(La Porte, IN) - A familiar face at the La Porte County Public Library has closed the book on a long library career.

 

Mary Hedge started working at La Porte Library over 41 years ago. Her first day was January 4th, 1982. “I was just so happy to have a job here,” she said, thinking back on her first days at La Porte’s historic Carnegie Library. Hedge grew up on a farm in Iowa, then attended college outside Chicago.

 

A lot has changed in the years that Hedge has paced the stacks answering inquisitive patrons’ questions. “It’s been a complete turnaround,” she said. “There was no computer in those days… over doubling the size of the library, over doubling the size of the library staff, adding a new branch. Now we just have so much more to do here than we used to.”

 

Hedge has become known as a go-to resource for genealogy and local history questions, but she’s probably best known for visiting local schools for storytime. If you were a school kid in La Porte anytime since the 1980s, Ms. Mary probably read you a story. She says she’s gotten used to seeing young readers grow up. “Now we’ve got employees here who remember me coming to Boston School to do book talks there.”

 

Hedge has kept up with technology, and she says now is an exciting time for a young person to start a library career. “Libraries do so much more than what they used to do, so they’re going to be around for a long time,” she said. “We have the Makerspace, where people can come in and not just do crafts, but 3-D printing and so much more than we would have ever thought of, even ten years ago in a public library.”

 

Following a reception Friday for the long-time librarian, Library Director Fonda Owens said Hedge’s impact is hard to measure. “There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of kids who would have seen Mary doing book talks at school,” said Owens, “and so they have that association of Mary coming to their school, talking about books and reading and coming to the library. Think about having a career where you have that much impact. It’s wonderful.”

 

Hedge says she’s not going very far. She’ll still be a regular library visitor. After taking a little time off, she says she plans to travel, with a trip to Asia coming up soon.