2/16/2009 4:54:00 PM Hennepin County picks homegrown
talent to lead libraries
Book clubs reads
"Everyone is always looking for a good book and especially a good book for a book group," said Lois Langer Thompson, newly named director of the Hennepin County Library system. Here are five titles that Thompson's own book club will be tackling this year:
"The Legend of Colton H. Bryant," by Alexandra Fuller
"Waiting for White Horses," by Nathan Jorgenson
"We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese," by Elizabeth M. Norman
"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society," by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
"The Lady and the Panda: The True Ad-ventures of the First American Explorer to Bring Back China's Most Exotic Animal," by Vicki Croke
This week, on Feb. 16, Lois Langer Thompson will be officially appointed as the new director of the Hennepin Country Library system.
Thompson has held the role since September of 2008, but only in a temporary status. She assumed the position when the previous director, Amy Ryan, moved to Boston to head up the libraries there.
After a nationwide search, the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners decided the best candidate for the job was its very own homegrown one.
Thompson, who currently lives in Edina, got her start with the Hennepin County Library system in Westonka, where she was hired in 1988 as the youth librarian.
"Being out there in Mound was such a great place for me to start. It was a little bit small town. I was able to develop relationships with families. I felt like I really grew to appreciate all that was unique about living on the lake and in that area," said Thompson, who used to do story times at the libraries in Mound, St. Bonifacius and Maple Plain.
Thompson's career eventually led her away from the Westonka Library, yet she stayed within the Hennepin County system.
Over the years, she has held a variety of positions and worked at libraries in Maple Grove, Richfield, Bloomington, Eden Prairie and Plymouth.
"I was at the Plymouth Library the first year it opened and it was crazy busy," Thompson said. "Plymouth didn't have the same sort of small town appeal that Westonka had, but the people who live in Plymouth just love living there."
She now hears from Plymouth residents who are without a hometown library while the city's library is rebuilt.
"It's almost as if they are grieving. They're restless, waiting for it to reopen," Thompson said.
Most of the Plymouth Library users have rerouted themselves to the Ridgedale Library, where Thompson keeps her office.
Her full-time promotion to the director position means Thompson is no longer on the library floor.
"I do miss that one-on-one contact with the customers," she said. "But my years working in the libraries have given me knowledge of the direct public service that I'm bringing with me into this new role."
"It's quite an honor to be selected for this job," said Thompson, who credits her years of experience within the system as only part of the reason she was chosen for the role.
"I think it was also my vision for where the library is going and my commitment to this community," she said. "A public library needs to be responsive, to hear its people and to be a part of its community."
Even though Thompson has spent the past 20 years working for the Hennepin County libraries, her first job as a librarian was actually through the Minneapolis libraries, where she worked as a substitute librarian.
While her experience with the Minneapolis Library was short-lived, Thompson believes it will help her as she moves forward in her new role as director of the combined Hennepin County and Minneapolis systems.
"The merger of our two systems is going to be successful because we're right next door to each other," Thompson said. "We rely on each other to fulfill our customers' needs."
She said that employees are learning from each other with staff exchanges, so they can learn about what each system has to offer.
"In my mind, both systems have value. We need both," she said. "This is a chance for us to reinvent ourselves. Of course we want to move forward remembering our past and keeping what makes us unique, but at the same time, we don't want to miss out on an opportunity to be better," Thompson said.
As the libraries spend more time as a merged system, Thompson expects that they will "take a little bit of this and a little bit of that" to create something new.
Thompson acknowledged the library's future surely holds challenges, budgetary and otherwise. Yet she's up for the multi-faceted fight.
"People love libraries, and sure, they complain, but they complain because they want more services, more access. Nobody who's using the library is complaining because they think the library shouldn't be there," Thompson said.
"We don't have any requirements. We're open. Anybody is welcome to come in and use what we have," Thompson said.
"The pursuits of a library have always been literacy, information and life-long learning," Thompson said. "Yes, times change, and that means how we provide services must change"
She cites staff who speak several languages, programming that helps high schoolers with homework and classes that help immigrants with their citizenship tests as examples as how the library has evolved to meet the needs of the community.
"If you haven't been to a library in a while, you really need to come back and see what's going on, spend some time, rediscover it all," Thompson said.
Reader Comments
Posted: Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Article comment by:
Roger C. Pederson
Is it so surprising to believe "home grown" talent exists within the County's rank and file? It's about time!
