Philadelphia's Head Librarian Honored As Best In The Business
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- The Philadelphia Free Library has expanded its roles both as neighborhood resource center and citywide literacy force, and this month its president is getting national attention as the Library Journal's "Librarian of the Year."
There were times, after Siobhan Reardon took the reins of Philadelphia's Free Library, when she wondered, "What did I do?"
Barely a year into the job, in the depths of the recession, the city was facing across-the-board cuts without new taxing power from the state.
"I literally sat in my office and signed 600 termination letters," she said. "Yeah, we came that close to shutting down this library."
But out of that crisis -- which ended without a shutdown -- a new determination was forged. The library's role in city life is stronger than ever, something library board chair Bob Heim attributes to Reardon, whom he calls "a force of nature."
Reardon says it is what's needed.
"We need to be very forward, we need to be very visible, we need to be very present because I really think the city is counting on us to be a strong undergirding of community, of the economy of social integration, of literacy values," she says.
And she seems determined to be all of that. To Reardon, the library is more essential than ever and she predicts it will stay that way.
