Melinda West, who has worked at the Fullerton Public Library for more than 40 years, was honored at the October 20 Fullerton City Council meeting ahead of her planned retirement.

Library Director Anita O’Keefe Torres presented the recognition and credited West with over 40 years of service. O’Keefe Torres became director on March 23.

“As somebody who’s only been here for seven months, that tells me a lot about what I need to know regarding this city and this person,” O’Keefe Torres said.

She said West will remain with the library for “a couple more months” and that she has valued their time working together. “Every interaction I have with you, I’m just soaking in that knowledge and all of the stories,” she told West. “It says so much about the city of Fullerton that we have somebody who will commit this amount of time to working for this organization.”

Before the presentation, the speaker who introduced it said West has stayed on the job beyond the point where it pays off for her financially. The speaker said they believed West is “probably losing money at this point,” as Pete Acosta, another long-serving employee retiring this year, had been. “It’s not about money to them,” the speaker said. “It’s really about that civic service.”

Kyle Samudio, who was recently recognized for his own 25 years with the library and is now West’s direct supervisor, described how much has changed during her career. The public service desk where West has helped patrons has moved twice and gone by three names: the reference desk, the information desk and the “Ask Here” desk.

Samudio said West has created many programs over the years, but her signature work is collection development, which librarians use to describe choosing and buying books for the library. Her first assignment was the teen collection. At the time, Samudio said, that section had no chairs. West bought a beanbag chair with her own money so teens would have somewhere to sit. She later took charge of paperbacks and eventually took on most of the collection. For roughly the past eight years, Samudio said, West has selected all of the library’s fiction, including mysteries and science fiction.

“Chances are, if you’ve been to the library over the last four decades and you checked out a book, Melinda bought that book for you,” Samudio said, drawing applause.

He also thanked West for the reading experiences she has made possible for library users and for their 25 years working together.

West did not speak at the presentation. Samudio told the audience she had declined to, joking that librarians “can be a little reticent.” The audience applauded her.