The Southeastern NY Library Resources Council, during its annual meeting each spring, commemorates one of its members with the Twila Sneed Commitment to Excellence Award, signifying an individual’s dedication to their library and others in the network. On June 7, the council announced that this year’s honoree was Ginny Neidermier, a Walden resident and director of the Josephine-Louise Public Library who has spent over two decades developing the village’s library, providing resources to her community, and supporting other libraries in the county.

Neidermier and her husband moved to the Village of Walden during the mid-1970s. She graduated from SUNY Orange, SUNY New Paltz, and SUNY Rockland, where she earned her degrees and a certificate in public library administration. Neidermier worked in banking for several years before becoming a part-time reference librarian at the Josephine-Louise Library in 1999, and later director in 2006.

“A girlfriend of mine told me that there was a part-time position opened here at the library and I was looking for work. I walked into the library and knew who the director was, not realizing we took the same class together over at SUNY Orange,” she said. “I started as a part-time reference, and that was in 1999. I worked my way up to library assistant and she (the former director) retired in 2006, and the library board hired me as the next director.”

As the library’s director, Neidermier manages numerous responsibilities with her team and the village’s municipal departments, including developing policies and procedures, collaborating with the Ramapo Catskill Library System (RCLS), and providing education programs to residents. She learned most of her experience from the library’s board and previous director and attributed her success to her hardworking staff.

“I’ve been very fortunate, our staff is great. Whatever I ask them, they do, and my library board is fantastic. We and the village offices are supportive of each other, and who could ask for more than the police department downstairs,” she said. “My staff are very important to me and they’re key to allowing me to do my job and whatever the library board asks from us, so my staff are a priority.”

Of the challenges that Neidermier and the library face, funding is by far the biggest; every year, she and members of the Orange County Library Association visit their county and state libraries to lobby for funding. Through her efforts, Neidermier has secured hundreds of thousands of dollars for 17 libraries in Orange County, providing much-needed support for each library’s salaries, programs, and renovations.

“She does not advocate just for the Josephine-Louise Library in Walden, she advocates for 17 libraries in Orange County in front of all the legislators in Orange County,” said Grace Riario, chief executive officer of RCLS, who spoke about Neidermier’s accomplishments during June 7’s meetings. “The first year she got $140,000 for all those libraries, and the year after she fought, she got $150,000. When the pandemic happened and they thought ‘She’s not going to show up,’ she showed up and they gave $106,000 to the libraries.”

“She’s been doing this for all the years that she’s been the director, and she’s an inspiration to me to advocate for libraries,” Riario continued. “Because if she can do it, I should be doing a better job.”

Given that the Josephine-Lousie Library’s building was originally a firehouse, built pre-1990, construction is another major issue and Neidermier has orchestrated several expansions to the library over the years. Using grant money from the Division of Library Development, she and the staff replaced the windows in 2011, renovated the first floor and upgraded the technology in 2015, and renovated the children’s section between 2018 and 2019. Neidermier plans to upgrade the building’s balcony and implement an archive for historical records once the library can apply for more grants.

“One of the milestones for this library has been to upgrade the building. Through the Division of Library Development, we are allowed to apply for construction grant money,” she said, explaining the grant process. “With those funds, we work with RCLS and they help us craft the grant ask, and most of that money goes to improving the space that we operate in.”

In her 25 years of service, Neidermier’s favorite part about her job is engaging with the community, and she loves seeing residents visit and utilize the library’s resources. This attitude extends to her outreach efforts and volunteer work in the village; she is a member of the Walden Community Council, the Walden Historical Society, The Walden Rotary Club, and the Hudson Valley Honor Flight.

“The best thing is not so much the administration part of it, because that bogs you down, but it’s everybody coming in,” she said. “It’s not my library; it belongs to the community. It’s everybody coming together and realizing how important libraries are, especially today with so many libraries getting hit left and right.”

During the SENY Library Resources Council’s meeting, Riario listed Neidermier’s defining attributes as director: her leadership, her great relationship with Walden’s government, her involvement in the community, and her determination to lobby for funding. Neidermier was completely shocked when she won the award and considered it one of her highest achievements. She thanked everyone who helped her reach this far in her career.

“I felt very honored and I did not know Twila Sneed, but I knew who she was how important she was to the community, and how highly regarded she was. So to be nominated and then awarded, this was pretty much the highlight,” Neidermier said. “And with any award, I’m not the one doing this by myself. So I couldn’t have received that award without acknowledging everybody I’ve ever worked with.”