It’s been a fruitful career for Ionia librarian

Jane McGrane has stitched up the pages of her 44-year career directing the Ionia Community Library with compassion for each reader and bound it with advocacy for the small library and its patrons within the state organization.“I’m so happy with the support of the local people,” she said, and the gifts to the library have “always been appreciated,” from the modest donation of a pencil sharpener or magazine subscription, to the mighty $1,200 encyclopedia set, to the staggeringly generous estate bequest.Listening to her story, it becomes clear the community’s generosity is the fruit of her faith in them, her gentle approach to readers and controlled spending as she prepares to bid farewell to the library with her retirement.She will work her last day on Oct. 17, and she has plenty of stories to tell about her 44-year career.— For more on this story, see the Oct. 9 New Hampton Tribune.