By Philip Sean Curran
Staff Writer
Jan Murphy doesn’t work at the Cranbury Public Library anymore, the woman whose nearly 40-year career as a librarian ended on a Friday afternoon.
She was “ready” for retirement, she said on Nov. 30, seated at a table next to where the magazines are displayed, when a patron Murphy knows came by to say how much she will be missed.
“You know, I’m fine with it,” Murphy said. “If you do the math, I’ve been doing this like 38 years. It’s a long time. It’s time now for somebody else.”
Murphy, 63, worked in the community for nearly 13 years, one leg of a career that started in a town north of Chicago.
She attended the University of Michigan in her home state and thought she would be a teacher. A roommate at college was going to graduate school to become a librarian, a path Murphy also followed. Her first job out of graduate school was as a librarian at a junior high school in Waukegan, Ill. Eventually, she would work for the Chicago Public Library.
Murphy came to the East Coast in 2004, when her husband, Rian, had his job at Goldman Sachs transferred from Chicago to New York. The family, which included three sons, moved to West Windsor. Settling into New Jersey, Murphy found herself calling the Cranbury Library in search of information about the area she found herself living in.
With an opening in Cranbury, she got hired in June 2006 to be the children’s librarian, initially on a part-time basis. Of working with children, she said, “It’s just more fun.
“You can talk them into a good story, they get so excited.”
Reflecting on the changes she has seen in her profession since she started her career, Murphy mentioned technology. She began working in the era of the card catalog, something she is glad to see gone.
“You have no idea what a nightmare that thing was, if you’re a librarian, because you’ve got to put all those cards in there,” she said. “It was horrible.”
But in the digital age, Murphy said she sees a future for libraries as a place for books.
“I think a lot of people like a book and it’s not just people my age,” she said. “I think the preponderance of people enjoy holding and reading an actual book.”
As a children’s librarian, she had the opportunity to work with children and see them grow up, working in a library that is in the Cranbury School.
“Because it’s a small town, you really get to know people,” she said. “That kind of a connection, you don’t get in a big library. You just don’t.”
Through the years, Murphy’s responsibilities increased, the children got older and time got closer for retirement. She looked back over her career and said she had no regrets.
Library Director Marilynn Mullen said it was sad to see Murphy leave.
“I can see she is looking forward to it,” Mullen said. “I think a lot of people in Cranbury will miss her.”
“I’ve done my bit, I’ve done my part,” Murphy said without betraying any sadness about leaving. “And now, let’s give it to somebody younger.”
