After 12 years directing the Peru Public Library and 39 years in all working for library systems, Charm Ruhnke is retiring this week. She’s staying true to her calling right to the end. At the end of an interview, we asked her what else she wants people to know. She wants everyone to keep reading.
Ruhnke says she doesn’t talk much with younger librarians about the earlier times when there were card catalogs and mechanical devices to make a library card’s impression on a book checkout card. She says they’re not very interested.
She’s looking forward to not setting her alarm clock most nights and spending more time gardening and looking up her family history. But she’s leaving with good memories of helping people look up what they want to know. In one particular case, two descendants of a Peru mayor of long ago were able to connect with him by looking at journals he wrote.