Community celebrates DuBois’ 24 years at the Caribou Public library

  CARIBOU, Maine — After 24 years serving the community at the public library, Diane DuBois has ended her career as the director of the Caribou Library and has already headed down to Rockland to spend the summer with her grandkids.
“I haven’t taken a break really since I was 5 or 6 years old, picking potatoes in northern Maine,” she said, half kidding. “I’m not quite old enough to retire, so I’m going to take some time this summer to enjoy my grandkids, and then I’m going to figure out what I want to do when I grow up.”
DuBois has been a staple of the Caribou Public Library for decades, her tenure surpassing that of her predecessor, former Director of the Caribou Public Library Marilyn King, now of Limestone.
“I came to work here in 1993 and Diane was the Children’s Librarian, and she’s a gem,” King said. “She was a gem; she is a gem; she always will be a gem.”
King has such confidence in DuBois’ abilities that when it was time to retire in 1996, King knew the library was in good hands with “new” director DuBois.
“She has done so much; she brought this library into the 21st century with the technology — and the programming has been just tremendous during her time here,” King added.
Current Children’s Librarian Jean Shaw agreed that DuBois has done a tremendous job with the library.
“I’ve been here 18 years; Diane has trained me and told me everything to do from the beginning, so I wouldn’t be the good children’s librarian that I am if it wasn’t for Diane,” Shaw said. “She helped me all along the way.”
While many community members turned out for DuBois’ going-away party at the library on Friday to show their appreciation for what she’s done for Caribou, DuBois only had tremendous things to say about Caribou and its citizens.
“It’s bittersweet,” she said at the thought of leaving the library for the last time. “I feel so fortunate that I’ve been able to work in a place that I’ve loved over the past 24 years, and I’ve been surrounded by great staff, good people, I’ve had great support from the citizens of Caribou and good support from the City Council.”
“At the end of the day, I walk away feeling really good about that,” DuBois added.
Regardless of what career path she pursues this fall, DuBois said that she will always be an avid supporter of public libraries — and books.
“There’s nothing better than a really good book,” she said. “It’s life altering.”