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There are four institutions that anchor the city of Clarkfield: the elevator that feeds its industry, the school that feeds its future, the church that feed its soul and the library that feeds its mind.
For the past 20 years the final of these institutions has been governed by Enola Rolla. To Clarkfield she’s known simply as ‘Nola’. A minor shortening that makes her name as pleasing to say out loud as it is to meet the woman herself.
Walking into the small hall of books (which was converted from once being part of the city’s hospital), you don’t make it by her desk without a smile and a greeting from her thick warm voice that at first seems entirely too loud and jovial for a library. That is until you realize you’re in Clarkfield and everyone talks loud here, with voices meant to traverse the plains calling ‘hello there’ to a neighbor, or ‘lunch’ to the family. There’s no shushing here, because there’s rarely pretense in Clarkfield and the library’s too small for it to matter anyway. People are going to eavesdrop regardless.
“Have I got a book for you,” Nola can be heard most often saying. as she slaps her hand on a pile of books when a patron walks in. She knows everyone’s name, everyone’s checkout number and what everyone likes. The library’s piled from floor to ceiling with neatly shelved books, but people rarely have to go farther than Nola’s desk near the door. She’s already got it in hand for you.
“She has a passion for reading and books,” says Sue Toft—who is a member of the Clarkfield Garden Club. They’re hosting a recognition party for Nola at the City Hall on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at City Hall from 2-5 p.m. “When you go in there she says, ‘I have a book for you!,’ and she does that all the time. ‘I have a book you’d like. You’ll like this book, because you like that book. She knows her clients very well. She’s exceptional, she really is. She knows every book cover to cover.”
Nola didn’t like the idea of honoring her when the Garden Club asked. Yet, then she realized they’d just do it anyway. Clarkfield women are stubborn about parties.
Twenty years ago she started this job. No experience. No training. Her experience was in just about everything else. She worked at the Plews factory right after graduating from Granite Falls High School. She worked at a pig nursery, as an apartment manager, she cleaned hotels, worked at a liquor store, worked at Pamida, she spent some time in Texas and Oklahoma, but she and her husband didn’t like it. When they moved to Clarkfield she worked at the milk drying plant; inserting liners in bags. Then she worked at the Clarkfield Care Center doing laundry. She cleaned City Hall for awhile and did a little secretary work for the Clarkfield Chief of Police.
“Back in 1991, there was an ad in the paper for a library aide and that’s what I was originally hired for,” says Nola. “Two years later, the then library director left. So I moved up to this position. And here I still am... It’s not too exciting of a story.” She says the last sentence with a deep raspy laugh while waving her hands.
“I loved to read, that was my only experience. My only experience with libraries was visiting them.”
At first, she didn’t think she’d last past the first couple of days—not because she felt in over her head—she was just bored. She’d only lived in Clarkfield about a year. She didn’t know anybody. She learned people’s checkout numbers before their names.
“The first couple of days I worked here, I didn’t think I’d stay very long, because it wasn’t nearly as busy as it has become. I immediately had to start finding things for me to do. Otherwise, I thought this job isn’t going to last very long. I need more to do than this.”
She cured her boredom by attracting people to her little library and to herself. When she started, 5,414 people came to the library to check out 11,543 books. This last year 12,043 people entered the Clarkfield Library and 15,815 items were checked out.
So what does Clarkfield read?
“It’s very diverse,” says Nola. “We do not buy a lot of non-fiction. We’re a reader’s library. People want to escape, read a good book to escape, or you know to relax. I shouldn’t necessarily say escape, but to relax. So, we don’t buy a lot of non-fiction. Everybody always wants the new political book, the new craft books and of course the new cook books. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like to cook or eat.”
And what’s a librarian’s reward for feeding such minds?
“The best by far, is when people come in and say what a great book I gave them. ‘I couldn’t put it down’, they say. ‘I was up till 2 a.m. and it’s your fault’. Well, that’s good for me,” she says while clapping. “Yea! Good for me.”
And Clarkfield agrees.
There are four institutions that anchor the city of Clarkfield: the elevator that feeds its industry, the school that feeds its future, the church that feed its soul and the library that feeds its mind.
For the past 20 years the final of these institutions has been governed by Enola Rolla. To Clarkfield she’s known simply as ‘Nola’. A minor shortening that makes her name as pleasing to say out loud as it is to meet the woman herself.
Walking into the small hall of books (which was converted from once being part of the city’s hospital), you don’t make it by her desk without a smile and a greeting from her thick warm voice that at first seems entirely too loud and jovial for a library. That is until you realize you’re in Clarkfield and everyone talks loud here, with voices meant to traverse the plains calling ‘hello there’ to a neighbor, or ‘lunch’ to the family. There’s no shushing here, because there’s rarely pretense in Clarkfield and the library’s too small for it to matter anyway. People are going to eavesdrop regardless.
“Have I got a book for you,” Nola can be heard most often saying. as she slaps her hand on a pile of books when a patron walks in. She knows everyone’s name, everyone’s checkout number and what everyone likes. The library’s piled from floor to ceiling with neatly shelved books, but people rarely have to go farther than Nola’s desk near the door. She’s already got it in hand for you.
“She has a passion for reading and books,” says Sue Toft—who is a member of the Clarkfield Garden Club. They’re hosting a recognition party for Nola at the City Hall on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at City Hall from 2-5 p.m. “When you go in there she says, ‘I have a book for you!,’ and she does that all the time. ‘I have a book you’d like. You’ll like this book, because you like that book. She knows her clients very well. She’s exceptional, she really is. She knows every book cover to cover.”
Nola didn’t like the idea of honoring her when the Garden Club asked. Yet, then she realized they’d just do it anyway. Clarkfield women are stubborn about parties.
Twenty years ago she started this job. No experience. No training. Her experience was in just about everything else. She worked at the Plews factory right after graduating from Granite Falls High School. She worked at a pig nursery, as an apartment manager, she cleaned hotels, worked at a liquor store, worked at Pamida, she spent some time in Texas and Oklahoma, but she and her husband didn’t like it. When they moved to Clarkfield she worked at the milk drying plant; inserting liners in bags. Then she worked at the Clarkfield Care Center doing laundry. She cleaned City Hall for awhile and did a little secretary work for the Clarkfield Chief of Police.
“Back in 1991, there was an ad in the paper for a library aide and that’s what I was originally hired for,” says Nola. “Two years later, the then library director left. So I moved up to this position. And here I still am... It’s not too exciting of a story.” She says the last sentence with a deep raspy laugh while waving her hands.
“I loved to read, that was my only experience. My only experience with libraries was visiting them.”
At first, she didn’t think she’d last past the first couple of days—not because she felt in over her head—she was just bored. She’d only lived in Clarkfield about a year. She didn’t know anybody. She learned people’s checkout numbers before their names.
“The first couple of days I worked here, I didn’t think I’d stay very long, because it wasn’t nearly as busy as it has become. I immediately had to start finding things for me to do. Otherwise, I thought this job isn’t going to last very long. I need more to do than this.”
She cured her boredom by attracting people to her little library and to herself. When she started, 5,414 people came to the library to check out 11,543 books. This last year 12,043 people entered the Clarkfield Library and 15,815 items were checked out.
So what does Clarkfield read?
“It’s very diverse,” says Nola. “We do not buy a lot of non-fiction. We’re a reader’s library. People want to escape, read a good book to escape, or you know to relax. I shouldn’t necessarily say escape, but to relax. So, we don’t buy a lot of non-fiction. Everybody always wants the new political book, the new craft books and of course the new cook books. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like to cook or eat.”
And what’s a librarian’s reward for feeding such minds?
“The best by far, is when people come in and say what a great book I gave them. ‘I couldn’t put it down’, they say. ‘I was up till 2 a.m. and it’s your fault’. Well, that’s good for me,” she says while clapping. “Yea! Good for me.”
And Clarkfield agrees.
