Happy New Year!

Posted on January 08, 2016

by Roberta, Foundation President

As you may know, the Library Foundation has had a change of leadership. Longtime President Danny Dean has moved into a new role –Major Gifts & Donor Liaison – and I was fortunate to be named his successor. I am grateful to the Foundation’s Board of Directors for this opportunity, to Danny Dean for his mentoring and to my staff for being so supportive. What a privilege to be part of a team that leverages philanthropy to transform lives through The Indianapolis Public Library! Many thanks to all who have invested in this mission!

Public libraries have always mattered to me. My mother saved a newspaper clipping showing my nursery school class listening to a story time at the Stanford Free Library in Stanfordville, N.Y. I loved that library. It was cozy, filled with great books and had wonderful librarians who nurtured my love for reading. Sylvia Kallman, who is reading to us in the photo, was “my” librarian for many years. As a young teen, she introduced me to “Travels with Charley: In Search of America” and then other Steinbeck novels. The summer I was 16, I volunteered every Wednesday afternoon under the supervision of Arlene Christensen, who still directs the library today.

Believe it or not, the Stanford Free Library has an interesting historical connection to The Indianapolis Public Library. The Stanford Free Library was co-founded and designed by Stanfordville resident Alfred M. Butts (1899-1993), the inventor of Scrabble. Butts earned his architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1924. Paul Cret (1876-1945), who designed the 1917 portion of Central Library, was a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania from 1903-1937.

I’ll never forget my first visit to Cret’s Central Library. It was May 2002, the beginning of my summer internship at the Library Foundation. The beauty and grandeur of the facility and the wealth of resources were awe-inspiring. In time, I learned of the 22 branches and the bookmobiles. While I knew how much libraries meant to me, I came to understand their importance from myriad other perspectives: that of the childcare provider, the job seeker, the emerging author, the small business owner, the not-for-profit founder, the teacher, the historian. Best of all, I developed relationships with donors who found great joy in extending the public library’s impact through contributions to the Library Foundation. If you are a donor, please know how much your generosity is appreciated!

2016 will be a time of significant growth – not just for me personally, but for the Library and Library Foundation. Under the leadership of Library CEO Jackie Nytes, the Library has exciting plans for the future that will significantly improve the reach and quality of library service throughout Indianapolis. Support from the Library Foundation and our generous community of donors is needed to bring those plans to fruition. More on that in a future blog post. In the meantime, if you have any questions or suggestions for us, please contact me at (317) 275-4700 or rjaggers@indyplfoundation.org. Wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!