For librarian, it’s time

When Judy Knoll walked out of the New Hampton Public Library late Thursday afternoon, she was ready.
She was primed for retirement, but that doesn’t mean the longest-tenured library employee didn’t feel a twinge of sadness.
“It’s time, and I’m ready, or at least I think I am,” Knoll said with a laugh, “but I’m definitely going to miss the people — the people I work with, the patrons, the kids. It’s time for a new chapter, and I know that, but coming to work here was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. So it’s a little hard, even if it is time.”
She punched in to work the first time on Feb. 5, 1987, when the library called the Carnegie home and when libraries didn’t have computers but used typewriters to fill its card catalog.
“Every book got three cards — title, author and subject,” she said, “and back then, we were mostly about books and magazine. We didn’t have the public computers, we didn’t have the DVDs and all that.”
For 34 years, Knoll was a faithful employee to two library directors — Pat Ipsen until 2016 and Carrie Becker since — but after her husband, Dean, had a health scare last year and she had what she calls “a minor” procedure, she made the decision to call it a career.
— For more on this story, see the March 2 Tribune