Director's Message - Winter 2010-11

Posted: Friday, December 3, 2010, 8:28 am

Happy holidays! I'm looking forward to celebrating the season in Worthington.

I am not, however, looking forward to snow. After spending the last few winters in southern Georgia, I can't imagine using a snow shovel again, but I'll adjust. It's a relatively small price to pay to be back in this community, serving as director of Worthington Libraries.

The staff, working together with the library board and community, accomplished a great deal in 2010, and we are poised to take on a long list of initiatives next year. Before we get to what lies ahead, however, I'd like to share some of our highlights from this year:

  • Together with the Worthington Schools and City of Worthington, we hosted a Visioning Conference attended by more than 60 residents
  • We used community input gathered from surveys, focus groups and the above-mentioned Visioning Conference to develop a 2010-2012 Strategic Plan
  • We completed a 2009 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and received a clean audit
  • We hosted several Job Help events and helped hundreds of people learn new employment skills
  • We made it possible for people to use their debit/credit card to pay library fines
  • The staff and community bid a fond farewell to Meribah Mansfield, who retired in July after nearly 19 years as library director
  • The same staff and community graciously welcomed me aboard as library director in early August
  • We designed and installed new signage in all three libraries
  • We were once again rated as a five-star library system by Library Journal
  • We hosted several popular events, including February by the Fire, the Community Breakfast and the Summer Concerts, and partnered with other community organizations on dozens of programs
  • Most importantly, we checked out millions of items!

In 2011, we'll continue to implement the work outlined in the strategic plan, which includes: evaluating new and emerging technologies, such as e-readers, to determine their impact on libraries; working with schools, daycares and other community organizations to encourage early childhood literacy; advocating for maintenance of public funding for libraries and encouraging greater resource sharing among central Ohio library systems.

While our "to do" list is always evolving, our primary goal is always the same: provide excellent service and connect people to the information they need (and mix in some fun now and then). We're all looking forward to another year of doing that for you! Cheers and best wishes for a happy New Year.

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