NEW ROBEY MEMORIAL LIBRARIAN IS APPOINTED

Carol Ann (Callie) Irons is back in her hometown after an absence of 35 years, and it's not only her 35th high school class reunion she is back for. Irons is Robey Memorial Library's newest director, taking over from Katrinka Sieber, who recently retired.
The daughter of Robert C. Irons and the late Catherine Irons (nee Baxter), Irons was born in La Crosse, WI, and grew up in Waukon. One of nine children, Irons attended St. Pats School, and it was during these years she started preparing for her future career.
Under the guidance of Librarian Alice Grimm, Irons worked after school, over the weekends and during summers at the Waukon Public library, where she filed magazines and books and also led story hour on Saturday mornings. She said she's always known that she wanted to be a librarian, and recalled a story about a visit to the library when she was only four. It was time to go home so her mother called her and she promptly replied, "No, I'm going to be a librarian."
After high school, Irons attended Briar Cliff College in Sioux City, where she also worked part-time at the college library. Irons graduated with a degree in English in 1969, at which time her plans were to save for graduate school where she could earn the qualifications necessary to become a librarian. But that dream was realized much sooner than planned, thanks to a summer job in Chicago. In Irons's own words, "The rest is history."
Irons signed up for graduate school at Rosary University (now Dominion University) and began part-time studies toward a Master of Arts in Library Science. At the same time she began work as the librarian for a chemical company where she spent the next three years putting study into practice. While she did not know it at the time, she had begun a career as a corporate librarian, which has now spanned over 30 years.
During this time, Irons has worked for a variety of companies, some of which required a fair amount of traveling. A highlight of her career was a job in Alaska where she set up and managed the records for a hydroelectric dam project with Harza Engineering Company. While the work was interesting, and the scenery beautiful, it was the people that she remembers most. "They were very much like people from Waukon," she says. "Good, honest people."
With a goal towards gaining a broader corporate librarian experience, Irons did some freelance work. However, that didn't last long. She was soon hired by the Gas Research Institute and spent the past 11 years as their corporate librarian. However, in May, the company merged with another and her job dissolved. Irons stayed on to close up shop and then fate took over.
With a desire to head back to her hometown to spend time with her father and family, most of which live in Allamakee County, Irons heard through the "grapevine" about the position at Robey Memorial Library. She then did what she knew best, researched the job and again, the rest is history.
This is Irons's first foray in to the public library system and a major part of her role is administration, making sure the library is running well and working with staff and the library board on strengthening community ties. "I have always been in the corporate environment so this will be a big change, but I am looking forward to it," she says.
Irons strongly believes in the philosophy of teaching people how to research, and then sending them off in the right direction to let them explore. "As people browse they may find other books they like," she says. And if they can't find what they are looking for there is always the Inter-Library Loan Program, which enables libraries to share books, as "no library can purchase and store every book," states Irons.
And being a librarian with a love of books from such a young age, does Irons have a favorite? Not yet, but growing up she liked a good mystery, particularly Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, and over the years she has collected hundreds of books, particularly little books! "I just like the shape and feel," she says. She admits her collection also included, at last count, over 200 cookbooks, many of which, she adds, have been given to friends as part of the big move home to Waukon.
And now it seems that Irons has come full circle, back to the town and working for the library that first opened her eyes to the world of books. Irons sees herself as a facilitator, or a catalyst to get things happening, and is keen to get all levels of the community involved in their library, particularly the younger readers. "One of my goals is to create a love of libraries in the very young," says Irons, "because it was at this age, the library became such a big part of my life."