More on South Huntington Public Library
July 4th, 2005Ken Weil, director of the South Huntington Public Library (a library I’m proud to say is in my county and the next town over), should teach classes in marketing. He’s all over the place these days; Wired, ALA Presentations (He had an impressive little speech from the back of the room during the Hear Here ditty), will be speaking at Internet Librarian in October, and now gets some play in the Book Standard:
“South Huntington is the epitome of the modern public library, focusing as much, it seems, on community as it does on books.”
“You name it, we do it,” says director Ken Weil. “We have everything from French cooking classes to parenting classes.” Library art exhibits and concerts reflect the South Huntington community…Just 35 minutes from Manhattan, the upper-class community has approximately 10,000 residents. Weil believes that the diversity of offerings is the key to getting many of them through the library’s doors. “Ultimately,” he says, “we try to develop programs that will appeal to different segments of the community.”
The more I read about this guy, the more I love his beliefs about librarianship. If you ever meet him, shake his hand and buy him a cup of coffee. He’ll probably give you a few good ideas to bring back to your library. Thanks Ken!