Julie Wendorf, director of the Crown Point Community Library, began working at the library back in 2010 as a part-time reference assistant. In 2013, Wendorf went back to college to earn her master’s in library science at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).
“I completed that in 2015 and became the library's first programming and outreach librarian,” Wendorf said.
Wendorf started her career as an English teacher, earning her BA in English literature and a BS in secondary education at the University of Cincinnati. Wendorf began her teaching career in 1995 and would ultimately make the decision to stay home with her children in 2000.
“I taught middle school and high school in Ohio for a time and then took a break and stayed home with my children when they were born,” Wendorf said. “When I returned to the workforce, I started looking at going back to teaching and explored that option here in Indiana and then decided to go work at the library.”
Wendorf’s favorite part of working with the library is engaging with her community.
“We started our major outreach programming in 2015, and we started attending festivals and a lot of activities that the city of Crown Point has,” Wendorf said. “At the director level, that just becomes an even bigger portion of my time: connecting with other entities and making partnerships to help our community be a great place to live, play, and work.”
Wendorf loves the sense of community that is present in Crown Point and the fact that the residents of Crown Point get involved whether it be for festivals, events, or just hanging out in the downtown area.
“Crown Point is a great community,” Wendorf said. “Everybody shows up. We just had the tree lighting last week and a festival at Bulldog Park. There's a lot of community involvement as a whole; It's a great feeling of togetherness and camaraderie.”
When Wendorf is not at work, she enjoys gardening as well as reading and knitting.
“I like to plant flowers, but I also have a pretty big vegetable garden,” Wendorf said.
During COVID-19, the library, much like the rest of the world, was facing problems when they had to shut down.
“We wanted to make sure that we could provide library services during that time. We opened back up in May of 2020 to the public,” Wendorf said. “Making sure we can provide services and adjusting our services to match the needs of our community during the time of challenge was something that we're really proud of.”
Wendorf hopes that she impacts the community by helping create avenues and resources through her work at the library.
“We have the Crown Point Adult Learning Center here in the building,” Wendorf said. “Somebody might be learning English as a second language or attending their first story time for early literacy or learning how to use the computer for the first time. Wherever somebody is at in life, we can meet them and help them make the changes that they want to make in their life in terms of information or skills.”