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Art hed:
By BILL COATS
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 16, 2000
LUTZ -- Madeleine Varda, 51/2, had two questions, and she stood on tiptoe to ask them over the checkout desk.
First, "Why is Mr. Alan going to another library, and working in another library?"
Because they need for him to help the children there, library assistant Joanne Dziesinski replied.
Second, "Did you know our dog died?"
Dziesinski frowned sympathetically.
Madeleine and her twin sister, Denisa, were among hundreds of Lutz residents, large and small, stunned to hear about the impending transfer of Alan Nichter, who is more than a librarian in a building that has become more than a library.
Nichter, 53, is being transferred at month's end to the county's fast-growing Seffner-Mango branch library. He was Lutz's branch librarian for 51/2 years beginning in 1977 and then returned in 1988 after a stint in administrative duties. He has worked in Lutz ever since.
He had hoped to stay. But Nichter was forced to move in a countywide shuffle of eight librarians, based partly on the philosophy that change helps employees grow professionally.
The news spread quickly among Lutz's book lovers.
"Aw! They can't do that to us!" was the reaction of members of a book discussion group led by Nichter, said member Norie Wolcott.
"We're just devastated," said library patron Janet Kaufmann. "What would the Lutz Library be without Alan?"
"He has a very, very loyal following, and we will miss him dearly," said Janet Stelzmann, another book group member.
Nichter's quirky sense of humor, in particular, shatters librarian stereotypes.
"It's a little bit off-center," said Mrs. Stelzmann. "To know Alan is to love him."
"When I came back to Lutz in 1988," Nichter recalled, "I said, "We're going to have a good time. We're going to run a library, but we're going to have a good time doing it.' "
Today, the library is the busiest spot in Lutz's quiet, historic downtown. It rivals the Winn Dixie as the community's top meet-and-greet place.
It's not a place where stern librarians shush people.
"Nooo," said Nichter. "Not even with the kids, hardly."
But Nichter is a serious book lover who can give formal talks to school groups on 150 different books.
"He is probably one of the best book-talkers in the country," said Marcee Challener, the administrator of the county's libraries.
Nichter's book discussion group has nearly 20 members, some of whom have participated for a decade. Each month, they discuss one book and are loaned another by Nichter for the next month's meeting.
"He stretches your mind," said Ms. Wolcott. "We all say when we hate the book, we have the best discussion."
Mrs. Challener said Nichter's transfer was not decided lightly.
It was rooted in the opening this November of the Jan Platt Regional Library in south Tampa. Assembling a staff there prompted a broader sequence of personnel changes spurred by Joe Stines, the county's director of libraries.
"He likes to change things a lot," said Mrs. Challener. "It ends up with good library service. It keeps employees on their toes."
Initially, Nichter was offered the Brandon Regional Library, which is the system's biggest library and is five times busier than Lutz's branch, she said. He talked his higher-ups out of that, but understood that a transfer somewhere was expected.
"When I said the word "Seffner-Mango,' a smile lit up his face," Mrs. Challener said.
"I took it in stride," said Nichter.
Previously, the Seffner library was in the East Lake Mall. Like the mall, it declined and closed. It was reopened 19 months ago next to a Wal-Mart, and has grown right along with Lutz, with a circulation exceeding 80,000 a year, Challener said. It recently received a grant for a computer lab.
In Lutz, Nichter will be succeeded by Jodi Cohen, who is being transferred from the Ybor City branch. Ms. Cohen, 56, has been a librarian for 26 years and has coordinated the county's network of volunteers who tutor people on how to read in English.
"It will be an entirely new community for me," Ms. Cohen said. "I'm sure their needs are going to be quite a bit different from where I am now."
She will be only the third branch librarian Lutz has had since 1977. The second, ironically, was Mrs. Challener.
Mrs. Challener remembers arriving in Lutz and receiving a brief, polite write-up in the weekly newspaper. Five years later, Mrs. Challener left and Nichter returned.
"There was a front-page photo of Alan standing out there with his hands on his hips," she said, laughing. "I said, "They sure didn't do that for me.' "
-- Bill Coats can be reached at (813) 226-3469 or coats@sptimes.com.
"It's the reason I've stayed here. They're very friendly. They're not overbearing. They're generally tolerant of the fact that we are a small place and we don't have everything. . . . And they're people who generally bring their books back. . . . They're slow to anger. They're not afraid to open up and have a relationship. . . . They have a fierce sense of community. . . . Even with the influx of the commuters (from Lutz to Tampa), it seems that the character of the commuters has meshed with the old-timers very well. . . . They don't even say things like, "The way we did it in Chicago was. . . .' "