Leading the Library into Another Chapter

March 2018

Writer // Janelle Morrison
Photography // Courtesy of the Zionsville Library

Last month, the Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library announced Sarah Moore had been selected as its new executive director. Moore previously served as the director of Richwood-North Union Public Library in Richwood, Ohio, for more than seven years. She began her role in Zionsville February 19.
Moore was unanimously selected by the Library Board of Trustees during a special meeting January 23 and came to the role with more than 15 years of diverse library experience.

“We are very excited to have Sarah join our team,” said Library Board President Sandy Sifferlen. “She has a demonstrated record of leadership and strategic vision.”

Moore earned her master’s degree in Library Science at Indiana University Bloomington and has held a variety of positions at libraries in Colorado, Indiana and Ohio.
“I’ve always liked Indiana,” Moore said. “I’d gone back from time to time to Bloomington. I moved back to Ohio after Colorado because I wanted to be closer to my family, and I enjoy living and working in the Midwest. After seven-and-a-half years at Richwood-North Union Public Library, I thought it was time for a new challenge. I saw the position open up in Zionsville and thought that the town seemed amazing and that the library was very impressive. And that’s how I ended up in Zionsville.”

Moore shared what she immediately liked about the Zionsville community was that everyone was extremely friendly to her and appeared to support the local library.

“That [community support] was something that I was looking for,” she said. “It makes a big difference when you’re in a community that really values its library and supports its services. I could see that level of support based upon program numbers and a very active library foundation. I could see that the library has the support of its community, and I thought that was very impressive. It surprised me how people have been so welcoming right away. The library staff has been welcoming and is going to be a pleasure to work with.”

Moore shared her thoughts on how libraries, nationwide and locally, are looking at ways to remain relevant in today’s high-tech climate. As the new executive director, she is learning the library’s current amenities and programs while keeping the future in the forefront.

“I think that the future of libraries, in general, is developing them into community centers,” Moore explained. “Libraries are inviting people in but are also going outside of the library and creating relationships and partnerships while working with the needs of the community. Libraries are finding ways to provide information that is not only provided by traditional reading. There are all kinds of ways that people get and use information, and that’s the challenge to libraries today.”

Moore concluded, “I think that as libraries are opening up and becoming community centers, they are doing something that will keep them relevant. I see this at Zionsville. While the library has several people coming in and out of it on a regular basis, it is actively going out into the community with its programs and meeting people where they are. There are many interactive programs. In regards to technology, this library embraces it and is staying at the forefront of it.”

Moore agreed with the sentiment that a library is a community’s hub for information and education in addition to the local educational institutions and that there should always be a strong relationship between those institutions and the community library.