Prechel’s happy place, the library

On Thursdays from 2 to 8 p.m, local retiree Linda Prechel offers a smiling face and helping hand at the Janesville Public Library, where she works as a part-time librarian. 

“I used to go to this library when I was a kid,” said Prechel, who added that the house she shares with her husband in Janesville is only two blocks from where she grew up.  

While Prechel said she did not anticipate remaining in Janesville her entire life, she needed to return home to help her grandparents during her young adulthood and it ended up being a convenient place to live when she was employed in Mankato and her husband in Waseca.

Prechel is a graduate of South Central College, where she studied computer science and business. An avid coder, Prechel designed an original payroll program for Honeymead, a soybean oil corporation formerly based in Mankato.

Prechel also worked for a time as a bank teller in downtown Minneapolis, but did not remain there for long. 

Dedicated to her church community, Prechel started volunteering and later working at Janesville’s Trinity Lutheran Church and School when her own children attended class there. For 20 years, she was a cook and preschool teacher at Trinity.

Prechel said her final class of preschoolers graduated from high school last year.

At the Janesville Public Library, Prechel formerly headed summer art programs, around the same time she worked at Trinity. She is now unable to work full time because her husband has Parkinson’s Disease and she must take him to appointments and ensure he receives the medical care he needs.

When she comes in, though, Prechel very much enjoys her job.

“This is my happy place,” Prechel said of the Janesville Public Library.

Talking to the various people who come in, especially children, is Prechel’s favorite part of her job. She especially enjoys when families visit the library together.

In addition to engaging with community members who come into the library, Prechel is close with her coworkers.

She describes the other Janesville librarian, Sharon Tlusty as a “sweet person” and considers herself “blessed to have some really awesome people to work with” in the Waseca-Lesueur Library System. 

This summer, the Janesville Public Library is running the “Ocean of Possibilities” summer reading program, hosting story times, and holding various programs and parties. 

While Prechel “can’t clean house all day,” she enthusiastically wears her position at the Janesville Public Library as a badge of honor, happily offering book recommendations and other assistance to those who come in.