Thompson 'closes the book'

Kathy Thompson did not start out her professional career in library science or even education.

Thompson, who hails from Montana, studied restaurant management, received an associates arts degree and founded her own establishment in Ennis, Mont. Thompson said the town was a major fly fishing destination near Yellowstone National Park. She said the town’s economy was seasonal.

“I did very well,” Thompson said. “But the season is only for about four months and I felt in a vicious cycle, making my money those months and then having to keep the place operational in the off months.”

She said being on her feet all the time was causing some health issues. Then in 1997, whirling disease was found in the nearby Madison River.

“It devastated our little town,” Thompson said. “It made us realize how tied we were to the river, so I sold my business.”

Thompson said it took three years for her to decide to get a degree in education.

“I realized my next career had to be totally different and I went back to school at 40,” Thompson said. “Once I got my degree, my goal was to be in education for 20 years.”

She said her first job offer, which was in Montana, was to teach kindergarten in the morning and be a librarian, which meant certification in library science.

“The first library I worked in was huge and for some reason it wasn’t bar coded correctly,” Thompson said. “So I ended up immersing myself getting the system up to the way it should have been.”

She did this for eight years.

“Montana doesn’t treat teachers very well,” Thompson said. “They don’t treat you as a professional. This isn’t to bash the system, but because there are so many teachers wanting jobs, it doesn’t have to change—and it didn’t.”

Her parents encouraged her to move to Arizona.

“My parents told me the state was begging for teachers, which should have told me something,” Thompson laughed. “So I taught there for a year. My class was filled with Spanish speakers as first language and there was intense scrutiny to make sure in classes of over 30 students, that there was 85 percent engagement at all times. It was harder than when I ran my restaurant which, I didn’t think was possible, but it was. Every Friday I had to give six or seven assessments to every student and then grade them all over the weekend. The paperwork would bury me alive and I am a very organized person. There just was not enough time in the day, literally.”

She went back to Montana for two years. Thompson liked her job tremendously, but Montana cut her position to half time. That year, the state let go of 42 teachers. Thompson was ready to quit education but her husband, Howard, told her not to give up. He is a guide in Ennis and said wherever she got a job, they would make it work.

Thompson found herself at Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow High School interviewing for the job of librarian for that school and the three elementary schools in northern Carbon County. She was hired on the spot.

“That was wonderful,” Thompson said.

She said sometimes people ask her if running four libraries isn’t stressful.

“Compared to what I did before, it really isn’t,” Thompson said. “In Montana they don’t have a pure librarian position. They have you teach classes of other subject matter, so it can be a struggle to do two positions.”

Thompson enjoys all the work she does with all four libraries and is a little sad that, once she retires, there will be no replacement. All the libraries will be run by aides.

“It might be budget related, but the emphasis of computer technology has changed things a lot in library science,” Thompson said. “There will be no more library curriculum.”

She said although they are phasing out her position after her retirement, it does not take away from how she enjoyed working in her job.

“I have thoroughly loved this job, and I would never have had anything comparable in Montana,” Thompson said. “This has been the highlight of my educational career.”

Thompson said she is really proud of the collection assembled for the libraries.

She made her goal of 20 years and is glad to finish in Carbon County, but looks forward to joining her husband in Ennis, who found that he had to stay in Montana to have a livelihood after a year in Carbon County. They have been married 42 years and they are looking forward to being together year ‘round.

“I will miss my co-workers, staff and students,” Thompson said. “I mean really miss them. It has been gratifying over the years to have former students visit and tell me how library science and the collection of books they had used here helped them in college.”

She said the weather has been the most challenging aspect of her job as she traveled to the different libraries.

“Ennis is considered a windy place in Montana, but I discovered I did not know wind until I lived in Wyoming,” Thompson said. “I always say Wyoming isn’t for wimps and, truthfully, I had no idea Wyoming was so different for Montana, whether it is the culture, weather or how people here are so fiercely independent. Because of that trait, as I said, I am going to miss the people here immensely.”