By Darcy Ellis
Editor

8-23-2008

BISHOP – For the past three decades, patrons of the Bishop branch of the Inyo County Free Library have counted on the expertise, guidance and assistance of head librarian Sue Franz to navigate through research materials, gain newfound knowledge and otherwise equip themselves with tools for self-empowerment.
Most remarkably, according to her coworkers and supporters, it was with an unwavering commitment and endearing sense of enthusiasm that she helped to broaden the minds and improve the scholarship of countless residents and visitors during her 32-year tenure with the Bishop branch.
Perhaps it comes as no surprise, then, that her final week among the stacks at the Bishop Library and behind its check-out counter was marked by frequent visits from patrons stopping by to bid Franz fond farewells, offer their gratitude for her years of selfless service and wish her well in her future endeavors.

Many of these well-wishers, according to Franz’s fellow librarians, have come to regard Franz as more than just the friendly, dependable face that’s helped their grandchildren find the resources they need for school research projects, or who went out of her way to find the change of address forms they needed, or who helped them track down that special book they read 15 years ago.

Sue Franz retired Friday as head librarian of the Bishop branch of the Inyo County Free Library, where she served for 32 years. Franz has relocated to Colorado to be closer to family. Photo by Darcy Ellis

To these residents, Franz has become a friend and somewhat of an integral part of their daily lives, someone who’s retirement – official as of yesterday – strikes a very personal cord.
“Lots of people have been coming by to say goodbye to Sue,” said Annie Kothman, who’s been working with Franz for the past 22 years. “They’ve expressed deep regret that she’s leaving and that she’ll be missed, but also expressed happiness for her” and her future plans.
Those plans, much like the plot to a book, have yet to unfold, but were initiated with the rising of the sun this morning as Franz loaded up her car and set out en route to a new home in Colorado.
Already, talk around the library and community is filled with the sentiment that Bishop has lost a true friend, that the library has lost a crucial part of its institution and that Franz’s presence and invaluable service will be truly missed.
Kothman will be feeling Franz’s absence perhaps more than most.
She counts Franz as not just a supervisor, but a close friend and confidant.
“She has been my mentor, my friend, my mother here – a mother to everyone here, to the public,” said Kothman. “She’s amazing … Sue has been a joy to work for. She’s always been there for her employees in whatever way they needed, whether that included a gentle reprimand or emotional support. She pulled this crew together into a really tight-knit group and we feel like a family – and we needed that” given the challenges the staff faces because of ongoing budget woes.
“Sue made the workplace a place you look forward to because she was there, and for me particularly it’s very hard to let her go,” Kothman continued.
For her part, Franz looked back on her tenure with the Bishop library and her relationships with her loyal employees and the public with gratitude and unabashed affection.
For Franz, the past 32 years have been like one of those long, fantastic voyages filling the pages of a well-worn tome on a shelf in the library – an experience filled with joys, challenges, triumphs, change and, perhaps most importantly, the opportunity to learn something new every single day and watch or help others do the same.
“Being somewhat of a people person, it’s been great to work in a place where people love us and almost every transaction ends in a happy outcome,” Franz said. “I can’t think of one day I didn’t want to come to work.”
What inspired so much enthusiasm were the never-ending learning opportunities, the satisfaction that comes from being able to meet other people’s needs and the constant stimulus of a steady work flow and clientele.
“It’s great working at a small library like this because we get to do everything: reference, reader services, check-out. It’s more interest and it’s fun every day …
“I won’t say there’s never a dull moment, but if there is a dull moment we do something called ‘familiarizing ourselves with the collection,’” Franz said. “Of course to you it might look like we’re reading a magazine.”
Actually, she said, the “secret job description” of a librarian is “interruptions interrupted by more interruptions.”
It’s a misconception “that librarians sit around all day reading a book – we need track shoes,” Franz said. “We really are information specialists rather than overseers of the dusty archives.”
That’s something Franz quickly learned after first coming on board the Bishop Library in August, 1976. Franz, who moved to the Owens Valley in ’71 with her husband, was by then a mother of three young children and a teacher.
The job at the library, which at first consisted of shelving books 12 hours a week, allowed her more time to raise her young family. Her 3-year-old, she said, would ride on the bottom of the cart as she went aisle to aisle.
Though always somewhat a literary person and a lover of reading, “I didn’t know how much I liked books and being around them” until working at the library, Franz said.
And when friends would ask if she missed teaching, she discovered that she was still able to take part in the learning process. “I get to teach every day, one-on-one, and get to see people empowered. It’s been a really great job for that. I love seeing people’s faces light up” when they learn how to look something up or get on the Internet for the first time, for example. “This job really is all about empowering people.”
Franz went from shelving books part-time to serving as interlibrary loan clerk, the person responsible for tracking down books and materials from other libraries and borrowing them at the request of patrons in Bishop. This often required frequent trips to the main library in Independence.
Franz became the supervisor of the branch in March, 1987. Kothman recalled watching Franz really come into her own during this time period. “Sue was the interlibrary loan clerk and then became supervisor. I watched her grow in that job, become more competent and confident at it,” she said, explaining that she was able to grow in her own job as a result.
As supervisor, Franz would have to deal with big changes headed for the library system. Chief among them: the Internet and an ever-shrinking budget.
The first computer with Internet access was installed at the Bishop Library in 1995. “Everybody thought, ‘Ohmigosh, nobody’s going to read books anymore,’” Franz recalled, but that, clearly, hasn’t been the case.
According to Franz, there has been a slight drop in monthly circulation, from 5,000 to 4,000, but nothing “as drastic as people thought.” She noted that the decline in check-outs could also be due to less operating hours at the branch.
The Internet age has even been helpful for the library, Franz said.
For example, most people can now utilize the World Wide Web for their research, which eliminates the need in some cases for the library to use its shoe-string budget to purchase the more obscure – and expensive – reference books.
Franz has also found that the Internet exposes readers to a broader range of books and other reading materials – by authors in little-known countries around the globe. “I love the world connection,” she said.
Approximately 1,000 users log about 700 hours on the library’s computers every month. A third of these technophiles are from out of the area.
And while users have access to books they can read online, Franz doesn’t believe the Internet will ever be a substitute for the real deal.
“People love to hold a book in their hands,” she said.
They also, even in 2008, love to use the library.
The Bishop branch currently sees an average of 200 visitors a day, though not all of these patrons are stopping by to check out books. People come in just to read the paper, pick up a voter registration form, read through an Environmental Impact Report (the library is home to any and all documents that government agencies want disseminated to the public), peruse a magazine, search through the Friends of the Bishop Library book sale in the back, make photocopies, check their e-mail, find a phone book or check out a video or DVD.
Sometimes people just want an answer to a question, which is where the librarians really come in handy and the part of the job Franz enjoys most – helping someone get to the bottom of something.
Of course nowadays with most people using “Google” on the Internet for their research, only the toughest questions make it to Franz and her team, though they enjoy the challenge.
Franz remembered the “simpler” days when, in 1980 for example, a gentleman from Independence wanted to know if his mule was the oldest living retired Army mule in the nation.
“You learn so many things you would never get into because someone asked you a question,” Franz said.
Unfortunately, for Franz, the job has also meant learning the downside of government funding.
The Bishop branch used to receive about $40,000 a year in federal funding through the state, which accounted for the heart of the library’s book budget. That funding was cut to $7,000, and it’s gone down every year for the past 10 years, Franz said.
Finding ways to keep the branch stocked – and open – hasn’t been easy.
The videos, DVDs and books on tape are all donated to the Bishop Library, which also relies heavily on donations for its magazine collection and for new furniture and other furnishings. The budget situation has gotten so dire, Franz said, that the library can no longer afford to replace damaged books.
Staffing cuts – the Bishop Library employs two part-time positions in addition to Franz and Kothman in full-time positions – have been another symptom of financial strain.
Unfortunately, low staffing has delayed the eagerly awaited computerization of the library’s card catalogue. “We are probably the only public library that’s not automated in the state – we think of ourselves as vintage,” she said. “I dreamed it would be up and running before I left, but the other system works too.”
The Friends of the Bishop Library has been an integral part of the branch’s operation, ensuring that the library has what it needs to keep meeting reader needs, Franz said. And the library users themselves provide tremendous support.
“The challenge is, can we keep the libraries open and buy books?” Franz said. “But luckily there is a lot of demand here for the libraries. And we get good support, as best they can, from the Board of Supervisors and county administrator because they believe in us.”
Kothman credits Franz with keeping the library staff motivated during what could be disheartening times.
“She’s kept everybody focused on the present, getting the job done, working harmoniously and going the extra distance for the public, because we are here for the public,” Kothman said.
Such lessons she also passed on to Reece Parker, who has worked for Franz for the past eight years. “She’s been a great person to work with. I’ve learned a lot from her,” he said. “She’s definitely going to be missed. It’s not going to be the same without her.”
“To me, she just embodied what a librarian should be. She was the library in terms of promoting it and finding resources for it,” said Selma Calnan, president of Friends of the Bishop Library. “She’s made my job easy. Even the furnishings are there through her initiative.”
Indeed, initiate was a word used often in reference to Franz.
“She certainly has facilitated many great things in the Bishop Library,” Library Director Nancy Masters said.
Many will perhaps remember Franz for starting the summer and after-school children’s reading programs, or turning the American Library Association’s annual Banned Book Week into a month-long observance locally.
“The whole idea is anti-censorship,” Franz explained. “A library should have something on its shelves that will upset every single person in the world.”
But, she said, it’s important that each and every one of those people has access to the material in order to read it and make up their own minds about it.
“That’s what freedom of information is all about. If you can shine a light on everything and let people make up their own minds it’s better than keeping things a secret,” she said, adding that, “most of the people who have challenged these books have not read them.”
The Bishop Library carries a form that anyone can fill out to request a book be removed from the shelf if they find it too offensive. They can also have their name blacked-out from the check-out card. “So far, I’ve only had to show the form to a couple of people and no one has filled it out,” Franz said. Of course, on those occasions, the people in the line behind them have immediately requested to check out the books in question.
“That’s where the ‘free’ in Inyo County Free Public Library comes in,” she said. “To me, that’s one of the honest to goodness cornerstones of a democratic society.”
As proud as Franz is of a “free library system,” she takes just as much pride in the people who take advantage of it – from the “blue-haired old ladies” reading their murder mysteries to the men cycling through their beloved Westerns for the fifth time to the homeowners looking for do-it-yourself books on plumbing.
Franz is excited, too, to note that more children are reading these days, something she attributes to the Harry Potter books and movies that have inspired a whole new generation of writers to reach younger audiences with quality material.
Though Franz is now a couple states away, her excitement is sure to linger for some time, having been instilled in the institution she’s nurtured for 32 years.
According Masters, Franz held the longest tenure of any library employee in the county up until Friday and for that reason, is considered a part of the heritage of the county system.
“No one can replace Sue,” Masters said. “She’s been someone who supported learning and literacy in the Bishop area for so many years that this will be a huge loss … but this is great for her, even though we’re going to miss her.”
Masters also said that Franz was a great leader, and the Bishop staff is competent and more than capable of carrying on her legacy.
Franz said she isn’t quite sure what retirement will hold, other than the chance to be close to her children and grandchild.
She is sure, though, that now was the time to move on.
“I feel I’ve given it all I have to give,” she said, “and I’d like to do something else – maybe nothing. Who knows?”
Or maybe, after three decades in a building of books and sea of sagas, she will enjoy the prospect of writing a new chapter in the story of Sue Franz.