MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – In 1994 Gehlen Palmer walked into Middletown’s Chauncey Gibson Library to get a library card, and instead walked into the job that he has held ever since.

The Lake County Library was advertising for a branch manager for Middletown Library and Palmer’s experience in the book trade helped him land the job.

Now on the verge of retiring, Palmer recently reflected on his association with the library.

While a student at Middletown High School in the 1960s he performed “heavy lifting” to help Skee Hamann with the library’s garden and landscaping. He remembers that in the early 1960s, the library was more of a community meeting hall than a library.

Palmer left Middletown after high school for college, followed by a stint in the Coast Guard. In 1994 Palmer moved from Astoria, Oregon, back to Middletown and gave himself six months “vacation” before looking for employment

In his absence, Middletown’s library had become a full-fledged library when the Lake County Library Demonstration Project introduced countywide library service.

The state-run, federally-funded Library Project melded four independent town libraries into one system and lead to the current Lake County Library system, which began full operations in 1975.

Palmer has witnessed many changes to library service during his tenure. In the Gibson Library, volunteers created a children’s library out of an unused space in 2000. The library acquired public Internet computers in 2000 and in 2001 entered into an automated circulation and catalog system that Lake County shares with Sonoma and Mendocino County Libraries. Middletown Library’s business hours have increased to 25 hours a week.

As library services and usage expanded, the aging Gibson Library could no longer handle the workload. In 2013 a new modern building housing the Middletown Library, the Middletown Senior Center and a community center opened at 21256 Washington St. The former Gibson Library is now part of the Lake County Museums system.

Palmer says, “My proudest moments are those associated with helping to plan the new library. Some of my ideas were incorporated into it with the help of (former county librarian) Susan Clayton and the (former) County Administrator, Kelly Cox. I am equally proud of the fact the Library and Senior Center became Disaster Central after the Valley fire, providing a centralized location for survivors to get necessary aid. “

Current library services include the tri-county shared catalog, digital online collections of ebooks, audio books, magazines and downloadable ebooks.

Middletown Library holds storytimes on Tuesdays at 11:30 a.m. The Middletown Library Book Club meets on second Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m.

In Palmer’s 24 years on the job, patrons have grown up in the library and now bring in their own children.

He says, “I am somewhat surprised by the number of patrons I have shepherded through their upbringing and they comment on the influence I had in their lives. I saw it only as doing my job, but am pleased to know my efforts are remembered.”

Kate Brennan, who has worked at the library since 2017, says of Palmer, “He has been a rock and a treasure for so many here in Middletown! He has always gone above and beyond to keep Middletown literate.”

Palmer still lives on the property that his parents bought in 1954 and is looking forward to landscaping around the new home that replaced the family home lost to the Valley fire. He says he will not be bored in retirement.

Palmer’s last day of work is Nov. 9.

Jan Cook is a library technician for the Lake County Library.