Beth Kramer, director of the West Tisbury Library since 2007, retired at the end of March. After a national search that lasted nine months, the library board of trustees selected Alexandra Pratt, formerly the circulation assistant and children’s librarian, as the new director.

Before Ms. Kramer joined the West Tisbury library as a circulation assistant, she was involved in several nonprofit organizations and ran her own wholesale bakery. After just one year with the library, she was promoted to director, a position she described as the public face to the community, responsible for hiring staff, presenting the budget at town meeting and overseeing programming.

On Tuesday, Ms. Kramer reflected on her 13 years as director, and the evolution of the library since she began.

“When I started, we didn’t even have a website,” she said. “The telephone didn’t have any answering machine, and we weren’t part of CLAMS. There were a lot of great things that were already there. They had brought in a creative, great staff. Each one introduced something different.”

During her 13 years as director, Ms. Kramer led the initiative to affiliate the West Tisbury Library with the Cape Libraries Automated Materials Sharing (CLAMS), the regional network that connects and shares materials between libraries through the Cape and Islands. She said one of her main goals was to enable remote access for community members, which has become vital in light of the current coronavirus pandemic. And she also helped lead a multi-million dollar expansion of the library, completed in 2014. The expansion was key in turning the library into the community center it is today.

“On a busy day, it’s so well used,” she said. “There is a sense that the community really owns the library, that it is their space.”

In Ms. Kramer’s final year as director, the Library Journal presented the West Tisbury library with a five star designation for their programming and community outreach.

Since her retirement, Ms. Kramer has launched a pilot program for a nonprofit, which she hopes to expand after this year. The mission is to work with adults with disabilities, furthering their education and helping to secure jobs. She said the nonprofit is inspired by the Chilmark Chocolates model of inclusion. Some of the people she hopes to help are former employees of Chilmark Chocolates, who lost their jobs when the store closed in December.

Ms. Kramer said she believes the future of the West Tisbury Library is in good hands.

“It makes it possible to move on when you know the right person is there,” she said of Ms. Pratt, the new director. “I expect terrific things to happen. I’m looking forward to the direction she takes it.”