If you’ve requested a book from Bates, or sidled over to the H-L library counter to borrow a pen, chances are you’ve seen Circulation Supervisor Amy Heggie. Current students won’t have met Amy prior to the summer of 2011, but Amy worked in H-L for over a decade before leaving in 2005 to manage a horse farm in New Hampshire.
She dipped into the corporate world too, but—feeling pangs of separation for academia—took a position in the library at Colby. “As much as I enjoyed Colby, I missed Bowdoin,” Amy says. “I didn’t leave Bowdoin because I didn’t like it,” she adds, “I left for my dream job and came back because I missed Bowdoin.”
Amy was initially drawn to library work because of her love of books, although she admits she was somewhat naïve about the substance of being a librarian: “It’s surely not all about the books, it’s about the people, and that’s what I like.”
In addition to being a people person, Amy is an ardent lover of animals. She trains sheep dogs, helps with dog rescues, and “[teaches] people how to live with their dogs so that they don’t end up in shelters.” Other hobbies include hiking and baking–for her 6 nieces and nephews, and the library staff (when they’re lucky).
Amy loves Scotland, although her caboodle of animals keeps her where she is: “I’m always planning my next trip, if I could figure out a way to move 7 dogs and 4 cats to Scotland I would move tomorrow.”
Amy’s childhood took her from Massachusetts, to Brazil, to South Carolina, to Maine in junior high. Although she headed to Vermont for college, Amy “always intended to come back to Maine.” Espousing the Pine Tree State’s quirkiness and neighborliness, Amy concludes: “Maine to me is home—unless I could get to Scotland.”