Peggy Olsen Resigns

fter twenty-six years of lov­ing ser­vice to the com­mu­ni­ty as Director of the Millington Arbela District Library, Margaret (Peggy) Olsen has announced her res­ig­na­tion effec­tive July 31, 2016. Frequently arriv­ing for work an hour ear­ly, Peggy has always strived to make the library a safe haven for the free­dom of thought and civ­il discourse.

Many things have changed dur­ing the decades that Peggy has held the helm of the library. Some of those changes are: the dif­fer­ent role library ser­vices play in the com­mu­ni­ty, the evo­lu­tion from print­ed research materia–to its easy avail­abil­i­ty via the Internet, e‑books, the ease of access to inter­loaned mate­r­i­al from any­where in the state, and the rise of social media.

During Peggy’s tenure the library:

• Was assured sta­ble fund­ing by the for­ma­tion of a library district
• In 1991, built an addi­tion which increased the size of the library by approx­i­mate­ly twenty-five percent
• Used grant mon­ey and donat­ed ser­vices to install the library’s first net­worked, com­put­er­ized, cat­a­log and cir­cu­la­tion system
• Remodeled the restrooms bring­ing them up to code
• Installed a more energy-efficient light­ing system
• Replaced the uneven south side side­walk after improv­ing drainage
• Replaced bro­ken orna­men­tal con­crete with columns
• Purchased the vacant house and lot next door to the library
• Demolished house to remove blight and to pro­vide for future needs of the library
• Enlarged and paved the park­ing lot after improv­ing drainage
• Created more hand­i­capped park­ing spaces
• Created gar­dens on three sides of the library building
• Purchased leather fur­ni­ture for the pub­lic read­ing area
• Replaced sol­id doors to the con­fer­ence room with glass
• More than dou­bled the book and DVD budget
• Insulated the ceiling
• Replaced gut­ters and installed gut­ter guards
• Replaced the worn Formica® cov­ered cir­cu­la­tion desk­top with granite
• Replaced the library’s roof with extreme­ly long-life steel roof­ing material

Thank you, Peggy. It was a job well done.