ROCHELLE — Ann Marie Jinkins began her career at Rochelle Township High School in 1992 after graduating from the University of Illinois, when the school was in need of an English teacher that could teach one section of Spanish for a year.

Jinkins taught courses including Spanish, English I, Modern Readings, American Literature after 1900, Poetry in Prose, Honors English I, Intro to Language Arts, and Journalism. Then-RTHS Librarian Debby Van Dyke announced her impending retirement, and Jinkins received her master's degree in library science and became RTHS librarian in 2003. She retired from the school this May after 33 years at RTHS and 22 as its librarian.

Jinkins was librarian at the old RTHS location on 7th Street for one year before the school moved to its Flagg Road location and new library in 2004. She’s seen the needs of students and a library change, with computers improving in technology and demand for them increasing, before the COVID-19 brought about RTHS’s one-to-one model with Google Chromebooks for every student, and library desktop computers became needed only for research and specific programs.

The RTHS library acts as a resource to help students research and sift through information, especially when there’s more information out there now than ever. Students search databases with hundreds of thousands of sources to find a handful for the topic they’re working on.

“Being able to help kids find what they need to be successful is why I'm here,” Jinkins said. “That satisfaction makes me happy. It's very frustrating when a student comes in and doesn't find what they want and then leaves without asking for help. Sometimes I feel like teenagers today are averse to risk taking and asking for help or just speaking to somebody is taking a risk. It's wonderful when we can find something and sometimes it can be funny when someone asks for a book and I can go get it without even looking it up, because I've memorized where everything is over the years.”

The RTHS library sees a large number of recreational readers, and Jinkins said many of them still prefer physical books to get time away from screens. She’s made it a priority in her 22 years to make sure the library has something for everyone. 

“I love seeing kids come in and get a book and read it and bring it back looking for another one,” Jinkins said. “That's exciting for me. I love doing interlibrary loans for students because we're a small rural school library and we can get books from anywhere.”

Jinkins has been involved with extracurricular clubs in her time at RTHS including the Tatler, the Class Notes Newspaper, Natural Helpers; Graphic, Anime, Comic and Manga Enthusiasts (GACME) Club; Fiction Addiction, Pins & Needles Club, Lego Club, and the HubsRead Podcast Club. 

She believes those clubs were an extension of her job as a librarian, and that an extra hour after school being involved with them was time well spent. Some days, that hour was the best part of her day.

In Jinkins’ final days as RTHS librarian, the library sat empty as it was prepared for a planned remodel, which she had the responsibility of designing. The work will take place this summer. Changes will include more new and diverse seating, moving bookshelves onto walls, the addition of small meeting rooms, and moving the help desk to the center of the library. 

“It's strange to have the library be empty in my last days here,” Jinkins said. “But I think it's also been very positive for me because it's a clean break. Even though I designed it, this will be someone else's library. As much as I wish I was going to be the one here using it, it's time to move on. The new librarian and our current library aide have said I can come back and read whenever I want.”

Jinkins is RTHS’s current longest tenured employee. She’s been spending time recently thinking about the old building and past coworkers and mentors such as Bob Zawislak, Van Dyke, Pete Fader, Ruth Hart, Joanne Mays, Joyce Brake, Ellen White, Vicki Snyder-Chura and Kathy Connor. She’s spoken with some of them seeking advice on what it’s like to retire.

The community and its organizations have been supportive of RTHS’s library over Jinkins’ 22 years running it, she said. She thanked the Rochelle Rotary Club, the RTHS Education Foundation, the Rochelle Area Community Foundation, the Maggie & Amos Foundation, Rochelle Community Hospital, and the Women of the Moose for gifts over the years to purchase library materials.

Jinkins misses teaching Romeo & Juliet and To Kill a Mockingbird, and would still peek into English I classes in her later years at RTHS while students were on the topics. She fondly remembers “lightbulb moments” when students would understand a concept or theme and apply it to their work.

“There's something very exciting about when a student gets it,” Jinkins said.  “When you see a student truly understands what you've been trying to teach, that's why I enjoyed my job. I remember those lightbulb moments with students and there's something very exciting when a student understands and also uses the information in a different way. Like when they write a paper that's completely unique and something they hadn't considered before on a theme in a story. There's something very exciting about watching students discover who they are. I always loved teaching freshmen because I could see them grow up.”

Memories that stand out to Jinkins include seeing plays put on by RTHS’s Theatre Department, taking kids on field trips, watching Ballet Folklorico and the Marching Band perform in the courtyard on the first day of school, and seeing graduating seniors notice things in the library they hadn’t before when they start to mentally say goodbye to RTHS. 

Jinkins plans to spend her retirement with family and hopes to become a part-time circulation clerk at a Rockford-area library.

“So much of our lives is luck,” Jinkins said. “If I hadn't been able to teach Spanish I for one year until they found a full-time Spanish teacher, I never would have gotten the job here. Because it was so specific what they needed. I'm very lucky to have spent time here. I've loved Rochelle.”