Sue Ridnour was trying her darnedest to be polite. It was 1986; she and her husband, Glen, had just moved from Addison to Flower Mound and were standing near the curb outside an old residential house that their realtor swore was the town’s library.
Much like Flower Mound at the time, there wasn’t much to the one-story home on Churchill Drive. From what Sue heard, it had caught fire at one point and somehow ended up in the town’s possession. Once inside, they were surrounded by the basics — rows of card catalogs, dusty encyclopedias, and a bunch of donated paperbacks.
“It couldn’t have been bigger than 1,200 to 1,500 square feet,” Ridnour said while holding back a giggle. “The library cards were cut-up cardboard. They’d write your name and member number on it — mine was 125 or something. I thought, ‘What have we done?’”
She added, “I wish I could find that old library card. That would definitely be something to put in a time capsule.”
The funny thing is that Ridnour eventually went to work at that modest library 13 years later. Granted, it had been moved to town hall by then. But, boy, things changed in a hurry. The town built a new 25,000-square-foot facility on Broadmoor Lane in 1999. Eventually, it expanded in 2020 to 40,000 square feet to include a dedicated children’s story time and program area, a quiet reading room, a teen area, additional study rooms, a maker space with a 3D printer and other equipment, and a vending area.
Fast forward to today, and more than 850 people a day on average from all walks of life visit the Flower Mound Library— not a bad deal when you factor in its humble beginnings. And despite her initial reluctance to walk inside all those years ago, Ridnour is happy to say she has been there every step of the way, first as its children’s librarian and then as the Director of Library Services since 2013.
On March 28 — after 24 years with the same library — she’ll finally call it a career.
“It’s just time. I’ve worked my entire life, and I’m ready to start the next chapter,” she said. “The good news is that the library is the size it needs to be and has the funding it needs to meet its mission for years to come. It’s truly a value-add to this community, and I couldn’t be happier about that. On top of that, we have a great supervisory team. They and the library will be fine after I’m gone. I’m not sure how much credit I can take for that, but I can tell you that I’m thrilled to know I am leaving everything in good hands.”
Ridnour is only the library’s fourth director since it was founded in 1985. Interestingly enough, she’ll be the first to tell you this wasn’t the path she saw herself taking. Originally from Wisconsin, she got a job in high school as a shelver at the local public library and was immediately turned off after her first day on the job.
“The librarians were the stereotypical old ladies with sensible shoes. You’d go into the workroom in the back, and there’d be four or five of them — there was a clear buzz of conversation going on, but it was never them talking to each other. They were all just talking to themselves,” she said. “I thought, ‘This job is crazy.’”
Sue got her undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and fancied herself one day being a feature writer or a professional in communications, media promotions, or even advertising — anything but a librarian.
After graduating college, she married and moved to Texas for Glen’s work.
Lo and behold, her first job was working in the library at a big corporate law firm.
“I knew then, ‘This is my fate,’” Ridnour said with a laugh. She and Glen have two grown daughters, Katie and Allyson. Katie followed in her mother’s footsteps and is a school librarian in Round Rock. “I got my master’s degree in library sciences, and the rest is history.”
To her credit, Ridnour never fell victim to the cookie-cutter librarian stereotypes she grew up with. More than just a “protector of books,” she developed a deep sense of pride in making the library a valuable commodity in Flower Mound. In this place, students can feel comfortable, moms can bring their little ones for story time and to check out their first book, and professionals who typically work from home can find a quiet place to meet and get work done. Contrary to popular belief, the library isn’t a place where you can hear a pin drop. Sure, there are quiet areas. But it’s also OK to be loud, and for per-capita municipal taxes that amount to less than the cost of a hard-cover book, residents can access everything the library offers in a setting that has adapted to its community’s needs.
“We often get asked, ‘Why aren’t you shushing people?’ We stopped doing that long ago,” Ridnour said. “I don’t know if we’ll ever completely escape that stereotype, but people love coming here, and we are always doing what we can to ensure they have what they need from us. My predecessor commissioned a needs assessment study before she retired, and my job was to promote that and make it happen. I’m happy to say that we did make that happen. There’s something for everyone here.”
She added, “I always felt like being engaged in my community helped me understand what the needs were so that I could do the best job I could in terms of making changes for the better. The best public libraries are the hyperlocal ones. I’m glad we did it that way.”
As for retirement, Ridnour says she can’t imagine getting overly emotional on her last day. Honestly, she’s too busy planning to get rid of her alarm clock and working out her itinerary for a long road trip. She may even track down that old library card from 1986.
But when the day finally comes to walk away, she admits she might be singing a different tune.
“Call me the day before,” she said while reminiscing about the past 24 years. “I’ll probably be [more emotional about it].”
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