Katherine Chew has been a librarian on Air Force bases in Europe, at hospitals in Washington, D.C. and Montana, and for the last 23 years, here at the University of Minnesota. But even though she’s retiring in November, she won’t stop learning and chasing information.

“I just geek out on hunting down information so that I will miss,” Chew said. “But I probably will not totally give up hunting down information for people. They’ll still ask me, and I will still do it.”

Chew is a self-proclaimed geek, fascinated by information and organization. In another lifetime, she could’ve easily become a computer scientist. But instead, she volunteered after school at her junior high’s library.

“I was one of those kids that always had my nose in a book,” she said. “So my mother said to me, ‘You should be a librarian.’”

Becoming an Air Force librarian

Chew, a Minneapolis native, enrolled at the University of Minnesota intent on becoming a librarian. She was officially a history major, but had the university offered the degree at the time, she would’ve completed the history of science, technology, and medicine program.

She also received her master’s in library and information science at the U of M, before that graduate program was discontinued. As a graduate student, she worked part-time at the Biomedical Library in Diehl Hall (which moved to the Health Sciences Education Center in 2020 and was renamed the Health Sciences Library). Her experience in the technical services reinforced her commitment to librarianship.

After graduation, Chew got her first full-time job with the Department of the Air Force Libraries as a Base Librarian at the Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana, and later transferred to the Air Force Academy’s Community Center Library.

Base libraries are much like public libraries, Chew said. They offer children’s and adult programs, and have a large collection supporting higher education, since many service members are simultaneously getting college degrees. And of course, they have collections on military history, statistics, and strategy.

Chew met her future husband, Nolen Chew, an active duty serviceman, and after they got married, they moved overseas first to Belgium and then Germany. Like many military families, they moved from place to place over the next 20 years, and Chew went through periods of employment and unemployment. But whether she was a staff member or volunteer, she always kept her hand in the library.

“There was the annoyance of having to pack up your stuff every three years, but also it was a great way to declutter,” Chew said. “I liked it because I always had new places to explore … and my family’s background is German, so being able to go and live there twice was really heavenly.”

Journeying across Europe and America

When Chew and her husband moved back to Great Falls after the first tour abroad, she decided to take a position at a local community hospital. This was her first foray into medical librarianship, which she liked “a whole lot better” than public librarianship.

“It really fed into my geekiness about science and medicine,” Chew said.

They lived in Montana for the next three years, followed by another three years in Europe, where Chew volunteered at the base surgeon general’s office and at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a military hospital operated by the U.S. Army.

Eventually, they moved to Washington, D.C. where Nolen worked at the Pentagon while Chew worked at the District of Columbia General Hospital. There, she interacted with residents and teaching faculty, which reminded her of working in the U of M Biomedical Library.

After 25 years in the Air Force, and a few more cross-country moves, they decided to settle in Nolen’s childhood home in Wisconsin, near the Minnesota border, about an hour’s drive from the Twin Cities.

The newfound stability gave Chew the chance to focus on her own career. She accepted a temporary position at the Biomedical Library, and after her nine months expired, she was rehired under an annual appointment, which eventually transitioned into a continuous appointment.

Since her first day at the Libraries on Dec. 1, 2001, Chew has been a mortuary science and reference librarian. But over the past two decades, she’s picked up a few other hats. She currently serves as a research and outreach services librarian, and is a subject librarian for the Center for Allied Health Programs, the Center for Bioethics, occupational therapy, and physical therapy.

Chew likes volunteering for library orientations, teaching people about the Libraries’ resources, and supporting student and faculty research projects. She’s also recorded research walkthroughs with Libraries Communications on YouTube, talking about the research process, research designs, health misinformation, and health literacy.

“I have been really proud of the YouTube videos that are posted because some of them have now gotten over 1,000 views. I never thought that would happen,” she said.

Minnesota’s outreach and community librarian

There isn’t much Chew doesn’t do. Since 2015, Chew has been an outreach librarian for the National Library of Medicine, representing Minnesota in Region Six, which also includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

She staffs exhibits at health fairs, speaks at conferences, and teaches about the National Library of Medicines’ products and services. Chew has managed and manned a booth at the Minnesota State Fair, quizzing people about health factors and teaching them about health resources.

“That’s one of the things that I’ve enjoyed a lot,” she said. “Just talking to and interacting with lots of people outside of the university.”

This year, the Friends of the National Library of Medicine recognized Chew’s service and dedication and presented her with the 2024 Michael E. DeBakey Librarian Outreach and Community Award.

“Librarian Katherine Chew richly deserves this recognition,” said the Friends of the NLM’s DeBakey Awards Chair, Tovah Reis. “She exemplifies exactly the vision had in mind when the award was created, and more.”

Members from the Friends and from Region Six submitted Chew for the award in August 2023, but Chew didn’t expect anything of it. That is until the Friends called her in December to inform her that she won.

“I was dumbfounded. This was basically imposter syndrome where it’s like, ‘No way. I didn’t think I was that good, but apparently I’m better than I thought I was,’” Chew said.

‘It’s time to work on other things’

Working at the Libraries hasn’t been easy, but it has been fun, Chew said. When she was hired, she didn’t expect to teach or present, and learning how was difficult, especially during the pandemic. It was harder to tell if people were engaged with the material or if they understood it.

“I’m naturally more of an introvert, and so being able to be out there and engage with people, that stuff was something I had to step up and learn how to do,” Chew said.

She’s proud to have edited the newsletter for the Medical Library Association’s collection development section, and of making a guest appearance on the podcast The Mortuary Show, she talked about librarianship and supporting library science.

As expected, Chew has “mixed feelings” about retirement. She’ll miss the faculty and especially the students, who always ask interesting questions that always lead to interesting answers, she said. She’ll also miss her coworkers too, but she won’t miss the commute from Wisconsin.

“I’ve worked with a great bunch of colleagues. Some of them I’ve worked with for very long periods of time. Some of them are brand new. And when new people come in, they’ve come with new perspectives that I will miss,” she said. “But I’ve been a librarian for over 45 years, so it’s about time to put it down and work on other things.”

Her husband began writing music after retirement. He has a few albums out, and while he’s not well-known stateside, he’s got a small audience and connections in Europe. So they’re planning a post-retirement trip to Portugal.

The pandemic gave Chew a glimpse into retirement and made the transition a little easier. She plans to sleep late and play with her dog and cats. Chew likes to do nature photography, and go hiking and camping with her siblings.