This is one in a series of stories on employees of the Bensalem School District who retired this year after being hired in the 1970s.
Ruth Fields became the librarian at Robert K. Shafer Middle School when it opened in 1980.
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Now she's beginning a new chapter of her life, as one of scores of employees hired in the 1970s who have retired from the Bensalem School District.
“It was very difficult (to retire),” she said. “I love the faculty, the great students who are very diverse which makes it intersting. I love the technology and I had a fantastic principal who supported that technology.”
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“I stayed longer than I needed to for full retirement (pension) through the state. That's 35 years and I stayed 39 years just because I liked it so much. … But I spent so much time there,” added the outgoing curriculum leader for all the district's libraries, “I didn't have enough time to do things for myself.”
Her plan now is do some traveling and get some R&R -- “for me that's reading and restaurants.”
But before doing that, she spent a little time talking to Patch about her district tenure.
Fields began as an English teacher at Cecilia Snyder Middle School in 1972 and stayed in that role until 1979. While seeking her first master's degree at Villanova, she noticed the university was offering the class Reading Interests of Adolescents.
“I thought that was more appropriate than some other classes for seventh-graders and I thought here's another opportunity,” she said. “When I finished with my master's in English, I walked over and signed up for my master's program in library sciences.”
She knew right away that that was her calling and when the opportunity at the new Shafer school arose she knew that was the job for her.
“I was working there before it was opened,” she said. “With no experience it was interesting. I had to order every book for the library in 1979-1980.”
With the exception of a three-year leave of absence in the late 80s, she's been Shafer's librarian ever since.
Fields is quick to answer what drew her away from the classroom and into the library.
“I loved the variety,” she said. “Every day is different in the library. You never know who is going to come in and ask for help. When you teach English five periods a day, it's repetitious. In the library you work with all kinds of teachers, administrators and kids. Throw in all the technology that changed which I loved.”
When she started in 1980 “the big technology” was a film loop projector, which she recently ran across while packing up.
“Then when we got our first computer in the library. I think it was an Apple IIe,” she said. “We had to put a bar code on every book and type in all the information into the computer. … Now we have 42 computers in the library and the catalog is electronic and the system is very interactive and students can access it from home.”
Fields says that while the Internet brought big changes, it didn't reduce the amount of library traffic from students
“We do a lot of teaching here on such things as how to do more advanced (Internet) searches,” she said. It made it really interesting.”
One student stands out for Fields: Jeneba Koroma.
“She is an amazing girl from Africa, she said. “She read about 300 books a year. She just ate up the material.”
Fields, a Blue Bell resident, recently turned 60 and she said that was another reason to retire.
“It makes me think what do I want to do with my life,” she said.
What the longtime librarian has already done for Bensalem students could fill a book.
