Kasson library director says staff is the best

Patricia Shaffer-Gottschalk grew up in Port Clinton, Ohio, about the size of Kasson, by Lake Erie with two sisters who still live in Ohio. The city has been nicknamed “The Walleye Capital of the World” due to the great fishing areas offshore in Lake Erie (wonder how Minnesota feels about that?).

The area has the oldest lighthouse on the Great Lakes plus had a German POW camp and an earlier Civil War POW camp on one of the islands nearby.

Her father worked in the marine industry and her mother was a sixth grade teacher. She said they were only a boat ride away from Canada so they went there many times.

Her dad and mom were avid readers, so by the time she was in fifth grade she would be reading three newspapers every day and was interested in the news and current events. She also admitted she read some of the comics as “we all need some humor in our lives.”

She feels she was greatly influenced by two teachers – her fifth grade teacher and Latin teacher who really made learning come alive. Pat said her first summer job was painting boats. Since she grew up being on the water, she still loves the water, the islands of Lake Erie and being outdoors.

Her hometown had a very German heritage so Pat was an exchange student to Germany during high school. She started college at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa since her pastor had attended the school and recommended it. She also did several language institutes and finished college at a German University (Mainz on the Rhine River). Pat became very fluent in the German language and has studied Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, ancient Mongolian, French, Spanish, Swahili and Farsi.

While in college her time abroad also gave her the opportunity to travel to several countries which was a great experience for her, she said.

Her husband, David, grew up in Rochester, and they met at college. He is a trained classical pianist and was a college music professor for 21 years at Virginia State University. While they lived in Virginia, Pat worked at school and public libraries plus a corporate research library and really loved all of them since she loves to work with people of all ages.

Eighteen years ago Pat was diagnosed with cancer and underwent surgeries. This was at the same time her daughters were young so she was quite concerned as she wanted to be able to see them growing up. She does have routine checkups and is very relieved when she has passed the exam test each time.

She has been involved with raising money for the American Cancer Society while living in Virginia and also is a team captain of the Kasson library team for the Dodge County Relay for Life.

In 2013 they made the move to move to Minnesota as her husband’s mother was having health issues. Both of their daughters are now living in Minnesota as growing up they would spend time with their Rochester grandparents so they came to enjoy Minnesota. Pat’s husband took an early retirement from the university and they took care of his mother during her declining years.

Pat was looking for a library position, and Kasson had an opening, so when she was hired they were still at the previous library location. The present library was opened in 2016. Pat became the library director in 2020 when Art Tiff retired.

Since the Virginia winters were milder than Minnesota it was a change moving here dealing with more snow and the colder temps but she said she has adjusted and really does enjoy the change of seasons we experience in Minnesota.

Pat said she did a recent inventory of material on hand at the library and there are 22,100 books, 3,500 DVD’s, 878 audio books, 805 CD’s and eight science kits. That is quite a change from 1899 when 10 ladies donated 10 books to organize a library for the village of Kasson and in 1910 it became an official public library.

Many people might think libraries are becoming obsolete with the use of computers and Google, etc. but Pat said that is far from the truth.

“They serve our community residents in many ways we never used to think about just a few years ago,” she said. “Many people do not have their own computer so they come to the library to use the machines and printers on hand. People search for job openings and the staff sets up email accounts for those who do not have one so they can apply for work positions.”

This has been a challenging year once COVID came upon the scene with so many changes on how things are handled, she said. The library was closed for a period of time and then people were finally able to start getting books and returning books they had checked out.

Pat said they really wanted to be able to serve residents any way they could and do it safely and still meet the guidelines, which they have done. They limit the number of people in the library but have not been able to do in person story time and some other programs they have usually done. They are doing more programs online and recordings to make it available to the community so they can continue to serve people.

Pat and her husband really enjoy hiking and plan their vacations around hiking trails, especially national parks. She likes taking photos of nature and especially flowers plus enjoys flower gardening. She has also been involved with their church in Rochester.

Of course reading is very important and she especially enjoys historical books. Since it is the 250^th anniversary of the birth of German composer Beethoven they have listened to many of his musical works while they are at home. They enjoy traveling and history, and still have trips to Denali, Shetland Islands and back to the canyons of Utah on their bucket list.

Pat said she considers herself the luckiest person in the world. Pat said he has been married “for decades” to the most wonderful man and they have two lovely daughters. She says she comes to work at the beautiful Kasson library and has the best co-workers in the world.

You certainly can’t blame Pat for considering herself so lucky, and the people who come to the Kasson library are also very fortunate to be greeted by her and her staff to serve their needs!