KALONA

Olivia Kahler literally grew up in this community. A Mid-Prairie graduate, she’s held jobs at tourist-magnets like Yotty’s Ice Cream and the Kalona Cheese Factory. She’s served on the Kalona Chamber Board; taught Bible School; sung in the church choir.

She also literally grew up at the library. She began as a clerk at the Kalona Public Library in 2006 when she was just a teenager. She left after a year to attend college; she returned to the same position exactly 10 years later as a newlywed with a baby at home.

In 2018 she landed a position in Youth Services; in 2020, she and Trevor Sherping took shared ownership over the library’s leadership, she becoming Director of Youth Services. Now, as Sherping departs, she’ll be full Library Director.

“Will I ever be fully grown up? Probably not,” Kahler says. “And you can’t be in this line of work. You have to be fun and welcoming and make people want to be here. That’s my take. The longer I’m fun, the more people will want to come here.”

Knowing the community and the library like the back of her hand – “I have hired for all positions and I have done all positions in this library,” she notes – puts Kahler in a good position to prioritize fun as Library Director.

Fun for Adults

“My heart with my children’s position was programming and getting people in the building and having fun activities for them to do, and having them say, ‘Hey, let’s go to the library.’ I would want to do that for adults as well,” she says as she looks forward.

Kahler has some interesting ideas up her sleeve for adults. The library already hosts books clubs and a crafters club; she would like to see a cookbook club added to that mix, because “When I’m not at the library, I’m in my kitchen. My passion is cooking,” she says.

That comes as no surprise for those who remember her Grand Champion win at the 2022 Kalona Days Pie Baking Contest for her Maple Bourbon Pecan pie, or her boozy Summer Sangria pie entry into the 2023 contest.

She laments that people often Google recipes on the fly, when at the library, “We have a hoard of cookbooks, treasure troves from the 50s and 60s” that include recipes by local people “that you would probably know if you took the time to look through the cookbook, and the stories that go with them. I think the idea of sharing recipes from our host of cookbooks would be really entertaining, really fun,” she says.

Showcasing the work of area artists, crafters, and collectors is another idea Kahler has that she would like to implement at the library. After talking to a local artist recently, she thought, “What better place to showcase your work than here?” She would like to partner with others to display their work for the community to enjoy.

Kahler also welcomes the ideas community members have for clubs that might meet in the library.

“Come in and chat with us,” she invites. “We love to talk about any ideas they have. If they want to start a club. . . we’d love to help host it and advertise it and see if anyone shows up. That’s what we do with all the library programs: hope for the best.”

That’s how a seed share program got started that folks can participate in come April. A retired greenhouse employee suggested a forum for sharing and swapping seeds and plants, and the library was happy to help.

“I think that will be awesome,” Kahler says.

Drama Queen

Just as Kahler’s fondness for food is no secret, neither is her connoisseurship of costumes. Any chance she has, from community events to storytimes, she’ll dress up. Pirate, beachgoer, scientist – she’s been them all.

“I think it just brings an added creativity to whatever program it is that I’m doing,” she says. “Anytime I have a reason to add a little flair, I’ll do it. That makes it memorable. The kids want to keep coming back when you do something ridiculous, so why not?”

Finding joy in the dramatic dates way back for Kahler; she participated in choirs, musicals, and plays as a student, and she’s found a way to keep that going as an adult. And she by no means has run out of ideas.

“I haven’t had a reason to wear a princess dress yet,” she admits. “We’ll figure that out. Fancy tea party?”

Partner in Crime

As Sherping moves on from the library to become a stay-at-home parent, Kahler pauses to reflect on their partnership as co-directors of the library over the last few years.

When previous director Anne Skaden retired in 2020, “We both wanted to be in charge,” she says. When she and Sherping were both brought back for second interviews, she went to him and said, “I bet we could do it together.” He had the education in library science, and she knew the community. In the end, co-direct is what they did, and “it worked very, very well.”

“I think together we make one whole human, was always the joke,” she says of her co-directorship with Sherping. “We make one whole grown up.”

Now, Kahler feels confident that Sherping has passed along enough knowledge that she can go it alone.

That may be somewhat challenging, as no one is being hired to replace her in Youth Services, but she says it’s not uncommon for library directors to do storytime themselves at small libraries, and she plans to continue the outreach she’s been doing with both Mid-Prairie and Highland school districts, as that had been one of her priorities moving into the co-director position.

Sherping assures Kahler he’ll still be around, bringing his newborn to storytime and the like. She jokes with him that she started out his boss when he began at the library as a part-time clerk, and she wouldn’t mind being his boss again.

“We’ll just keep switching places,” she says. “One of us is always in charge, and the other one’s always getting the coffee.”

A Life of Service

Kahler is truly grateful for all of those who have hired her, taught her, and inspired her over the years. They have formed the community in which she was “born, raised, and planning to stay.”

It’s hard to imagine she has free time for fun, given all that she does, but for her, serving her community is fun.

“My hobbies are service,” she says. “My heart has always been in this community. . . I still am helping out when I can and offering my services to local events. I have dipped my hand into every Kalona cookie jar, I think, that there is.”

As she takes over as full Library Director on March 1, the community need not worry if there will be an adult in charge.

There may not be. And that’s the way we like it.