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November 07, 2006

Once in a Lifetime

Judith Dunn, a former Darien resident who has moved to Florida, sent me a letter that arrived yesterday. It is a really powerful reminder of why we work so hard every day to exceed our patrons’ expectations. Judi wrote about our extreme customer service:

“No one ever said ‘no’, or ‘I can’t do it now’, or ‘you will have to wait until some other time.”

She finished the letter this way:

“Darien’s tax dollars can never be spent on any entity in the town more important than the Darien Library, as evidenced by the continuing awards it wins nationwide….. but most importantly for the pure pleasure it affords every citizen on a constant basis. The Library changed my life forever and for that I will always be eternally grateful.”

Here is the whole letter.

The Children’s Fundraising Event Committee uses this wonderful tag-line for the literature they are sending out, seeking donations for our new library building:

“Once in a lifetime, a community builds a library.”

We build a library once in a lifetime, but we can make an impact on our patrons every day, if we choose to. Judi, thank you for the reminder that every day is a lifetime for our patrons.

Posted by louise at 06:32 PM | Comments (0)

November 01, 2006

An Experience

I am a big fan of James Gilmore, having heard him speak at a conference last year. His book, The Experience Economy, has some very thought-provoking ideas, which I intend to discuss in the coming weeks. His basic concept is that people enjoy events more when they become compelling or engaging experiences. Well, last weekend was An Experience for the Darien Library. On Friday night, we reinstituted a tradition of having the incoming Board of Trustees and the outgoing Board of Trustees meet for a dinner. What was different this year was that a bowling party followed the dinner. Talk about team building!

This was all in preparation for the Library's Annual Meeting on Sunday. Library staff members Barbara Thomas and Janet Davis did our first ever podcast interview of the annual meeting speaker, Bob Spitz on Friday afternoon... an excellent job. (We are worried about NPR stealing them away.) Bob Spitz was so pleased that he invited them to interview him again, during his speech on Sunday. And with the speeches thanking retiring trustees, especially George Wyper, our outgoing President, I heard at least one person describe it as a "lovefest". Jim Gilmore might call it An Experience.

Posted by louise at 06:41 PM | Comments (0)