Lisa Oldham loves libraries. The newest executive director of the New Canaan Library (since July 2013 ) has library experience from all over the world — Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Mexico, as well as Florida and New Zealand, where she was working just before her New Canaan assignment.
Oldham is from Rhinebeck, N.Y., “where my family goes back hundreds of years,” she said. She has been a librarian for 24 years, with a master’s degree in library and informational science from Florida State University, as well a New Zealand certificate of library science.
She and her husband moved to Wellington, New Zealand, in 1990.
“We were expatriates with a large New Zealand multinational corporation for 15 years and lived in five different countries before returning to New Zealand in 2006,” she said. “And I’ve worked as a librarian in most places we’ve lived. In the last eight years, I ran the Tasman District — a district library system with four libraries serving 50,000 people, and I then worked for the National Library of New Zealand in Auckland in a national role.”
Why New Canaan
Oldham said that she first became aware of the opportunity and opening of the position for the executive director position here in New Canaan via professional networks.
“I decided to take the role after meeting with the library board — virtually and then in person — and visiting New Canaan and the library,” she said. “I accepted the role as it offers an exciting challenge to lead New Canaan Library through what will be the most significant period of change in its 100 year history; setting it up to deliver excellence for today’s needs and those of the next 25 years.”
Oldham said that she came to New Canaan only a couple of days before starting at the library, but due to differing academic years — New Zealand schooling and university runs from January through December — her husband, children and Spoodle have only just come over to the states in time for Christmas. Each of her two children have been to schools in six countries. Her son is now a senior at New Canaan High School and her daughter is a university student in New Zealand.
The new executive director of New Canaan Library, Lisa Oldham, with the newest piece of digital equipment at the library — a MakerBot Replicator 2X (Makerspace) — a 3D printer which will allow the library to offer 3D education. (Julie Butler photo)
Goals, plans for library
Oldham’s plans for the future of New Canaan Library are many, with the theme of “improving library experiences and delivery to everyone in New Canaan,” she said. “Here we are, well into the 21st Century. People want to use libraries in different ways, and we have to be responsive. This includes making better use of our space, as well as immediate physical improvements, such as more comfortable furniture for our teen area.
“For the first time, we’ve hired a teen librarian, Cheryl Capitani from California, with years of teen library experience. We’re also making library transactions easier and more efficient. Entering the library, there’ll be staff providing customer service, so people won’t have to go from desk to desk to accomplish a library visit. We’re not increasing staff, we’re just working smarter.”
She said that learning for the last 100 years focused on books, but now in the digital age, there are so many other ways to get information. An anonymous donor has bought the library a 3D printer (MakerBot Replicator 2X or Makerspace), so it will now be able to provide 3D education. Makerspaces have been rapidly evolving and growing in number since the first FabLab (Fabrication Laboratory) was created at MIT. The FabLab quickly began supporting others to develop their own labs to “enable invention by providing access to tools for digital fabrication.”
There will also be a public access computer serving as a photo and video editing station.
“This is a most exciting time for libraries,” she said. “They’ve become more like community centers than ever. With the global economic slowdown of 2008, people are using libraries to make themselves more marketable. If you’re not going to the office, you might still want to be in a place with other people and libraries offer other job-related services, such as helping with job searches, formatting a resume, helping to put a resume online.”
Talking to a librarian like Lisa Oldham, an inevitable question comes up: Does she think the printed book will someday disappear?
“Nothing at the moment makes me think that will happen,” she said. “The proportion of e-books to print books is changing, but what we know is that readers read, and people aren’t hung up in formats. They’re format agnostics. Most people reading e-books have a stack of print books on their bedside table.” She adds that evidence suggests that teens read print books for pleasure.
“When searching for information, nothing beats the amount of digital information available, including data base information from the library,” she said.
Before she became director of New Canaan Library, there were focus groups related to the need for an expanded library and the current plan is to have a feasibility study to explore a new library building. At the moment, more space for a children’s area is definitely needed, she told the Advertiser. Also, there is new thinking about quiet space and collaborative space.
“We have to make sure there are quiet spaces and also spaces which can be less quiet so students can collaborate, and the two kinds of spaces should be quite separate from each other.”
To understand first-hand how people are using the library, Oldham spends time working at the circulation desk every week. She also has an “open door policy” to her office, so people can feel comfortable walking in any time.
A recent study showed that Americans view their libraries very highly.
“As a town, New Canaan has a great deal of civic pride and people here look forward to having a library as good as all the great libraries of Fairfield County,” she observed. A look at the library’s website and especially, the director’s monthly reports, is bound to support that goal.
“I am really enjoying getting to know New Canaan, the place and the people. Planning for the future of library services, spaces and collections for a community that is so highly educated, engaged and interested in lifelong learning and culture is particularly exciting.”
Additional reporting by Julie Butler