In more than 25 years doing crucial materials handling jobs for Johnson County Library, Rose Crane has seen constant change but has thrived and always kept learning.
Now it’s time for new adventures. Crane recently retired, feeling grateful for her colleagues and for a very fulfilling career.
“I have enjoyed the people. I’ve worked with really great people,” Crane said in an interview. “Our Library, especially since COVID, is changing quite a bit and they are always looking for ways to be a better resource to the community.”
Crane grew up in Kansas City, Mo., and frequented Kansas City’s old downtown Library as a child. She graduated from Northeast High and took classes at Penn Valley Community College before marrying and becoming a mom.
Crane remembers reading a lot to her kids, who loved the Beatrix Potter books and the Frog and Toad series. She took her children to Johnson County’s Cedar Roe branch “because it had a great kids’ section.”
When her youngest son was in middle school, Crane began working outside the home. Eventually she spotted a newspaper ad for a part-time courier/page position at Johnson County’s Central Resource Library. She applied and was hired in August 1996.
She started out sorting materials but was so fast that the Library added processing/labeling duties.
“It was active. I was learning a lot about the Library and the materials we had and how to prep them for the public,” she recalled. After a few years, she became a full-time Lead Processor.
In the early 2000s, Library automation technology was changing fast and many processing and cataloguing tasks were outsourced or re-defined.
Crane eventually was named Acquisitions and Processing Supervisor, overseeing the work flow from ordering to payments to receiving shipments to conferring with vendors. It’s a big job, involving nearly 150,000 items per year.
While the Library staff was ever changing, Crane and a core group of coworkers bonded and became friends over the years. They included Jason Barnes, now Bibliographic Services Manager; Richard Baumgarten, Liz Schneeberg; Janet Woolsey, Mary Nicometo, Marie Lewis and the newest members, Alyssa Matzat and Dawn Brumbley.
While Libraries nationwide deal with book-banning challenges, Crane says Johnson County Library has always had a philosophy of providing access.
“This is what we stand for,” she said. “We don’t judge.”
Crane and other materials-handling professionals were briefly furloughed when COVID struck but they returned to work in May 2020. While Central was closed for renovations in 2021, they worked in a challenging warehouse environment but managed to maintain effective operations.
“We kept reminding ourselves, we’re in this together. It’s all temporary,” Crane said. “I think that’s a mantra that we have even now, because there have been so many changes and everyone had to learn so many things.”
She anticipates a busy retirement. Her granddaughters, ages 2-7, are a lot of fun. She will help with her church’s children’s ministry. And she plans to make her garden in Overland Park “a paradise.”
For her co-workers she leaves words of encouragement. “Keep up the good work,” she said. “So long as you roll with it and have some patience and grace for one another, it’ll all work out.”