After 26 Years, Ginny Hewitt Retires From Brooks Free Library

HARWICH – Ginny Hewitt was drawn to town 27 years ago because of the way it invested in community services and its people. For the 26 years she has served as Brooks Free Library director, she has exemplified that community spirit.

 Hewitt, who has grown library services exponentially over those years, will retire on March 6, but she promised to remain active in the community.

 “I’m interested in what’s happening in town meetings and I’d like to get on town boards and committees,” she said. “I’m planning to stay here, and I live down the street a few blocks and have spent 90 percent of my time here.”

Hewitt majored in political science at McGill University in Montreal and worked for a decade for the Navy and Marines in personnel management and as a management analyst before deciding to seek a master’s degree in library science from Simmons College (now Simmons University).

 “There are not a lot of people in the library field with management experience, so I thought I’d get involved,” she said of the decision. 

 During her final semester at Simmons, she started looking for a job and applied for the reference librarian position at Brooks Library. Her management experience was attractive to the trustees and she was offered the job.

 Hewitt was torn about taking the position while not having finished the semester, but she took the job and found a house here in April 1999, drawn by the town’s investment in community service and the people living here. She has three children — Jessica, Kim and Cliff — and the Harwich school system was the deciding factor. The classroom sizes where she was living were about 35 students. In Harwich, class size averaged 18 students, which she said felt like a private school. 

Jessica's experience with the Harwich High School sailing team under the guidance of former coach and harbormaster Tom Leach inspired her to pursue a career on the ocean after graduating from Maine Maritime Academy. Kim followed in her mother’s footsteps, serving as a library director in the town of Watertown, a community she was drawn to because of its diverse needs. Cliff remains in the area working for Harwich Port Plumbing and Heating.

In 2000, with the departure of head librarian Judy Wallace, Hewitt was named director. Since then she has grown community participation, library programs, and participation in the automated CLAMS materials sharing program established by libraries on Cape Cod.

Brooks Library has the second most CLAMS patrons of the 35 libraries on the Cape.

 The library has expanded children's programs from 249 offerings in 2005 to 298 in 2025. The library has established active after-school events for children. The annual attendance in children’s programs has increased from 5,939 in 2005 to 12,628 in 2025, she said. 

The 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. hours Monday through Thursday provide for both the after-school programs and parents to access library materials, she said. The library staff has also become very active in school programs, she said. 

 “A sense of community is important in this world, and that’s what we provide at the library,” said Hewitt.

Items checked out of the library have increased from 151,871 in 2005 to 288,448 in 2025. Total program attendance has increased from 8,765 in 2005 to 15,232 in 2025. Library use growth has been exponential during Hewitt’s tenure.

She gives great credit to her staff of five librarians along with a number of volunteers. She said the staff librarians have master’s degrees or are in school working on degrees. 

 “We’ve built a really good staff,” she said. “They are very community service oriented.” 

She also praised the commitment of the Brooks Free Library trustees who have overseen the library during her tenure. The trustees are going through the interview process for a new director, and Hewitt estimated a new director would be in place by the end of the month. 

 “I expect the new director will do a lot of new and creative things,” she said.

In the meantime, Hewitt said, deputy director Jennifer Pickett will fill in. She said Pickett is not a candidate for the director’s position. 

 “I’m going to miss it,” Hewitt said of the job. 

There will be a public retirement party for Hewitt on Friday, March 6 from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Thornton Room in the library.