The Work We Do: Rosemary Winters, Cutchogue New Suffolk Free Library

My name is Rosemary Winters and I’m the director of the Cutchogue New Suffolk Free Library. I’ve actually been working here since I was 14 years old. 

I went away to college and then I came back and started working professionally in 2013.

We offer services to people that range from story time … to STEAM-related programs for children, to community service programs for teenagers, and trying to bridge the educational gap of trying to take tests with school. We have concerts and cooking classes, too. 

We’re not your typical old library. People have a misconception that you walk into the library and we have books and little old lady sitting at the desk, but that’s no longer the case.

As the director, my job is to budget for the library, manage the staff, and really serve as a liaison to the community. A big part of my job is to oversee all of the programs and services that we offer. 

What you do as a librarian is provide services, adapting to the community’s needs, which are constantly changing. It’s their job to come up with that creative idea or whatever it may be, and it’s my job to foster it. We really work together.

I’m an avid reader, so, of course, I love to give someone a book that they like. And I think that goes back to what it means to be a librarian in the very traditional sense. The best part of this job is being able to inspire staff members to come into their own and offer wonderful things to this community. I’m very privileged to be able to spark creativity in people. 

Patience is probably one of the bigger things when you’re working with a lot of different people, that being staff members or community members. But I think it’s also about not necessarily setting expectations so you don’t feel like you’re stuck in a certain mold — you can grow outside of it.

I want to be able to provide the community with its ever-changing needs. To really sum that up, I don’t know what they’re going to be. So it’s really being aware of what everybody wants and listening to people’s requests.

The Cutchogue New Suffolk Free Library is located at 27550 Main Road, Cutchogue.

“The Work We Do” is a Suffolk Times multimedia project profiling workers on the North Fork. It is made possible by Peconic Landing in Greenport. See photos on Instagram @thesuffolktimes.