because during her retirement she will be putting all of those documents to their fullest use.

Prescott, who has been the branch manager at the Catonsville library since October 2008, has worked in the county library system for 25 years. Thursday was her last day.

A native of New Hampshire, Prescott was always connected to libraries through visits with her family in their small town. She can't remember a time in her life when she didn't love to read.

But working in the public library system was something she came to later in life, after pursuing degrees in art history and working as an art museum librarian.

She came to Baltimore to work as a librarian for the Baltimore Museum of Art. After she met her husband and was planning on settling in the area, she decided to apply to the county library system.

Working for a public library system was different than the more sequestered life of an art museum librarian, but Prescott found that she loved the connections she made with the community.

"You have to read more broadly in order to keep up with what's going on in daily events," she said.

What Prescott enjoyed the most was helping people who came to the library asking a question that she didn't know the answer to right away. She would take time to ask follow up questions and use her skills to dig deeper to find the answer.

"By the end of it you've given them what they want, you've learned something new and you've developed some kind of relationship with that person," she said.

Karen Nicolaus, co-president of the Friends of the Catonsville Library, said she saw the same thing when Prescott interacted with the community.

"She's at home working anywhere and talking with people from behind the information desk," Nicolaus said. "She's very relaxed and very approachable."

Nicolaus said that the board of the Friends of the Library nonprofit organization also appreciated how much Prescott helped preserve documents in the library's Local History Room.

Prescott, who has also worked at the Reisterstown, Cockeysville and Hereford branches, said she appreciated the sense of history in the Catonsville community.

Since she arrived at Catonsville she worked to get many of the documents--including old photos and maps of Catonsville--digitized to preserve them permanently.

"The Catonsville community is really proud of what they have here and holding onto those resources," she said.

When she thinks about the future of libraries, Prescott said she sees technology and digital collections being a bigger part of the system, but the core mission of the library will not change.

As for books disappearing completely, "I can't see them going away," she said. "I just can't."

Prescott's retirement plans include using her own library card. But she also plans to limit her reading so she can do other things such as volunteer with an immigrant support group in Howard County. She also hopes to take piano lessons and travel with her husband. 

Working in the Baltimore County system, she said, was a great decision.

"There's a real culture of wanting to serve the community and partner with the community," she said.