Island Profile: Lisa Richland, a life’s path lined with books

September 1, 1989 was the day Lisa Richland walked into Floyd Memorial Library in Greenport as its new director. It would be a year later that Bruce Saul walked into the same library looking for a book and found not only a good read but a relationship that would lead to marriage.

“Very romantic,” Ms. Richland said with a laugh about their meeting.

They make their home on Shelter Island, a place Ms. Richland first came to know through friends who lived in Dering Harbor.

“It felt very comfortable,” she said about the decision to live on the Island and commute to the North Fork.

Mr. Saul, a therapist with offices on Shelter Island and the North Fork, is also a frequent ferry patron.

Ms. Richland is a first generation American, the daughter of immigrants. Her mother was born in Russia and her father hails from Liverpool, England. In some ways, Ms. Richland’s path to becoming a librarian was direct. An early reader, she credits her mother with encouraging a love of books by taking her to a library even before she started school in Brooklyn.

Before being seduced by the profession that would consume much of her life, she worked in real estate and as a travel agent. Real estate became something of a family trend, she said. Her son and a niece have both pursued careers in that area. She was also an alumni director for a private school in Brooklyn.

When she considered returning to school, she left Brooklyn for the University of Kentucky to pursue a degree in library science because she had friends in that area. Upon graduation, it was back to New York where she began scouring advertisements in The New York Times for library jobs.

And then, there it was — she still has the ad — Greenport’s Floyd Memorial Library had an opening for a director.

She’s now the longest serving library director in Suffolk County.

“I’m embarrassed by that,” she said with a smile. “How did that happen?”

Ms. Richland describes herself as a one-time hippie who rode a motorcycle for several years and volunteered for progressive political groups. She still volunteers in the community, serving as a member of the Friends of Mitchell Park, an organization founded in 2008 with a $1 million bequest from the late Pauline Mitchell whose family ran a restaurant and marina at the site on Greenport’s Front Street.

Ms. Richland also served on the village’s Arts and Culture Committee.

“It’s a citizen’s responsibility to participate,” Ms. Richland said. In the past she’s served as president of Women’s Right to Peace; worked for former Senator Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 presidential campaign and President Jimmy Carter’s 1976 campaign. She was also active in several New York City political efforts.

Today, she holds her political views close to the vest, believing it’s important that the library be a place where everybody feels comfortable regardless of political points of view, explaining that libraries bring people together from many walks of life with different opinions who might not get together if it were not for programs and resources the library has to offer.

The best part of her job? “Getting to order books to my heart’s content,” she said without a second thought.

That’s equaled by the pleasure of putting a good book into the hands of a person she knows will appreciate it.

If there’s one part of the job she wishes she didn’t have to do, it’s managing staff. “But when I get it right, it’s very satisfying,” she said, adding that the current staff is the best she’s ever worked with.

Retirement is likely a couple of years away, Ms. Richland said. “It will have been a good run and I will be leaving things in good order.

At the same time, she said Bruce is already encouraging her to think about how she’ll spend her time after a career that has consumed so many hours.

She describes herself as “not a very outdoors person” but is also not “a sit at home, do nothing kind of person.”

Still, it’s a good bet some of those hours will be taken up curling up whereever she lights with a good book.

What do you always have with you? A book.

Favorite place on the Island? My screen porch to watch the birds of Shelter Island.

Favorite place not on Shelter Island? Wherever my son, Rafa, and his family are. That happens to be Gowanus in Brooklyn at the present time.

What exasperates you? Intolerance.

Last time you were afraid? Not that I’m fearless, but I don’t recall being afraid.

Best day of the year on Shelter Island? The day when the Fire Department carnival combines with the crafts fair to bring so many people to the Center.

Favorite movie or book? Movie — “Blade Runner.” Book — “Winter’s Tale” by Mark Helprin.

Do you have a most-respected elected official? Senator Kristen Gillibrand.