MIDDLEBURG – It all started when a younger Opal Leino went to a job interview with the hopes of obtaining a job at a local convenience store. Her interviewer tipped her to an open position at the then Clay County Headquarters Library in Green Cove Springs, the same library she used to visit as a child. Today, nearly 38 years later, that convenience store doesn’t exist, and Leino is retiring from a long career in working in Clay County’s libraries.

In October 1979, Leino began working at the Green Cove Springs branch library as a clerk. She wore many hats at that time, and she was being groomed by seasoned librarians. She even drove the bookmobile.

“I got to meet people from all over the community,” Leino said. “I was always a shy and timid person, but it brought out a lot in me, it was a whole new experience for me.”

As it turns out, the grooming and learning experiences were for a purpose. About 20 minutes away from Green Cove Springs, a small group of women in the Middleburg area were fighting to get a branch library built in their community. Leino, who’d been driving the bookmobile as far as Clay Hill was well aware of the need for a library in that area, and she was ready to help them in any way she could.

That small group of “feisty women,” as Leino puts it, are the Friends of the Middleburg-Clay Hill library. In the early 1980’s, once funding was secured for a new library in Middleburg, Leino was promoted to branch manager of that upcoming branch.

“We didn’t have enough funding and staff to do it full time,” Leino said. “In the meantime, before the library was to be built, they wanted a storefront library.”

For about a year, Leino would commute from Green Cove Springs, hauling books in her car, to a small Civil War-era two-story house on Main Street in Middleburg.

It was in that makeshift library, Leino made memories that would last a lifetime.

“If we didn’t have room on the porch, we’d have programs out in the yard,” Leino said.

In that little house, Leino said it was average for them to host 60-70 kids at one time for programs.

In the winter, adults and children would trot up the stairs to have indoor programs, with heat coming from a double-faced fireplace. Despite the unique circumstances, Leino, volunteers and library friends persisted until 1985, when their dream of a new branch library became reality.

Once the Middleburg-Clay Hill branch library officially opened, Leino, the bookmobile driver turned branch manager, was already an established literary leader in Clay County.

“It’s grown amazingly,” Leino said. “It’s a challenge to keep up with.” Some of the changes include the automation of the card catalogue system in 1995, to keep up with the ever-changing technical landscape, Leino pursued bachelor’s and master’s degrees in her spare time.

“Sometimes I miss those old card catalogues,” Leino said with a smile.

Over the years, Leino has seen how technology has changed not only her profession, but the community she serves.

“We still have people, especially in Clay Hill, who don’t even have and can’t get access to the internet, so it’s not about people wanting to switch to e-books, but it’s that they can’t, and we[libraries] have to be that bridge,” said Leino. “It might be different in a community with a lot of jobs and a lot of money, but in this community people are just trying to make a living.” Regardless, Leino has been committed to instituting computer-based programs and promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education in the library.

Leino says she could write a book about the people she’s encountered during a career. In her time, she has seen the kids she used to read to back in the 1980’s, come in with their own children to library programs. She also recalled a gentleman a who lost his job during the 2008 economic downturn, thanks to a library partnership with WorkSource, he found a job. He returned to thank Leino and her staff for helping him get on his feet.

Her staff offered similar sentiments.

“She’s wonderful, she’s so helpful, if you need to know something Opal knows it,” said Teresa Denapoli, senior library clerk. “She’s funny, she’ll have you’re rolling on the floor if you’re having a bad day.

On July 25, Leino will lend out her final books as a branch manager at the library she’s called home since 1985.

“I feel like I’ve done all that I’ve set out to accomplish, there’s so much more that others can do” Leino said. “I think the Lord has other plans for me, like Jerimiah 29:11, there’s somebody higher than me that has plans for me.”