From volunteer to full-time: Gloria retiring after 30+ years

As she nears her retirement after 33 years of working for the library, Gloria Sura Taylor remains an advocate for it.

Sura Taylor began her career at EPL as a volunteer clerk before becoming a full-time employee working for both the outreach and Technical Services departments.

“I do like libraries, there’s so much you can do here; we have great books, movies, audiobooks, speakers and program for new families,” she says.

“The variety of programming from the storytimes for the youngsters to the author visits shows there is something for everyone,” says Sura Taylor.

“It’s wonderful for children.”

In Technical Services, she organizes and orders items for the library, while in outreach she visits preschools and retirement communities to hold program, check out materials and read, among other duties.

Sura Taylor is ready to step back from her jobs at the library and spend more time with her family.

Her passion for libraries goes back to her childhood when her parents would read to her and her sisters and they volunteered at a lending library.

“I remember my mom and dad reading to me as a child,” she says. “I grew up around libraries.”

She has been known to visit other libraries while traveling as well.

Gloria says as a child she had to be told to slow down from volunteering at the lending library.

“It was supposed to be temporary, a couple of hours a week thing and I would be there every day,” she says.

As an adult, she was a regular patron at EPL. One day she noticed a stack of books waiting to be checked in.

“I asked if they needed a volunteer to help check items back in and I started then,” she says. She has worked at the library ever since.

Her passion for volunteering hasn’t wavered in her decades since becoming a full-time employee; Gloria won the EPL Outstanding Community Engagement Award for 2019.