She's the Embodiment of Being Booked & Busy
(A Talk with Multi-Disciplined Trailblazer and Library Volunteer Eliza Leadbeater)
by Matthew Buteau, Meredith Public Library Adult Services Librarian
Anna Greenwood (former Library Aide here in Meredith and now Youth Services Librarian at the Minot-Sleeper library in Bristol) and I spent a delightful afternoon interviewing Eliza Leadbeater about her fascinating background, legendary careers, and the vital work she now does at the Meredith Public Library.
One thing we learned about Eliza right away is that she's not afraid to tackle any question or subject head on! She told us that at her age, people start thinking about writing their obituaries and leaving them for their families. Pondering that, she decided to call herself a stage manager, explaining, "Every job I've ever done was behind the scenes – to make other people shine, so to speak."
Eliza received an undergraduate degree in Parks & Recreation (the academic concept, not the television show) which she used in a professional job as the Assistant Superintendent of Parks & Recreation in Brattleboro, Vermont. She then "followed love" in a move all the way to England! She was in for a professional culture shock there, though. She was told that, "In England, no one organizes their leisure!" That obviously put a crimp in her job prospects and plans.
She completed additional years of schooling in England and gained teacher certification working with youth ages 14-21 from the slums of Liverpool. She explained with self-effacing laughter, "Much to my English part of the family's horror, I was asked to teach English."
After a few years of teaching, Eliza put a different skill to work: spinning (as in wool, not an exercise machine in a gym) which was a skill that she learned from a Canadian woman who grew up in a log cabin. Eliza turned her talent into a full business by designing and manufacturing textile equipment for spinning and weaving. Eliza faced challenges and outright discrimination as she worked to build her business. Women couldn't borrow money and married women couldn't even have checking accounts in their own names at that time in England. Even with her husband's backing, the local bank manager scoffed at her loan application. "Spinning and weaving? We've just come out of the mills. Nobody is going to be interested in that stuff!" he proclaimed.
Eliza persisted and grew her business anyway, eventually exporting to over 30 countries and doing work for Her Majesty's government. Eliza's fame grew as she wrote multiple books on the subject and became a textile magazine's version of a "Dear Abby" columnist. She drew many visitors to her quaint English village of 500 residents. One was the High Commissioner for Trade of New Zealand who came to meet the person who was sending so much wool to New Zealand, a country usually known for exporting its own high-quality wool!
Eliza eventually returned to the United States and obtained a position as the first Director of the Belknap County Economic Development Council in 1992 when unemployment in the area was reported at 11.5 % (but was almost 17% by various calculations) and many industries were in need of financing. Eliza explained that she approached economic development as involving all aspects of the economy including manufacturing, tourism, and value-added agriculture. Her accomplishments in the position included starting the first non-profit loan fund, forming an early Internet company, and being recognized by the Small Business Administration as well as on the floor of the US Senate for the work done by her and the council.
How did that long and winding life path lead her to the Meredith Public Library? She retired! However, hers was no idle retirement. A friend gave her a gift membership to the library and she joined the newly-restarted Friends of the Library group, volunteering to work on the book donations. Originally, more valuable books were sold on AbeBooks online while other books were slotted to be part of the next library book sale. Eliza then had an idea to sell books at local antiques dealers. Eventually, that evolved into the Friends creating their own bookstore (then as now, staffed entirely by volunteers) in downtown Meredith called Once Read Books. A couple moves later, the store is now located in the basement of the library.
All book donations pass through Eliza's hands first. She determines where they will be sent based on where they can do the most good and/or raise the most money for the library. Books can go to the basement bookstore, be put out for sale in the Historic Room on the library first floor, or sold at one of our popular tri-annual book sales. (The next one is September 25-27.) Books are also sold at local stores (such as Cackleberries and Laconia Antique Center), sold online, or placed in the Little Free Library boxes (which are located in front of and behind the library as well as other locations around town). Some books are routed to local charities such as Altrusa and the Boys and Girls Club of Laconia.
Then there are the one-off distributions that create the most fascinating stories. A couple years ago, the Friends sent over a thousand books to two libraries in Kentucky which had been damaged by tornadoes and floods! Eliza found a community similar to Meredith in size and geography. It had the largest elk population east of the Mississippi River so Eliza included a cookbook she found focused on cooking elk. The librarians in Kentucky were amazed at the quality of the books which allowed them to restock their devastated buildings.
As our conversation with Eliza grew to a close, I couldn't let her leave without asking the big question – how much money does all this activity raise and where does it all go? Eliza cited statistics from 2024. The bookstore earned about $7,000 and the book sales brought in about $4,500. Offsite sales brought in about $3,000. All that money is put directly back into the library to fund various activities and supplies. Examples include funding for event presenters, as well as all the snacks and beverages served at events. The money also funds craft supplies and consumables as well as prizes for summer and winter reading programs.
At the end of our interview, Anna pointed out that Eliza is the embodiment of one of her favorite phrases, "being booked and busy." I completely agree. As Eliza herself said, she is one of a group of people who work behind the scenes as a "stage manager" in life and here at the library, putting things in place in the background to make other people and organizations shine. Anna summed it up nicely saying, "Eliza, you do deserve to get acknowledgement for the insane amount of work you've done, not only in this community, but it seems in countless communities, over the course of your lifetime."