NATCHEZ — Pamela Plummer took a job in 1980 as secretary at a library, and now 33 years later, she will soon be the director of her hometown library.

Plummer will take over the Judge George W. Armstrong Library in Natchez Oct. 7. Plummer will replace Susan Cassagne, who was recently hired as director of the Mississippi Library Commission.

After having a child in 1980, Plummer was looking to get back to work when someone told her to check for openings at Alcorn State University. She was hired at Alcorn’s library’s learning skills center and became secretary to the library director shortly thereafter. She spent 23 years working at Alcorn.

Plummer has been the director of the Harriette Person Memorial Library in Port Gibson for the past six years.

“After 30 years, I decided I didn’t want to take the highway to work anymore,” said Plummer, a Natchez native.

Plummer received her bachelor’s degree from Alcorn and her master’s in library science from the University of Southern Mississippi.

After working many years outside of Natchez, Plummer said she is happy to have a job here.

“I am glad I have been given this opportunity, and I look forward to working with everyone here,” she said.

Cassagne said she feels Plummer has many qualities that will make her a strong director for the library.

“She is already library director in Mississippi, so she walks in the door knowing what needs to be done,” Cassagne said.

Plummer is well respected in the public library community in the state, Cassagne said, and knows many people in the field.

“Pam is already way ahead of the game of where a library director coming in from somewhere else would be,” she said.

Cassagne said she is happy to see that the job went to a Natchezian.

“She has a connection to Natchez and a commitment to Natchez,” Cassagne said. “She is part of the community.

“I feel I am leaving my library in very, very good hands.”

Plummer said when she took the job as a secretary at Alcorn’s library, she never thought she would someday become a library director.

“I did not think about it at the time,” she said. “But I had talked with other secretaries on campus who had moved up to different positions, and their thing was, ‘You just have to keep climbing. Being secretary is your first step, but you should always want to climb higher.’”