by Kelly Rogge, KCKCC
When Cheryl Postlewait started at Kansas City Kansas Community College in 1990, there were only about 2,000 full-time students. Something else surprising – there were almost no computers on campus.
“I got the third computer in the library,” said Postlewait, director of the library at KCKCC. “Since then the library has gone from a paper card catalog to an online system.”
During the 25 years, Postlewait has been on campus she has served as a technical services librarian and as director of the library. She plans to retire this summer. She said it is the support of the people she has worked with that has made KCKCC such a good place to work. It is those people that she will miss the most.
“My husband (Fred) and I would like to travel and as our health is good, now seemed to be the right time,” she said on her decision to retire. “We want to travel and would like to visit as many of the national parks as we can. I also plan to continue to work in libraries, but only part-time.”
Postlewait said aside from the integration of computer technology, one of the biggest changes she has seen during her career is a database that she helped create.
“We have developed an online database (The Morgue) to index mortuary science and bereavement journals,” she said. “It is used by mortuary schools and businesses around the world.”
Postlewait has a bachelor of arts in speech/drama/English from Southern Nazarene University and a master’s degree in library science from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Prior to coming to KCKCC, she worked as the library manager at Polsinelli, White, Vardeman and Shalton law firm and also worked in a veterinary library, agricultural library, medical school library, hospital library and in library consulting.
“Many people say that one goes into library work because they love to read. I love to read, but that was not the main draw,” she said. “Working in libraries allowed me to such a variety of things. Most of my early library jobs were in one or two person libraries where you did everything, which was great. Because of the variety, I have never been bored because I was never doing the same thing day in and day out. Working in libraries allowed me to use both my communications skills and my technology skills.”
Kelly Rogge is the public information supervisor at KCKCC.