Marie Plouffe, librarian at the South Portland Public Library. Photo courtesy of Marie Plouffe

Marie Plouffe has worked in libraries for more than 20 years, including academic and public ones. She’s been at the South Portland Public Library for nearly 10 years. As the adult services librarian, she’s usually stationed at the circulation desk, answering questions, checking out books and helping patrons in a variety of ways.

With the Maine Lit Fest putting a focus on all things literary next week, we asked Plouffe a few questions about what working in a public library is like and how the role of librarian has evolved over the year years.

What are some of the questions you get asked most often? 

We get asked a lot “What book should I read next?” It can can be tricky to answer, especially if we don’t read the genre the patron is interested in. But we have tools to help. I talk to a lot of the patrons when they’re returning books, to get reviews on what they’ve been reading. So I kind of keep that in the back of my mind when I’m helping people pick their next read.

What’s the oddest thing you’ve been asked? 

They don’t publish phone books anymore, so we will get asked for very obscure phone numbers. Some people don’t have the internet, so they’ll call and ask for a phone number, for a company or a certain department there. Or they’re doing research and they call for the addresses of companies. It’s hard to get in touch with anyone over the phone today.

What are some of the hot books at the library these days?

Earlier in the summer, “The Women” by Kristin Hannah was a really hot book. And, of course, every time (Camden author) Paul Doiron releases his new mystery, those are really hot books as well. At the moment, “Tell Me Everything” by (Maine native) Elizabeth Strout has a lot of holds on it. And (Portland author) Monica Wood, she was here last night. So her book, “How to Read a Book” is one people are requesting a lot.

What are you reading now?

Right now I am reading “Beautyland” by Marie-Helene Bertino. It’s a story about an alien that’s been put into a human body and grows up as a human, and is using an old fax machine to fax messages back to other aliens about behavior on Earth. It’s a very-well written book, and she has some very clever observations. It’s been recommended to me by several staff members.

Do you have to shush people for being too loud? 

It’s not as much of an issue anymore. We sometimes do, because we have a nice reading area, and that’s our designated quiet area in the library. Once in a while, there’ll be a phone conversation or something going on too loud that’s disrupting patrons, and we’ll have to get them quieted down. We have the children’s room, and they can be pretty much as loud as they want in that room. I feel like libraries have gotten a little bit louder, but that’s because they’re more of a place for the community to meet.