Looking Back and Moving Forward: A Letter from the Library Director
In preparation for the Youth Services renovation this winter, my staff and I walked through the space to identify what items in the room could be sold or rehomed to patrons to benefit the Friends of RHPL. One accessory immediately transported me back to another time: a set of wooden duck rockers. Long before I became director and these ducks were retired to storage, I was a patron of this library and the toys provided delight to each of my children as their chubby toddler legs climbed on and rocked back and forth.
As this major transition in our history approaches, I find myself reflecting on how to process change. The Christine Lind Hage Youth Services room, named after our previous director, is brimming with nostalgia. How do we honor past legacies, while building the library of tomorrow? As the current library director my job is to address the stains on the carpet, threadbare chairs, or loose tiles in the bathrooms, but when I close my eyes I am a parent looking back on those thrilling first steps at the library, the first chapter book my child could read, the first storytime we attended. I am looking forward to how great the room will be, and I pause from time to time, remembering what it means to me, and to so many other families, through a sentimental veil.
While we have spent the past six months drafting, planning, and refining the design plan for the Youth Services renovation, we have all collectively spent years collecting memories and marking moments, unknowingly preparing for this change. I am so excited about the new room and think it blends the best of what a modern library can and should offer to the next generation of parents.
As we’re learning time and time again this year, change is the only constant. A long-serving trustee, Madge Lawson, has announced her retirement from the Library Board. Her leadership, marketing savvy, and diplomacy have served RHPL for nearly 30 years, and while we again become wistful for the legacy of what is being left behind, we have always known that the board must change out of necessity and propriety.
And so my thoughts return to the ducks, rocking forward and backward throughout the years. They are a fitting metaphor for how to approach bittersweet change by balancing both the nostalgia when we look back on what came before, and the excitement that propels us forward, reminding us of how great the future can be. I am looking forward, grounded in the past, to a marvelous transformation of the building and hope you’ll make plans to join us at the grand opening this spring.
Juliane Morian, Library Director
