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A Very Special Did you hear? podcast Episode: Library Lets Loose!
Extra! Extra! Hear all about it!
Did you know the Johnson County Library has a podcast? If not, this special episode is the perfect place to begin listening. By spending a mere 15 minutes with us, you too will be able to answer with a resounding "Yes!" to the question: "Did you hear?"
We discuss the annual one night only party at the Library we call: Library Lets Loose. You are not going to want to miss this festive, lively after-hours celebration and fundraiser for Library Lovers at Central Resource Library. If you are 21 years or older, we invite you to join our Honorary hosts Senia and Will Shields to enjoy food, drink, music, our MakerSpace and truly good people!
Tickets and more information:
Tricia Suellentrop and her husband Shaun
New Director Passionate about Discovery in Libraries and Life
One of Tricia Suellentrop’s fondest childhood experiences was listening riveted while her fifth grade teacher read a book to the class about the drama and intrigue of the Wild West.
“It was just a great memory that I have, literally being on the edge of your seat, can you just read a little bit more?” Suellentrop now recalls.
Books have always been a source of wonder and exploration for Suellentrop. So it’s only fitting that she now heads Johnson County Library, an organization devoted to sharing the vast world of books, information and ideas to satisfy any curiosity and enrich people’s lives.
“The word I always associate, that gives me the biggest spark, is discovery,” says Suellentrop, who assumed the role of Johnson County Librarian on July 1, following Sean Casserley’s retirement. “That’s what I really think about Libraries. It’s just all the discovery possible.”
She is an enthusiastic evangelist for continuing to make Johnson County Library accessible to all patrons pursuing their own journeys of the mind.
Suellentrop, 52, brings decades of experience to her new job. She joined Johnson County Library full time in 1998 as the first Teen Services Coordinator. She then served as Youth Services Manager and Systemwide Services Manager before becoming Deputy County Librarian in 2008.
She learned a lot about long-range planning, strategic thinking and fostering a nurturing work culture from Johnson County Librarians Donna Lauffer and Casserley, preparing her to take the helm.
Colleagues appreciate her good humor, sense of fun and collaborative leadership style, which empowers staff to be independent, creative and proactive in addressing challenges and problems.
Growing up in Wichita, Suellentrop was immersed in an academic environment as her mother was a history and English professor at Wichita State and Newman universities.
Suellentrop herself graduated from Benedictine College with a bachelor’s degree in English. She worked for a few years, including as a nanny in Denver, before earning her Master of Library Science from Emporia State.
She interviewed for several Johnson County children’s librarian positions but wasn’t chosen. Fortunately, Jean Hatfield, a youth services manager, realized her potential and urged her to apply for a brand new position focused on teens.
She got the job and found working with young adults incredibly energizing and inspiring.
Suellentrop forged robust connections with school librarians, increasing families’ appreciation for Johnson County Library’s great resources.
She also spearheaded the Read to Succeed program with the Juvenile Detention Center, providing juveniles with access to all sorts of Library books and services. The program was a model for other Library systems, and in 2005 Suellentrop was recognized as one of the Library Journal’s Movers and Shakers.
She co-authored “Connecting Young Adults and Libraries,” a manual to help public and school libraries serve teen populations. And perhaps most wonderfully, Suellentrop developed close relationships with countless teens, many of whom still keep in touch with her.
In her spare time, Suellentrop is an avid Wichita State Shocker’s basketball fan. She and her husband Shaun have two dogs and two cats and enjoy live music, particularly at Knuckleheads, Grinders and the Green Lady Lounge. She has a goal of visiting all 50 states, with just Maine and Wisconsin left to go.
She loves nonfiction, teen fiction and thrillers, usually reading one book at a time and listening to another in her car.
In these first months on the job, Suellentrop is taking time to listen and learn. She appreciates the supportive Library Board, staff and patron base, and looks forward to working closely with other civic leaders.
It’s a great new chapter for what has been a wonderful career.
“I love that being in the Library, no day is ever the same,” she said. “That really fits with my personality, and with my tolerance for surprises.”
Cities and Towns of Johnson County
Happy Throwback Thursday! Celebrate by time traveling through local history at jocohistory.org and be sure to follow our hashtag on Twitter!
A really neat feature of JoCoHistory is the Cities and Towns of Johnson County section. The team has organized content like pictures of houses, schools, people and more by city and town names. While there, be sure to explore the Lost Communities of Johnson County, Kansas.
What do you know about the Library?
It's the Library Lowdown Quiz Showdown Part I
We love quiz podcasts and radio programs like “Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!” We also live for getting to know everything there is to know about Johnson County Library! What do you know? What do we know? Get ready for a variety of Library games! In this fantastically fun episode, we play Bluff the Librarian with Local Arts Librarian Bryan and Library Password with Matt, Patti and Courtney.
Be sure to stay until the end when we announce the winners of our at-home Crossword and Word Search!
Search our Web Catalog using tags!
When you search our catalog, you can search by 'tags,' user-created ways to browse for something new to read! Maybe you're ready for Halloween and need a 'spooky' read, or love books set in the '1920s.' Try searching by tags today!
A Very Special Did you hear? podcast Episode: Library Lets Loose!
Extra! Extra! Hear all about it!
Did you know the Johnson County Library has a podcast? If not, this special episode is the perfect place to begin listening. By spending a mere 15 minutes with us, you too will be able to answer with a resounding "Yes!" to the question: "Did you hear?"
We discuss the annual one night only party at the Library we call: Library Lets Loose. You are not going to want to miss this festive, lively after-hours celebration and fundraiser for Library Lovers at Central Resource Library. If you are 21 years or older, we invite you to join our Honorary hosts Senia and Will Shields to enjoy food, drink, music, our MakerSpace and truly good people!
Tickets and more information:
Front of the current Shawnee Library
Original Shawnee Library building
Interior view of the Shawnee Library
Megan Clark and Anna Madrigal
Shawnee Branch Celebrates Decades of Service to Community
The Shawnee Library branch is celebrating 30 years at its current location, 13811 Johnson Drive, sharing a campus with an aquatic center and civic center.
But Library roots run even deeper in Shawnee and date back nearly 70 years, to a charming little schoolhouse. In fact, the very first Johnson County Library branch opened its doors June 3, 1953 in Shawnee, in the old Dunbar School at 57th and Reeder Road. The facility was first run by volunteers from the Friends of Johnson County Library and later by paid staff.
The Shawnee Library moved to rented space near Nieman Road on Johnson Drive, but budget cuts forced its closure in 1958. For the next 34 years, Shawnee was served by the Antioch branch.
Library and civic leaders always wanted to re-establish a Shawnee branch. That became even more essential with population growth in the 1980s. The city offered the present site on its Johnson Drive civic campus, and the branch opened there on April 25, 1992.
The building, designed by Gould Evans architects, had floor-to-ceiling windows, a bright, airy interior and a vaulted roof resembling an open book. Its design was so impressive that it was featured in the Library Journal’s annual architecture issue that same year.
Serving patrons today is a joy for Branch Manager Anna Madrigal and Assistant Branch Manager Megan Clark.
“It’s not as big and flashy as some of our new locations, but it’s well established for the families and individuals who utilize it,” Madrigal said. “We’re in the middle of a residential area. People can plan their whole day around going to the pool and then coming to the Library or the opposite.”
Madrigal loves the tall windows with lovely views. “There’s a lot of nature. It kinds of spills over into the trees behind it,” she said. “It’s just a peaceful place for people to hang out.”
Madrigal and Clark are especially looking forward to building improvements planned for the first half of 2023. The branch will get all new shelves, furniture, carpet and paint throughout, new heating and cooling systems and other upgrades.
“We are just really investing in the infrastructure of the building to make sure it’s good for the next 30 years,” Madrigal said.
The branch will shut down for about ten weeks, with the timing not yet certain.
Madrigal started as branch manager in November 2019 and Clark in January 2020, just prior to the pandemic. They are pleased to see a gradual return to normalcy, with the meeting room back open and used heavily by homes associations, scouts and other groups. Storytime returns sometime next year. The branch is now a polling place and a Red Cross blood drive location.
Shawnee’s door count has dropped significantly since the Monticello branch opened in 2018. Still, Shawnee maintains a loyal patron base of families, students and avid readers. It had 78,815 visitors and circulated 136,406 items in 2021.
A large senior living development with apartments and villas is opening nearby in 2023, and their social coordinator has already reached out to Madrigal for information about Library services.
Clark sees the Shawnee Library as a crucial, welcoming community hub.
“I think it’s going to be maybe even more beautiful when we have the renovation,” she said. “Even though we’re not one of the busier branches, it’s a nice destination for our patrons. We have a hard-working staff who make it what it is, and provide the service to make them want to come back.”
The North Building at the Shawnee Indian Mission Johnson County Museum
New JoCoHistory Blog: The Shawnee Indian Mission
Before Europeans arrived in North America, the Shawnee people resided in the Eastern woodlands of what is now the Untied States. In 1793, some Shawnee tribespeople made a treaty with the Spanish for land in Eastern Missouri. In 1825, this group of Shawnee signed a treaty with the United States Government to exchange their land in Missouri for land in present day Eastern Kansas. The remaining tribe in the East signed the Treaty of Fort Meigs in 1817 that granted three areas of land for reservations in Northwest Ohio. However, the Indian Removal Act of 1830 further displaced this group of Shawnee and sent them to join the reservation in Kansas. In that same year, Shawnee Chief Fish requested a missionary to join them on their new reservation. At the behest of the missionary society, Methodist Reverend Thomas Johnson first went to the present-day Turner area of Kansas City, Kansas, and built a two story building to minister to the Shawnee people. He then requested to move to the mission’s present location in Fairway to build a larger school that would serve more tribes, but who’s primary focus would be converting the Native People to Christianity and forcing them to assimilate to European-American culture by giving them Anglo names, forbidding communication in any language other than English, and stripping them of any traditional clothing and objects. During it’s twenty-plus years of operation, up to 200 children aged 5 to 23 were housed at any given time from the Cherokee, Chippewa, Delaware, Gros Ventres, Kaw, Kickapoo, Munsee, Omaha, Osage, Otoe, Ottawa, Peoria, Potawatomi, Shawnee, Wea, and Wyandot tribes.
In October 1839, the mission officially opened. That same year, the West building was completed and housed staff living quarters, a dining hall, and a kitchen. The East building followed in 1841 and contained a chapel, classrooms, and living quarters for both teachers and students. The North building completed the primary structures in 1845 that contained classrooms and a girls’ dormitory. The children were taught basic academic subjects alongside training for homemaking, carpentry, blacksmithing, milling and farming. The school employed white settlers from the area and sustained itself with over 2,000 acres of farmland and had its own gristmill, sawmill, blacksmith, and barn.
In 1854, the school ceased the manual labor training it began in the 1830s, but still continued as a mission until the early 1860s. In 1855, the mission became the home of the territorial governor, Andrew Reeder, and what has come to be known as the “bogus legislature” that included Thomas Johnson. This fraudulently elected legislature advocated for Kansas to be admitted to the Union as a slave state and criminalized the acts of those seeking to help enslaved people escape to free territory. By 1856, the territorial capital moved to Lecompton and President Pierce fired Governor Reeder and appointed a new pro-Southern governor. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, passed on May 30, 1854, opened Johnson County to white settlers seeking to own land once promised to the Shawnee, once again displacing the tribe. Their final move to Oklahoma would be their last forced mass removal as the tribe is still headquartered in Miami, Oklahoma.
Although the story of the Shawnee Indian Mission is a tragic one, a love story did survive. On November 12, 1853, a white laborer on the mission, Samuel Garrett, married a Shawnee woman named Elizabeth Choteau. Garrett was officially adopted into the Shawnee tribe in 1856. The Garretts stayed in Johnson County until 1870 when Elizabeth tragically died. Samuel then took their six children to Miami, Oklahoma, to resume life with the Shawnee. In 1911, their son Frederick returned to Johnson County, building a farm near Wilder.
The Shawnee Indian Mission closed in 1862. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 23, 1968, and three brick buildings still stand. The site is open for tours – click here for more information.
-Amanda Wahlmeier, Johnson County Library
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