Correspondent photo / Nancilynn Gatta From left are new Liberty Library Branch Manager Rhonda Monroe and Renee Cambier, who retires today as branch manager, at Cambier’s recent retirement party.

LIBERTY — Sometimes your life and career path diversions lead to the place you are supposed to be.

For Howland resident Renee Cambier, she began her professional life with a degree in social work from Youngstown State University but is retiring today as the Liberty Library branch manager.

“I always loved books. I always loved libraries,” Cambier said.

Growing up in the Cleveland area, she graduated from Riverside High School in Painesville Township. She came to the area to further her education. She moved to Canton after her graduation and worked in her original chosen field.

“I worked six years at a halfway house for male adult felons. I also worked briefly for Jobs for Ohio Graduates in Akron, and I was taught the parenting component of the Even Start program,” she said.

The Even Start program is for economically-challenged young children and parents to improve literacy and academics.

“I was in the process of a divorce and I was working for Canton City Schools teaching at the Even Start program,” she said.

The program was financially stable until grant money began to be cut. Cambier looked for an additional job to supplement her income and her love of reading came to mind with a library position opening.

“I worked at Canton City School Library and the Massillon Library, and that’s how I ended up in public libraries,” Cambier said.

One of Cambier’s more interesting projects was to help the school library upgrade to technology.

“I was working at an elementary school library. They received an Ohio Library grant. Everything was still on card catalogs. I was part of the transition into digitizing the card catalog so everything could be looked up on computers,” she said.

She noted that Ohioans are blessed because the state funds libraries exceedingly well.

In Orrville, she worked as the circulation manager.

“I realized I liked this and wanted to work in the library field,” Cambier said.

In 2007, she had the opportunity to move back to the area.

“I got a job at the downtown Warren Trumbull County Public Library in the technical services department. I processed, cataloged and classified media,” she said.

While working there, Cambier decided to advance her education and get her library science degree.

“I got a scholarship in 2008 and started the online program through Clarion University. It took two years to complete, and I finished in 2010. I was still working in technical services at the library,” she said.

While working there, Cambier shared with a colleague her ultimate career plan.

“I was talking to a co-worker from the finance department. She and I were outside taking a walk during our lunch. I told her, ‘Someday, I want to be a branch manager,'” Cambier said.

All her hard work paid off, and that goal became reality in March 2015 when she became Liberty branch manager.

“This seemed like the epitome of what I wanted to do. You get to do everything. You get to do ordering. You get to do programming. You get to do circulation. I order all the adult materials and the adult programming,” she said.

Cambier has offered diverse programming for the adult patrons from chair yoga and local history lectures on historical homes of Youngstown’s North Side to the Cookbook Club.

“We have great crowds for history events, but the programming is always driven by the customers in what they are interested in and what they want,” she said.

This position has offered her the opportunity to have variety in her days.

“That’s entirely true. I like working up front at the circulation desk sometimes. I like that I have to think on my feet. If we walked in one Saturday morning and it was freezing, I have to know who to call and how to solve it so the library can operate,” she said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cambier and her staff constantly had to learn to pivot and change how things normally were done so they still could offer services during shutdown.

“We did some children’s programs and book discussions online. You could order books online, pick them up and leave. Everything went into the book drop and was thoroughly cleaned. We didn’t have any furniture. You couldn’t come and sit down in the library,” she recalled.

Cambier also ensured that when the library did reopen it did so safely and was meeting the needs of the community.

“We tried to make the customers feel safe by knowing the precautions that we were taking. They were eager to return. We opened before Youngstown did and book club members asked me to start one, so I did. I had the last one earlier this month,” Cambier said.

Now, Cambier is looking to an even less structured time in her life.

“I have travel plans. I would love to work as a poll worker at the elections. I am going to help my daughter with my only granddaughter,” she said.

And she is leaving open the possibility of getting involved with a library, but this time as a volunteer.

To suggest a Saturday profile, contact Features Editor Burton Cole at bcole@tribtoday.com or Metro Editor Marly Reichert at mreichert@tribtoday.com.