GARDINER — Not long after he began working as assistant director of the Gardiner Public Library, Scott Handville came across an article in Newsweek that reported how people were no longer staying for long periods at any one job.

He thought that would be the story of his working life, moving on to something new every few years. But on Friday, as Handville, now 68, wraps up four decades at the Gardiner Public Library, he realizes he could not have been more wrong.

“I’ve been very fortunate to work with people I really care about,” he said. “I’m very fortunate to work in a community that I enjoy and I liked.”

Handville’s last day at the library is scheduled to include an open house from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

His retirement is just one big change coming this year to the historic library. Director Anne Davis is also planning to retire after 30 years at the library.

Like Handville, Davis said she never thought she would make a career at the Gardiner library. With a background in technology and retail, she was hired as a library aide for those skills as — like libraries everywhere — the Gardiner Public Library was beginning to embrace technology and the internet.

“I was thinking, ‘Well, this will be a good bridge job, and then I can figure out what I want to do when I become an adult,'” Davis, 65, said. “And here I am, 30 years later. It just grabbed my heart.”

Handville said technological conversion has been the most significant change at the library during his tenure. It rendered card catalogs obsolete and provided library patrons access to books, movies and music in ways few people could have anticipated in 1981.

“It really redefined how we as a profession — and the patrons — accessed information,” he said.

That shift was one of the things that prompted Handville to stay at the Gardiner library. He said if he ever thought about moving on, something would change radically and he would take that opportunity to refresh himself.

Davis said a trait that has distinguished Handville is his unfailing patience, both in supervising library staff members and dealing with patrons.

“You would never see Scott look at his watch when he’s talking to you or have any indication that he has a hundred other things he has to do,” Davis said. “The customer comes first for Scott.”

For his part, Handville said the Gardiner Library Association has been supportive of the library staff.

“Having only two library directors, and having them be magnificent, supportive women, didn’t hurt, either,” Handville said, referring to Davis and Glenna Nowell, Davis’s predecessor. “It was a case of being in the right place at the right time.”

Davis, who was named Maine’s 2015 Outstanding Librarian by the Maine Library Association,  said she loves the pace of the library and its literacy.

“You have conversations with people that really impact you,” she said. “Every day I go home and think: ‘I helped someone today. I helped a child find something that they were searching for. I helped a single mom who is struggling to raise children.’

“We have been a great respite for people who have gender issues or health issues. We are the one place where it’s a no-judgment zone, and that’s true every day.”

Dawn Thistle, the archive librarian, has been named to succeed Handville as assistant director, and a search is underway to hire Davis’ successor.

“I am very excited by the prospect, and I have some very big shoes to fill,” said Thistle, who for 10 years was director of the Vassalboro Public Library. “I want to continue the legacy that (Handville) started here: Very friendly, very kind, very helpful. Those are qualities I admire and hope to carry on.”

Thistle said the Gardiner Public Library was her library growing up, and she looks forward to having a role with more contact with patrons.

“All I want to do is do right by it,” Thistle said.

Davis said other changes are also coming to the library: Thistle was both the archivist and the young adult librarian, and to fill that role, she has promoted Jessica Betit as young adult librarian, beginning Monday. Because Thistle will continue to work in the Archive Room, Ann Russell, the technology librarian, will take on cataloging duties.

Gardiner has had a library collection since 1796. The library building, owned by the Gardiner Library Association, was built in 1881. Since then, two wings have been added and several renovations have resulted in creating a Children’s Room on the second floor, the Community Archives Room in the basement and the R.P. Hazzard Reading Room. An elevator has also been added.

Davis said she has assured the Gardiner Public Library board of trustees, the Gardiner Library Association and her staff she will stay at the library until her successor is identified.

Davis is also serving as Gardiner’s acting city manager while the City Council searches for a permanent manager. She has committed to remaining in that role until the next city manager is hired.

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