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Overcast Lynbrook library employee celebrates 60 years on the job
For the past 60 years, Dorothy Perrich has dedicated her time and energy toward being a clerk at the Lynbrook Public Library. Though a lot of things have changed in the library over the past six decades, Perrich said she has always enjoyed her job.
“People in the library are very friendly to me,” she said. “It really is a nice place to work. The people have always been super.”
Perrich grew up in Brooklyn and got her start working in the Brooklyn Public Library. When her family moved to Lynbrook, she eventually got a job at the Lynbrook Public Library.
George Xydias, a family friend who also moved to Lynbrook from Brooklyn and joined the village board of trustees, told her about the job opening.
“I always liked books,” Perrich said. “And having been in the Brooklyn library made it an easy switch to here. There happened to be an opening and I was lucky.”
Perrich said she likes historical novels, and some of her favorite authors growin up were Frank Slaughter and Bruce Lancaster. She added that when she was a student, the first books she fell in love with where “The Tales of Peter Rabbit,” by Beatrix Potter.
Many things have changed in the library since Perrich began. She recalled the days when employees used to have to handwrite numbers onto the spines of books and label them manually. “You used to type out all the catalog cards,” she said. “We don’t have catalogs. The catalogs aren’t here anymore because they’re all digital.” She added that she did not grow up in school with computers, but learned to adapt.
Sitting in a wing that was not built yet when she first started in the library, Perrich also noted the many transformations of the its interior since her first day on the job in 1957.
With her penchant for being able to adapt, Perrich said she has no plans to retire anytime soon. She still enjoys her job and the interactions and relationships she has forged.
“It’s a great place to work, it really is,” she said. “It contributed a lot to me that I would never have had, not having married or having any children. Being here you got to be friendly with kids and their parents. And it’s a nice atmosphere.”
