Norma McEntee of Presque Isle likes to say that the Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library is her favorite place in the city.
McEntee has worked at the library as the information specialist and volunteer coordinator since 2010. The library has been an important part of her adult life whether she was a patron, employee or both, and is where she has felt most connected with her community.
She began coming to the library in Presque Isle in the late 1970s when her daughter was 4 years old. While her daughter attended programs and explored the children’s library, McEntee often checked out books from the adult section. She first discovered a love of reading through books by Erma Bombeck, a humor columnist. Today she most enjoys reading nonfiction, history and true crime books, and says that the library had a great impact on both her and her daughter.
“My daughter and I would head home with our arms full of books. We lived way out in the country and only got four TV channels (one was all French) so books were a good thing to have,” McEntee said.
For a while in the early ’80s, McEntee worked at the library in the evenings before becoming the secretary for the Presque Isle city manager. She stayed at the city hall for 22 years until deciding that she needed a change. At the library, she loves interacting with different people every day and getting to know many of the patrons by name.
The most rewarding moments for McEntee come from being the library’s volunteer coordinator. In the past she has had many high school students and older retirees become volunteers, but positions are open to people of all ages. She appreciates everyone’s contributions and finds joy in seeing many volunteers learn more skills and gain self-confidence.
“What makes me the happiest about working with volunteers is seeing how most people flourish,” McEntee said. “I’ve had a few people who were quiet and shy when they started, but after being here awhile they really blossomed. They became more outgoing and enjoyed the new skills they were learning.”
Working at the library has also allowed McEntee to meet many local and Maine-based writers, artist and musicians whom she admires. After meeting author and Allagash native Cathie Pelletier, McEntee found out that the two of them have more in common than they realized. She told Pelletier that her maiden name is Jandreau and that her mother’s maiden name was Fortin. Pelletier said that she is related to Jandreaus in St. Francis and Allagash and Fortins in Fort Kent.
“She did some research and found out that we’re actually cousins on both sides of my family,” McEntee said, about her relationship to Pelletier. “And now we stay in touch. She’s as great of a person in real life as she is a writer.”
McEntee is grateful that the library gives her a job she truly enjoys and in which she can give back to the community. In the late ’70s, before her earlier days at the library, she sold advertising for a local radio station and later became a full-time copywriter. Though she liked selling advertising and working in radio, she spent most of her days travelling and couldn’t be with her daughter as often. The demands of that career are partly what first brought her to the library all those years ago.
Now she’s glad to have returned and plans to make sure the library remains a part of her life.
“I’ve had jobs where I couldn’t be myself and worked with people I couldn’t relate to, but I feel so at home here,” McEntee said. “I think that even when I retire I would like to come back and volunteer.
“It’s a friendly, welcoming place, and I look forward to coming in and seeing the staff every day. It’s the people around me that make me the most satisfied.”
