Cameryn Polk, Special to The Denisonian–

All good things must come to an end. But new beginnings are on their way as BethAnn Zambella, the Director of Libraries at Denison University, moves into retirement.

The proud Jersey Shore native spent her early years in the undergraduate career realm. Zambella graduated from Brown University and moved to New York City shortly after to work as a publisher. She later expanded on her publishing career, obtaining a master’s degree in library science at Columbia University, being the last graduating class to do so. 

Zambella has spent the majority of her life on a college campus. Zambella has worked at Barnard, Harvard, and a small Amish Anabaptist college in Pennsylvania. 

Zambella’s ambition as a reference librarian finally landed her a job where we know her best, Denison. Through all of these schools, Zambella still views Denison as the best of them all. 

 “[President Adam Weinberg] has this wish for everybody that they get to say that Denison is the best place they’ve ever worked. And Denison really is the best place I’ve ever worked. It’s been a great place for me.” 

Zambella embraced the Big Red Spirit, with her 12 years at Denison being the longest stop of her career.

Zambella said that her proudest moment at Denison would be the iterative restoration of the Library building. She believes the restoration has made it a better place for students to come and study. Fixes have included producing HVAC or updating the electrical outlets so students can plug cords in without having them fall out. 

“Creating more study places while maintaining the grandeur and history of the library has made it feel like a scholarly place where contemporary needs are met while simultaneously maintaining the history of the space.” 

The library hosted a retirement party for Zambella on April 18 in the president’s room. 

Among the crowd was Juan Arevalo ‘27, an Economics major with a Black Studies minor, who has also taken on the job of coordinating the  library’s social media. 

Arevalo acknowledged Zambella’s kindness in introducing him to the position and mentioned how she wanted him to be himself and be lively, as “the library needs more people to be silly and fun.” 

Arevalo recognizes how much Zambella has supported the library and Arevalo’s needs, such as giving him information on how to use databases. He believes that her outgoing personality and efforts to improve the library are fondly remembered by all.

Zambella has occupied many vital roles on campus, from bringing in new systems to implementing technology to keep the library up to date with an evolving digital age. 

“Her retirement is definitely something impactful for the library. I hope the person who replaces BethAnn will be as good as her,” Arevalo said. 

After retirement, Zambella hopes for the library to be a great place for students to come and study and complete the work that needs to be done. 

“I know that people will say that the library of the future doesn’t have any books in it, but we don’t believe that here at Denison. We believe there’s a balance of books and other kinds of media that are useful to students,” Zambella said. 

Outside of academia and textbooks, Zambella said how important it is to meet people where they are, meeting their personal needs. 

“I’m just hopeful that that future still involves one of those foundations of Denison, which is those relationships,” Zambella said. “And so, the expertise of librarians, their willingness to help people and be guides on the side, forge their own journey here. I really think that’s the key, the relationships between the people in the library.” 

Zambella is looking forward to traveling in her retirement. 

“My husband and I would like to go travel through the Panama Canal, well, if it’s still called the Panama Canal by then,” Zambella joked. 

She also looks forward to cooking, writing poetry, and spending time with her parents. 

Zambella would like to end her time at Denison by thanking everyone on campus for making it a great place to work with, bursting with intelligence and curiosity. 

“Both the students, the staff, and everybody have just been fabulous to work with, so I really enjoyed it,” Zambella said. “I just think everybody here is so talented and has so much potential, and you know, go for it.”