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susie gutenberger 120Susie Gutenberger won the 2015 Finger Lakes Library System Director of the Year Award and it was presented on October 23, 2015 at their annual meeting.

"Susie is an exceptional library director and every day she brings her substantial skills and knowledge to making LCL the amazing place it is," says Lansing Community Library (LCL) board chair Emily Franco.  "Under her guidance, the Lansing Community Library received its permanent charter in just five years, an unusually short time.  However, the charter was granted because of the amazing growth of the library under Susie's direction."

When Susie was hired, she started with a small, volunteer run reading room that had just received its temporary charter.  She envisioned a thriving endeavor, a true community center, a welcoming place where families gather, activities are offered daily, children develop a love of reading and learning, resources of every description are available to patrons (including digital media, internet access, resource materials, interlibrary loan materials, etc.), and programs draw increasingly intersecting cross sections of the community.

She envisioned a library built on community access, with frequent open hours, a stable budget, and a hub role in the community.  Today that is where LCL stands, open 44 hours per week (with two more hours funded for 2016), with a collection of almost 27,000 items, four public computers, two loaner laptops, six e-reading devices, an early childhood literacy station, over 370 programs offered annually, a summer reading program that consistently draws almost as many adults and teens as youngsters, and strong community partnerships with the Lansing Central School District, the Lansing Youth Services, the Historical Society, the Community Arts Partnership and others.

"The LCL Board of Trustees is thrilled that Susie has been recognized as the outstanding director she is," Franco says.  "This award speaks not only to Susie's dedication and hard work, but to the fact that she makes  every day a special day for her patrons; daily she finds ways to enhance the patron experience but most of all she makes it fun to come to the library.  We encourage the community and LCL patrons to congratulate Susie on this well-deserved award."

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