Archive: Around Town

On October 20th the Lansing Community Library took a figurative giant step toward reaching its goal of being a chartered public library.  That step was literally taken by Susie Gutenberger as she entered the library for her first official day as librarian.  With a provisional charter and the first year's tax money in the till, the library board had to hire a professional librarian to fulfill the requirements of the charter.  And to complete a major step in realizing their dream of a vital working community library in Lansing.

"There is so much passion for this library, and volunteer support, and an amazing amount of effort that goes into the library," Gutenberger says.  "I'm astounded by how many volunteers have shown up to train me on different things, and how many hours they put in helping me get acquainted with the library and how it works."

Gutenberger has spent her first weeks trying to learn everything at once -- the facility, the procedures, the volunteers, the community.  She has attacked the job with great enthusiasm, learning about what the library has done and evaluating what must be added or adjusted.  She says that her top priorities are to integrate the Lansing library into the Fingerlakes Library system, to finish the charter, and to get to know and learn from the volunteers.

Integrating into the Fingerlakes Library System is made easier using the computerized Polaris software that was recently installed, thanks to a $20,000 Triad Foundation grant the library got late last year.  The software includes many features including a digital card catalog that can be merged with catalogs from all the libraries in the system.  It handles circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, and interfaces with computers and bar code readers that not only automate the process of taking out a book, but monitor the books and their due dates, among other things.

"My priority is getting us into the automated Fingerlakes Library System," she says.  "It will allow our patrons to have easier access to all the other library collections.  So we are focusing on bar coding all of our materials and seeing what we have in the collection.  It is helping us know what we have doubles of, or what we should get.  That's great for me, because I'm getting to know the collection very fast."


Finishing the charter requires complying with its conditions and, of course, paperwork.  Lots of paper work.  But Gutenberger sees reaching out to the volunteers as equally, if not more, important.

"I'm getting to know the volunteers and what they know about this library," she says.  "They're a wealth of information.  I'm finding out what they want to keep doing and what I can help them with."

Gutenberger says that she always knew she wanted to work with the public and with children, but she didn't expect to become a librarian.  An Ithaca native, her father was Mayor of Ithaca and her mother was on the Board of Public Works.  When they left those positions they moved to Lansing, as did her sister and her family.  After graduating from Ithaca High School she went to culinary school in San Francisco.  She earned her living as a pastry chef for 15 years, traveling to Texas, and ending up in Chicago.  She had a sense that she wanted to 'give back' to the community and says she didn't feel fulfilled in that way as a chef.  At first she thought she would become a teacher, so she earned a degree to teach K-12 English, and English as a second language from the University of Illinois. 

She had always loved libraries, but it took a while before it occurred to her that could be a profession.  By the time she graduated from college she had decided that her set of skills lent itself well to working in a public library.  She worked in libraries, and last year completed her masters degree in librarianship at Dominican University.

"I think the public library is a really good fit," she says.  "It's a very creative job.  I get to work with the public.  I get to work with children, so it combines all my interests."

She even uses her pastry skills.  When she called a meeting of key library volunteers she enticed them with baked goods.  She is also planning to teach cooking classes.

Gutenberger started interviewing for a number of positions in Connecticut and New York, actually turning down some that she felt weren't the right fit.  As it turned out the Lansing job came at the exact right moment.

"I really wanted to find the right community for my family and the right job for me," she says.  "I came home from my last interview in Connecticut and was sitting at the computer thinking, 'I don't want to take this job but I really want to go back east.'  I checked the Fingerlakes Library System Web site and they had posted the Lansing job that day."

For now she is learning everything she can from the volunteers, including what they are willing to do in the future, and which gaps she will have to fill in.  Her husband Michael Fitzpatrick, a landscape architect and horticulturist, will be joining her and their 18 month old daughter this month and they will begin looking for a home here.  While that is happening she is working on bringing standard operating hours, as well as a rounded set of programs and services to the facility.


"I can't wait for that first year mark," she says.  "I want to have all the knowledge that I'm trying to gather now -- how the system works, how our library works, who the volunteers are, who to go to in the community with questions, who supports the library and what does the community need.  This is a new library and I am new to this position.  But already in the first week I know how to check out the books, I'm comfortable with our computer system here... I'm settling in."

Two things she is especially excited about are rare books and working with children.  While the former may have to wait for what she calls a 'dream job' in the distant future, she is excited about working in a public library.  She says that public libraries are a better fit for her than academic libraries, providing a way to serve the community.  She plans to integrate the library with the community at large even more than it has so far, working in concert with the town schools and bringing more programs into the facility.

"Once you create a positive place in the library for the children and their families to be, you become more of a community center and you create a lifetime library user and supporter," she says.  "We heard Senator Nozzolio talking about how he remembers the first time he checked our a book when he was six years old.  Now he's a senator and is avidly protecting and supporting public libraries.  Something like that is such a success story, so I feel strongly about children's librarianship and family programming.  It is really the heart of the library, creating it as a community center and not just a place for books."

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