Mildred Dodd

Mildred Dodd, known in the town reports as Mrs. Frank B. Dodd, was librarian of the Bennett Public Library for sixteen years, from 1955 to the end of 1970 (see Library Director). After the death of Alice May Harriman in January 1955, the board of the Bennett Public Library Association appointed her librarian, and she in turn appointed Mrs. Edna Cochrane as her assistant. The changes of her first year were practical ones. The library was opened daily from two to five in the afternoon and seven to nine in the evening, and Saturday evening hours were dropped after a survey of users. The North Billerica branch was closed: its juvenile books were graded and placed on loan in the Talbot School, to be checked once a year by the librarian, and its adult books were brought to the main library. The old bird-room was opened up, heated and lit and became the librarian's workroom, and the library began a weekly column in the Billerica News.

She presided over a period of very fast growth. In 1958 a state library consultant found that the library's budget was just 61 cents per head of population, against a national minimum of $3.00. In 1961 association president Helen M. Brainerd wrote that "our librarian, Mrs. Dodd, and her capable staff run the library so efficiently that the work load on the Board is considerably lightened. Billerica is a fortunate town to have such a competent librarian." State aid that year allowed the library to stay open from 2 to 9 P.M. on weekdays and to hire a second assistant, and by 1962 it was open forty hours a week with a third adult assistant.

In 1962 a second floor was built in the stack room, paid for entirely by the bequest of George Holden Tinkham. The board thanked Mrs. Dodd and her staff for moving all the books before and after the construction, work the staff did largely on its own time while it "kept the library open and operating well through all the confusion." In 1964 adult circulation reached 35,396 and children's circulation 35,676, and a new card index system was installed to speed the handling of borrowers. President Bruce A. Brace reported for 1965 that circulation had tripled in ten years, from 26,000 in 1955 to 77,450, and commended "the Library Staff, headed by Mrs. Mildred Dodd." In 1967 the collection grew by 1,444 new books, and the board wrote that she and her staff "have done an excellent job under the circumstances of the increased use." By the end of the decade nearly all the shelf space was used up, and the association had begun to study the need for a new and larger library.

At the end of 1970 the association announced that "our head librarian, Mrs. Mildred Dodd has decided to retire at the end of 1970." The directors, and "all those who have preceded us on this Board for the last 16 years," promised to remember her for the many kindnesses and courtesies she had shown them, adding that "she has always made the most difficult task seem easy by her complete cooperation." Her successor was Mary Hadley.

References

1. Report of the Bennett Public Library Association, 1955 (Mrs. Mildred Dodd appointed librarian; changes in hours and branches)
2. Report of the Bennett Public Library Association, 1958 (Librarian Mrs. Frank B. Dodd; state consultant survey)
3. Report of the Bennett Public Library Association, 1961 (tribute to Mrs. Dodd; longer hours with state aid)
4. Report of the Bennett Public Library Association, 1962 (librarian Mrs. Mildred Dodd; stack room second floor)
5. Report of the Bennett Public Library, 1964 (library operated by librarian Mildred Dodd; circulation figures)
6. Report of the Bennett Public Library Association, 1965 (staff headed by Mrs. Mildred Dodd; circulation tripled since 1955)
7. Report of the Bennett Public Library Association, 1967 (Mrs. Mildred Dodd and her staff; 1,444 new books)
8. Report of the Bennett Public Library Association, 1970 (retirement of head librarian Mrs. Mildred Dodd)