By James Windell
Jen LaRowe has no illusions about becoming the new Youth Librarian at the South Haven Memorial Library.
She admits that following Gail Patterson-Gladney, who retired recently after nearly 25 years as the Youth Librarian, is not going to be easy. “I have some very big shoes to fill,” she said in an interview.
However, she feels confident about her new position because of the opportunity to have worked with Patterson-Gladney. “I would not be able to do what I do without being able to have learned from Gail first,” she explained. “I started working with Gail much more during the summer of 2023 when I took over the Teen Reading program. It just naturally happened at that time that I started learning a lot from her.”
LaRowe became Assistant Youth Librarian about three years ago, and before that worked on the Circulation Desk. Getting to work closely with Patterson-Gladney was special for LaRowe: “She’s one of the best coworkers I’ve ever had.”
Now, she gets to run the department on her own. “I’m really excited about it,” she says. “I’m going into planning my third summer reading program, so this time of the year is really busy for me. Now I get to do all the collaborations like Gail has been able to do, so I will use some of her contacts while making new ones of my own.”
While the young people’s section of the library has been successful under Patterson-Gladney, LaRowe is always open to new ideas. “I will keep a lot of the things that were really successful under Gail,” she says. “For instance, she established a Brick Builders Club which was a meet up for kids who like being creative with Legos, but I will try to include more STEM as we go into the new school year.”
LaRowe also plans to collaborate more with the South Haven Center for the Arts. “I want to do more with the Center for the Arts, because our kids really enjoy it. However, I’m always going to bring in new ideas. Kids change as technology changes for kids, too. I like to have a really good balance of technology and non-technology in our kids’ room at the library and the kids will really enjoy that too.”
Although LaRowe grew up in the Ann Arbor area, her parents brought her to South Haven from the time she was a young girl. “It was a special place for my parents,” LaRowe says, “and they planned to retire here.” That didn’t quite work out for her parents, but LaRowe moved her in 2012.
She says that she majored in political science as a student at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie. She never considered working in a library, but her plans changed after she had her daughter Shelby eight years ago and after being a stay-at-home mother for a few years she took a job at the South Haven Library.
“As a result,” she says, “I found something that I really love doing.”
Not only does she love her job, but she also loves being a part of the South Haven community. “I love working within the South Haven community,” she says. “We have a really unique area in which we have so many different services for kids. And we all work together – which is very cool.”
She said she is especially proud of the South Haven Memorial Library. “One of the biggest things about our library is that every program we offer is free for anyone who wishes to attend. There’s not that much left in the world where you can go so many things for free.”
