Melanie Taylor Coombs wasn’t able to read as a child. She had a vision problem that made text blurry, causing the words to constantly swim across the pages. To focus hard enough on the written word meant really tired eyes and lifelong issues with depth perception.

“It made reading very, very hard, and it was very stressful for me,” Coombs said.

Fast-forward to July 2014, and Coombs is six weeks into her new position as the head of Adult Services at the McArthur Public Library in Biddeford. Despite the serious difficulties reading, Coombs has chosen to work in the library trade since 1991. If anything, overcoming this obstacle provided the impetus for her to find work in a literary field.

“I started in libraries largely because I couldn’t read as a little kid,” she said. “So as I got into college and began doing more research, and started really enjoying reading, I realized that I wanted to be a librarian and share that with others.”

Coombs received her undergraduate degree from the University of Maine, and then proceeded to dive headlong into a master’s degree program at the University of Rhode Island. From there, she continued gaining experience in libraries ”“ first an assistantship at the Wells Public Library, then Coombs became director at a library in Gray before moving on to the director position at the Farmington Public Library, where she remained for seven years.

As a Sanford native, the desire to move back closer to home was what caused Coombs to take a self-described “leap of faith, which led me to McArthur,” she said. As the head of Adult Services, her job consists of young adult and adult collections, technology archives and cataloguing. Unlike a directorship, her new position is a “much more targeted role,” she said.

Coombs is also tasked with running the McArthur book club, which meets every three weeks and is an extremely close-knit group of people, she said. Between the book club and the books she reads on her own, Coombs estimated that she reads around 100 books a year.

Looking back to her early struggles, Coombs said it all started with the word “intonation.” Her brother, an avid reader, would sit her down with Dr. Suess books and place a card under the words, which she would follow until the end of the sentence. Her brother would endlessly implore her to read with “intonation,” which soon became her motivational word for continuing to read, no matter the struggle.

Today, Coombs is also an advocate for audiobooks. Libraries have always been in transition, she said, and McArthur’s implementation of audiobook collections and computers have really enabled people to find alternatives to the written word.

“I think that when you have trouble with one sense, another is more attuned,” she said. “I always loved listening to stories as a kid, and this has carried over.”

Coombs said she listens to audiobooks during her free time, especially the book club books, because she is also an avid outdoorswoman. Kayaking, hiking and walking her three rescue dogs, Coombs chooses to enjoy listening to novels as she makes the most of the outdoors.

What has most impressed Coombs at McArthur thus far is the longevity and effectiveness of her co-workers. She is currently the newest staff member by a staggering eight years, with some of her colleagues having more than 30 years of experience at McArthur. Everyone knows their role, and this ensures everything runs like clockwork.

The longevity doesn’t intimidates Coombs though ”“ quite the opposite, in fact.

“I’d like to think that I’d be one of the staff members who is here forever,” she said with a laugh. “I’m committing myself to this.

“The staff really care about each other. That just speaks really highly of the library and the community.”

The emphasis on the community is how Coombs decided that, even after only six weeks, she wanted to stay at McArthur for a long time.

“Our purpose, as librarians, is to serve the community. That’s what we do, that’s the only thing we exist for. We’re not there to make money, but we’re there to provide services to the community,” she said, adding that McArthur epitomizes that.

Truth be told, there is only one thing that Coombs wishes to see change in the coming months in her new job.

“Come on down to the library and ask me about books, because I love that!” she laughed. “I love recommending books.”

— Gillian Foss is a newsroom intern with the Journal Tribune and can be contacted via [email protected].