In Mary Fiorelli’s 16 years as director of the Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library, she has most enjoyed connecting with the community through the library’s programs, on topics from history to art.

“For me, the best part about being director has been the programs, because they allowed me to stay in touch with all of our patrons here,” Fiorelli said during her retirement party.

About 150 of those patrons, well-wishers, and library staff and board members gathered at the library on Sept. 29 to show their appreciation, as she retires.

The president of the library’s Board of Trustees, Alan Poirier, noted that Daniel Gilman, then the president of Johns Hopkins University, had called the Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library a “place for inspiration” at the dedication ceremony in 1898.

Fiorelli has continued that legacy of making the library “a place for inspiration,” Poirier said.

“She has kept the vision with all that she has done for us here,” Poirier said, “and she really helped us to deliver the kind of experience that patrons want and they value.”

“You’ve helped us make this the really vibrant place that it is, Mary, so thank you,” he said to Fiorelli.

Poirier noted Fiorelli’s accomplishments during her tenure, including curating art exhibits, effectively managing budgets, training staff, and growing the library’s programs by about 60 percent in the past several years.

He said Fiorelli helped broaden the library’s outreach to homebound patients, created new partnerships with schools and organizations, kept the board of trustees well-informed, and “most importantly built a tremendously large reservoir of trust in the community.”

Katie Huffman, who will serve as the library’s new director, thanked Fiorelli for all her work making the transition as smooth as possible and said she really enjoyed working with her.

“The information and the advice she shared over the past month has truly been invaluable, and, as a previous director, I recognize how much time and thoughtfulness went into the work that she has done,” Huffman said.

Huffman, who comes from the Gleason Public Library in Carlisle, Mass., said she has received a “warm welcome” from everyone involved with the library and the community at large.

Fiorelli, who grew up in Old Saybrook and moved to Mystic about 20 years ago, had worked in other libraries before joining the Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library as a reference librarian in 1997, she said in a phone interview.

She was assistant director before becoming the library’s director in 2000.

During her time as director, she said she has been most proud of helping to develop the library’s partnerships and collaborations with other organizations, from art series with the Florence Griswold Museum to summer reading programs with the Lyme-Old Lyme school district.

The library’s role as a gathering spot for the community — whether patrons are coming in with a laptop or to read, study and write, or to visit the library’s programs — has always been uppermost in her mind, she said.

“We have worked in a very targeted way to always be and remain a gathering place for people,” she said. “That’s still very much a part of the mission of the library.”

In her retirement, Fiorelli, an avid gardener who enjoys sailing and boating, said she hopes to spend more time on her photography and will continue to be a patron of the library.

The library featured an exhibit of her photography of images of nature, from close-ups of flowers to scenes with fall foliage.

During the retirement party, David Winer, former president of the library’s board of trustees, spoke about Fiorelli’s achievements, from the establishment of a homework center with the school system to the initiation of art shows.

“To conclude, Director Mary Fiorelli, I must say that under your direction, the library became the true heart and soul of Old Lyme,” he said.

k.drelich@theday.com