Rainey to retire as Darlington County libraries leader

DARLINGTON — Sue Rainey moved all across the country teaching school because her husband was a Coast Guard officer before he retired.

But the first thing she and her children did when they located in a new town was to visit the library because “we always loved libraries and books,” she said.

The siren song of being a librarian enticed Rainey until she couldn’t stand it any longer. While her husband went into a family business when he retired, she headed for Durham, N.C., to pursue a degree in library science from North Carolina Central University.

She was living in Wilmington, N.C., and still teaching. She decided to stop teaching and go to N.C. Central full time.

Her first job as a librarian was in Hilton Head. Her last job is as director of the Darlington County Library System, which includes libraries in Darlington, Hartsville, Lamar and Society Hill.

She is retiring the end of this month after 13 years.

But what has she enjoyed the most, besides being around books?

“I enjoy the people,” she said during an interview in her office in the Darlington Library. “It’s always about the people. We like to make people happy and take care of their needs. People always have a need for information.”

But they sometimes don’t know where to find that information, so “a lot of my job is about letting people know that we’re here to help them,” she said. “We can help them solve some of their life problems.”
Rainey was 45 when she became a librarian. She said she thinks her age was an asset.

“I guess when you are going into the profession at that age, you have a lot of experience to offer,” she said. “You have a lot of questions coming to you that need answering when you are working in a library.

“I had people from all over the world coming to me when I started at Hilton Head. The fact that I was an older librarian and had life experiences to offer was certainly a benefit.”

Technology and the Internet are two of the biggest changes Rainey has seen during her librarian career.

“We had two computers in the system when I started in Darlington and no money to buy any more,” she said. “I went to various companies and asked for their old computers. They gave us some, and that was a big learning curve.”

Times have changed since, though.

“Look at us now,” Rainey said. “We’ve got 80 computers in our system. Changes come rapidly, and it’s always a challenge to keep up with that.”

Rainey’s main responsibilities are handling the budget, personnel issues, overseeing the library system’s day-to-day operations, paying the bills, handling little problems that crop up and working with the library board.

The summer reading program will be in full swing when she retires.

“We want to train lifelong readers,” she said. “This is a motto for us in the children’s programs. The bottom line is it’s all about reading and you’re trying to use all the gimmicks you can to get them reading.”

But retirement also is looking good for Rainey.

“I plan to slow down a little bit, work on my house, in my garden and do a lot of reading,” she said. “I read a lot of nonfiction and mysteries.”

— Staff writer Dwight Dana can be reached at (843) 317-7259.