While she does enjoy horticulture, Francie Bauer, Springfield Township Library children’s librarian, is hardly of a garden variety.
Bauer has been with the library for 12 years. She accepted a position with the library after seeing the posting in the classified ads in the newspaper. It was then Bauer remembered a crucial choice she made in 1968, whether to get her teaching degree from Emporia State University (Kansas) in teaching or to attend the university’s library school.
‘I had two pages each of pros and cons of teaching or being a librarian and I didn’t even remember that was something I even looked (into) at that time,? Bauer said.
‘It obviously had some appeal to me then. I would probably still be working here with or without that degree.?
While the two are different professions, Bauer sees links between teaching and being a children’s librarian.
‘A lot of my story times focus on science with animals and different things. I try to get actual facts in there. Most of the kids I work with now are a lot younger than they were when I was teaching, but you’re doing the same thing,? Bauer said. ‘You have to relate it to their level and try and be a bit entertaining. Those things are the same whether you’re teaching or doing story times.?
Those story-time sessions are something Bauer began after she started with the library and has expanded in the time since. Now, Bauer organizes story times for children of all ages, complete with follow-up activities.
March 2003 brought a change to Bauer’s line of work as the library moved into its current home in the Springfield Township civic center at 12000 Davisburg Road. The transition to a much larger space, from the library’s longtime building, a small, former schoolhouse, was almost overwhelming.
‘The change was elating. We had so much room. Moving from a one-room schoolhouse where we had absolutely no space at all,? Bauer said.
‘It’s gotten to be a bigger job because we’re trying to do more and more children’s programming,? she said.
In addition to the story times, Bauer coordinates other children’s programs such as summer reading. This year she has added a matin’e movie and book bunch group to the fold.
The toughest part of organizing events for children can be working it around the kids? and the parents? schedules.
‘Kids are so busy, there’s so many things to do,? Bauer said. ‘I’d like to provide something the community wants and needs, but figuring out what that is and a time people can come is the tricky part,? Bauer said.
Francie tends to take her work from the library home to make sure the library has the latest reads in children’s literature.
‘It’s a time priority, I don’t read adult fiction because I need to know what’s going on in children’s (fiction), and I really enjoy it. There’s a lot more to those books (than people think). Look at the ‘Harry Potter? books, there are just as many adults as there are kids that want to read those books and that’s not the only book like that,? she said.
Bauer enjoys the good company of a book during her commutes, reading an audio book with her ears.
‘If I’m riding in the car by myself, I don’t like to be in the car without a book,? she said.
Bauer’s longtime hobby, gardening, is still something she really enjoys. Francie and husband Ernie have a very large garden at their Springfield Township home. So large in fact, the couple can subsist with much of what they have grown.
‘My favorites are tomatoes and cucumbers. I can’t ever wait until (they) come in because the ones in the stores just don’t taste the same,? Francie said.
‘Until it frosts, we eat from the garden,? she added.