Indianapolis Public Library CEO Jackie Nytes Interviewed by Local Paper
A new “five questions” interview recently published in the Indianapolis Star with Indianapolis Public Library CEO, Jack Nytes. At the bottom of the post a couple of comments.
Here’s one of the five questions and answers from the interview.
Question: What’s something people might not know about Indy’s library community?
Answer: “Originally, this library system was a department of the Indianapolis Public Schools. It was merged with the newly created county system in 1968. Now, we are working hard to reconnect with our school systems across the county to serve our students better.”
Read the Complete Interview
A Couple of Comments from infoDOCKET Editor/Founder Gary Price
Once again we read that even after even an interview with the CEO of the wonderful Indianapolis Public Library, a library offering so many services (books, of course BUT SO much more) the intro of the article includes this sentence, “Jackie Nytes is happy to keep her nose in the books and wants others to feel the same.”
While I understand where this comes (we read and hear this type of thing all of the time) it once again illustrates that the library community as a whole needs, including our partners MUST DO a LOT more to demonstrate, explain, etc. that the library and librarian is about books and so much more. Books, of course but also databases, instruction, makerspaces, services for children, literacy work, and more.
At the same time we also must demonstrate that the library building is essential but that many library services are accessible beyond the building, 24x7x365.
In fact, Jackie Nytes makes some of these points in the interview but nevertheless the staff of this and many other media organizations (and often the public) seems to focus on books and only books.
See Also: All Lawrence Township, Indiana Public School Students Receive Indianapolis Public Library Cards (September 24, 2015)
See Also: Indianapolis Public Library Trustees Adopt New Strategic Plan (2015-2020) (May 20, 2014)
Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Interviews, Journal Articles, Libraries, News, Profiles, Public Libraries
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.