January and the Library - helping it back UP

   This January has been a month full of change and action.  Retiring from work as the Green River Correctional Complex Librarian on January 1, 2013, has started me on a whole new adventure.  Having served 10 years as Assistant or Associate Director of the Hopkins County Madisonville Public library; then 8 years as a substitute teacher while raising a family of three children and volunteering in lots of activities; then  becoming Children's Programmer II at the Muhlenberg County Public Libraries and finally serving time as a prison librarian at an all male medium security prison for 5 years, I have had a varied and blessed career as a librarian.
  Back in Hopkins County full time, with lots of time to spoil my family with homemade food, work on my housekeeping skills and volunteer with favorite causes, I find "older age" exhilirating.
  The library I helped build literally from the ground up is under attack - both the building it used to be in and the services and materials that make up the body that is currently misplaced and looking forward to a new home.  Local politics and even board members have strayed from the point and while working on their own agenda's forgotten that serving the public is the main goal.  Poor decision making and even neglect have led to serious consequences.  I am hoping in the next few weeks to gather the community to question, suggest and volunteer to help.  Volunteers have been rebuffed, money has been wasted, both seemingly good and bad board members have gone off on tangents beyond the norm.  There are two open spots on the board now and two more coming in June, and the appointments will be critical to changing the balance and dynamics so that further mishaps do not take the library further away from its public duty and more toward the wishes and dreams of a few select people.
       The days of monumental buildings are past.  Libraries will have to be smaller and smarter and mobile.  Apps, satellite kiosks, mailing books will all be ways to serve a public that is not mobile or technified as some.  The people who need the library's help to be informed are always the main focus.  The services provided to those who help themselves are more specialized and libraries have a mission to serve all, but the whole focus is an informed citizenry.  Those who do not have their own iPad or smartphone NEED the traditional library services, provided close to home and easy to access.  It is not about space, # of volumes any more but about services and access.