Longtime Washington County children's librarian retiring
One of, if not the most, familiar face at the Washington County Free Library in downtown Hagerstown is retiring this month.
Jeff Ridgeway, aka "Mr. Jeff," has read books through the library’s story time programs to thousands of children, sometimes to children of parents he read to when they were young.
Ridgeway said he’s enjoyed reading to preschoolers in the library, at local Head Starts and through other library programs.
The youngsters are "excited, enthusiastic listeners," Ridgeway said. Reading to them is an interactive experience as they share how the story connects to them.
"They like you to know their point of view. They're not just listening," he said.
Story time also involves more than reading from a book. At times he plays music, uses puppets, or tells a story using a limberjack, a wooden figure with jointed limbs that he obtained at a fair at Fort Frederick State Park. He also has used a Kamishibai, a Japanese storytelling device involving a wooden frame with story slide cards.
He said he also likes reading reviews of children’s books to determine which ones to order, researching the history of children’s literature, and working behind the desk in the children’s department where parents and children walk up with questions.
“I think for the most part, children feel comfortable around him,” said children’s library associate Abigail Andrews, who has worked with Ridgeway for almost 16 years.
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“Kids can sense when someone is interested in them” and enjoy sharing a common interest with Ridgeway, she said.
Sitting on the children’s department desk is an aquarium containing two aquatic frogs named Harry and Ron.
No, the well-known “Harry Potter” characters were not magically turned into frogs, Ridgeway answers a reporter.
Explaining the frogs’ presence, Ridgeway said not every child has seen a frog or has a pet at home. The amphibians can peak a child’s interest and make them more comfortable talking to him or another librarian so they can help the young patrons.
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Work as a teacher and, yes, a park ranger before library
The path Ridgeway took to becoming a children's librarian includes him spotting an ad for a part-time job for the library system's Reading Machine. Ridgeway said he'd decided a career teaching high school English wasn't for him. He was amidst a 17-year stretch as a seasonal ranger at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park when he saw the ad.
He started working with the Reading Machine in the fall of 1982. The Reading Machine was a truck driven to nursing homes and local state prisons to share books with folks who couldn't get out to libraries.
After about six months, he was working as a part-time library associate at the Williamsport Library, where he started reading story time to preschoolers.
Steven Herb, with whom Ridgeway worked on the Reading Machine, would sometimes use puppets during story time, or as Herb would tell him, anything that works well to develop kids’ interest in reading, Ridgeway recounted.
Ridgeway said that was a good lesson for him.
In 1987, the library started doing Battle of the Books, where teams of local fourth- through sixth-graders read books from a list Ridgeway compiles and are quizzed about their content.
Since 2006, Ridgeway has been the one announcing the questions to teams during the final round, often held at Eastern Elementary School.
He became head children's librarian in the late 2000s.
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Interest in manga, graphic novels among big changes seen
Among the changes Ridgeway has seen over his career is the growing interest in graphic novels and manga, which has its roots in Japan.
Picture books like the classic “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” remain popular, including for parents reading to their children, he said.
Among the children’s books in such high demand it can be hard to find them on the shelves for long are the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and “Dog Man” series, he said.
He’s also witnessed the advent of computers, with the library’s card catalog being accessible via computer in 1989.
The library also has books that can be checked out for e-readers like Kindles.
When his first daughter was born in the mid 1990s, Ridgeway and his wife received a birthing packet at the old Washington County Hospital. When he noticed there wasn’t anything in there from the library, it sparked a conversation among Ridgeway and other avid readers, library users and teachers.
That led to families' first-born children at the local hospital, and later all newborns born there, receiving a board book for parents to read to them and encourage reading as they grew.
More than 30,000 books have been given away to local newborns since, through a joint effort between the library, Washington County Public Schools and Meritus Medical Center, he said.
Ridgeway said when he was a child, his mother would subscribe to books. He liked to read nonfiction, including books about historical figures and events. Occasionally, the young Ridgeway boy would go to the library in Charles Town, W.Va.
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What's next for retiring children's librarian?
Regarding retiring, Ridgeway said that as he approaches 70, it’s time to let someone else lead the children’s department.
Ridgeway said he has a 100-year-old house to work on in Ridgeway, W.Va. The area is named for his great-great-grandfather Andrew Jackson Ridgeway, who owned the land when the railroad came through. The railroad named the train stop Ridgeway, which became the moniker for the community along the Virginia state line.
He also expects to travel a bit with his wife, Amy, a teacher who helps students at Berkeley County’s Mill Creek Intermediate School improve their reading skills.
Ridgeway said he will explore opportunities for volunteer work.
Ridgeway said he also has a lot of reading to do. In addition to his Kindle, he has hundreds of books, including a lot of classics he’s collected, at home. Many of those books he bought from Jack Staley at Barnwood Books, which used to be across South Potomac Street from the library.
"I have greatly enjoyed my years at the Washington County Free Library," Ridgeway wrote in an email. "I have always appreciated the congeniality of the staff and the wonderful community that I have been privileged to work with during my tenure here."
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Some of Mr. Jeff's favorite children's books
Ridgeway has so many favorite children’s books there are too many to name.
But we asked him to come up with a few, in hopes of continuing his legacy of encouraging youths to read.
“Island of the Blue Dolphins” by Scott O'Dell.
"A Year Down Yonder" by Richard Peck.
"Listening for Lions" by Gloria Whelan
"Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
"Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" by Robert C. O'Brien
"The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" by Kate DiCamillo
"Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis
"Anne of Green Gables" by L.M. Montgomery
"The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander
"Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Washington County Free Library's longtime children's librarian retires
