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March 14, 2007

A perfect fit

Alison Hughes is the one who first mentioned Danny Meyer to me. His book Setting the Table had a number of reserves on it, and we hadn't received it from our wholesaler. "We need this book," she said. "It's about customer service." So I bought a copy in New York.

You can imagine my delight when I read John Blyberg's blog post last week, quoting Danny Meyer. “Our chefs and managers cook and run restaurants as if the word of mouth spread by each and every guest today will determine how full — or empty — our restaurants will be tomorrow. We work hard to hire people whose emotional skills — even more than how they can cook or serve wine — make them predisposed to deriving pleasure from the act of delivering pleasure. Long after our guests have forgotten how much they did or didn’t like the turbot or the lamb shank, they’ll remember how we made them feel.”
- Danny Meyer, WSJ, 3Oct3006

John is our new Head of Technology and Digital Initiatives, and will begin work for us in May. We knew that John was a perfect fit for Darien Library, and this is just one more example of why!

Posted by louise at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

March 03, 2007

Another first

Oscar night was another first for Darien Library's intrepid movie critic and blogger, Barbara Thomas. She hosted our first ever, live chat room to discuss the Oscars.... on Sunday night. Family, friends and fans from all around the country joined our chat room to predict the winners and comment. Reporter Ally Mookerjee published the details of the fun in her recent article in the Darien News Review. Thanks Ally, for a nice article and thanks Barbara for continuing to move us forward in using new forums for communication.

Posted by louise at 04:41 PM | Comments (0)

March 02, 2007

Breaking ground

Groundbreaking for the new library will be March 11. We expect Harold W. McGraw, Jr. to be there to take the first shovel full of dirt, as he did in 1956 for the current building and in 1972 for the first expansion. George Wyper, our immediate Past President, has often been quoted as saying that Harold is the giant on whose shoulders we all stand. Certainly, no one has done more for the Darien Library than Harold. I've had fun this week looking through our archives to find photos of the 1956 and 1972 groundbreakings.

1956 1972

Visit the Darien Library Flickr account for more photos of Darien Library's history.

Posted by louise at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

March 01, 2007

LPB Fellowship Featured in LJ

We're very proud of Emily Weiss this week. Her article about the Louise Parker Berry Fellowship was published in the current issue of Library Journal.

The Library's Board of Trustees founded the Fellowship to honor my 25th anniversary as Director, and Emily is our first Fellow.

Posted by louise at 04:43 PM | Comments (1)