After 31 years as Crestline children's librarian, 'Mrs. A,' is ready for retirement

CRESTLINE — Lynn Altstadt has been a part of the Crestline community her entire life.

"Grew up here, went to school here, graduated from here, worked here," she said. And now, after 31 years as children's librarian at Crestline Public Library, she's ready to retire here.

"I've seen a lot of changes over the years, but it's been a great job," she said last week. The library will have a retirement reception for her from 3 to 6 p.m. Thursday. Her final day is Friday.

"I've always loved this little town," Altstadt said. "I moved away for about six months, didn't like it and came back."

She and her husband moved to North Dakota for a short time because he was offered a job there, but they came home when she learned she was expecting a child.

For Altstadt, Crestline always has been home. Her grandfather worked for the electric company in town, while her father worked for the city. Her parents still live in Crestline, and after retirement, she'll be able to help them out more, she said.

But mostly, it's that she's tired, she said.

"Not that my ideas have run out, because I did give the new children's librarian some ideas for story time this year, but I'm just tired," she said. "And my husband's already retired. So I decided it was time for me to retire, too. And we're still young enough that we can enjoy it. We have a camper, and we go camping and stuff. So next year, during the summer I'll be living in the camper and our house here will be for winter."

Altstadt's career at the library started when the head librarian at the time offered her a part-time job, filling in temporarily for a staffer who was having foot surgery.

"And I said, 'I think so.' It was evening hours, so it wouldn't interfere with my kids, getting them up and stuff," she said. "So that's how it started. Worked my way up to full-time, and when the children's librarian retired, I took over for her. I've been doing it for 31 years now."

Altstadt has had many duties at library

Altstadt has taken on a variety of duties at the library. In addition to maintaining the children's collection and doing story times, she runs the summer reading programs, visits the schools, takes books to shut-ins and decorates the library. Those duties will be divided among the other library staffers after she retires.

Recently, she also has been training the new children's librarian, Joselyn Crawford.

"She's been shadowing me since March, first with story times, then summer programs, and I've been giving her some ideas for story time," Altstadt said. "Right now she's got 12 kids signed up and ready to go starting in October."

Story times have always been a big part of the job.

"I've had kids in story time that now have kids of their own that are bringing them to story time," Altstadt said. "A lot of my kids over the years, I've watched them grow up and go on to college and get married. They come back and see me every so often. They all still call me 'Mrs. A' — it's a lot easier than trying to pronounce my last name, so it's always been Mrs. A."

Getting to know the children who visit the library regularly and watching them grow up has been a high point of the job, she said.

"Seeing them come in as babies and then ... they always lose interest a little bit there at the middle school age, and then they start coming back," she said. "Then adults, and then they start bringing their own kids. And I've worked with some great people, too; my boss, she is fantastic. She's been a great boss."

Altstadt said both current library director Cheryl Swihart and her predecessor taught her a lot.

"We've cried, we've laughed," she said. "They're more like a family than co-workers."

'We used to be, 'Sshh! No talking!''

Altstadt has seen a lot of changes through the years at the library.

"We used to be, 'Sshh! No talking! Quiet down!' when kids would come in after school," she said. "That's when we had the school right down the street and we were the after-school place to go. And I've watched it go from that to — we are not a quiet library now. The kids come in, we talk, we laugh. They tell me their life history.

"And of course I've seen the difference in what they take out. When I first started, there was no Young Adult section in the library; I started that. ... I've seen nonfiction books fade out. Everything's computer now. Why take out a book when you can do this and it's right there," she said, mimicking someone typing on a keyboard.

The library's fiction collection remains popular, though.

"A lot of people like that physical touch of a book, and the smell — you can't beat that new book smell," Altstadt said. "I have an e-reader and all that stuff, too, but I very seldom use it. I'd rather have a book."

Pandemic brought more changes

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a lot of changes, too.

"We did stay open all through COVID," Altstadt said. "We did curbside service. They'd call in and say what they wanted, and we'd pull it. They'd pull up, and we'd take it out to their cars. It did take a toll on our programs and we had to cancel summer programs that year and things. But we're slowly starting to build back up again. We used to have a lot of foot traffic; we don't have as much foot traffic anymore. We still have our regulars. Our older gentlemen who come in and reads the newspapers and the magazines. Our older ladies that come in and get their books, and large print stuff.

"And I'm slowly starting to get the kids' programs back up. We did a full summer program this year."

Although Altstadt's entire career has been spent in the current library building, she remembers visiting its old site as a young person, she said. The first Crestline library was in the old city building, then it was in a separate building near where the municipal building is now, she said. The current structure was built after a levy was passed in the early 1980s, and has been expanded since then.

"When we added on, that was a chore, because we switched everything," she said. The juvenile department moved to the other side of the library, "so we had to box up all the books and stuff again, move everything around."

Some things haven't changed.

"I still dust the shelves and straighten the books," she said.

And there's one particular book that's particularly special to Altstadt: A well-worn copy of "Help! I'm a Prisoner in the Library" by Eth Clifford.

"It's one of the very first books I ever read, and it's still in the library, and it's one of my favorites," she said. "I just love this book."

ggoble@gannett.com

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