Summer Beck-Griffith’s five-year plan for Lincoln Library is ambitious.
It includes replacing all 67 of the library’s public computers, which she said are “incredibly outdated,” displaying exterior murals by local artists, starting up a digital content-creator studio, modernizing the building’s internet infrastructure, launching a bookmobile and renovating the youth-services department.
Beck-Griffith, who became acting director of the library in February after the previous director was dismissed and its $94,000-a-year permanent director in July, said she hopes to accomplish those goals mostly by redirecting money in the current $5 million annual budget.
Public and private grants and donations would be tapped as well, and the 40-member staff for Springfield’s public library would increase by three people, she said.
Lincoln Library, which has closed three branches since 2005 and operates only the downtown building at 326 S. Seventh St., ranks “dead last” compared with libraries in Decatur, Bloomington-Normal and Peoria based on per-capita spending on staff. That ranking wouldn’t change even with a few additions to the staff.
To pave the way for boosting long-term funding, Beck-Griffith – who grew up in Springfield and is accustomed to dealing with stress and politics from her work in the press offices of Govs. Rod Blagojevich and Pat Quinn – said the library needs to generate excitement in the community and a yearning for more.
“We know that small cities across the country that have thriving library systems really have thriving cities,” she said. “One of the things we have to do now is to show the city what a library could be.”
For example, she said: “A library should have the best technology in the city so people can come in and ‘try it before you buy it’ or have access to shared resources. We should have the coolest software that you can find, and that’s something we’re working on.”
Beck-Griffith joined the library’s staff in 2020 as community engagement manager. She lacks the master’s degree in library science that several previous library directors held. But she said her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communications, and work experience that includes Illinois government and social services in Kansas City, Missouri, position her well for tackling challenges that face Lincoln Library.
Beck-Griffith has lived in Springfield since she was 10 and graduated from Springfield High School in 2000. A first-generation college student, she attended Lincoln Land Community College for a year before completing her bachelor’s in 2005 and her master’s in 2008.
Her mother worked as a hotel maid, and her father was a refugee from El Salvador. She used interlibrary loans through Lincoln Library to get free access to textbooks she couldn’t afford in college.
“My relentless passion comes from a place of experiencing poverty and growing up without resources,” Beck-Griffith said. “I am the least-connected person. I just got really lucky and was smart and worked really hard.”
She and her husband, a critical-care nurse at Springfield Memorial Hospital, have two children who attend Christ the King School.
“Seeing the pivot of what having access to resources can mean in real life, I think, gives me this relentless drive to make communities more equitable,” she said.
Beck-Griffith worked with the City Council to institute an outdoor smoking ban on the library plaza to make the site more pleasant for visitors and to reduce “nefarious activity” such as illicit drug use outside the building.
She and her staff have implemented firm guidelines on how to address disturbing behavior by people who are homeless, mentally ill or otherwise misbehaving.
She said she hopes efforts to beautify the library – starting with decorative wraps on elevator doors – and continuing expansion of programs such as pop-up libraries in the community will divert attention from the homeless and focus it more on the library as a valuable resource.
“There are homeless folks in every library in the country,” Beck-Griffith said. “It is my goal in the next five years that we are changing the narrative. … And libraries are committed to providing services to every person in the community, including the homeless.
“Our job is to provide access to knowledge and community resources for those who need it. The library’s for the entire community, and we can’t allow a very small minority of people who are causing troubles to restrict the entire community’s access.”
Beck-Griffith obtained a $55,000 state grant to fund pop-up libraries and a $25,000 grant from the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office to increase the supply of loanable Wi-Fi hotspots from nine to 109. She noted that 20% of Springfield households either have no Internet access or access only through a cellphone data plan.
The bookmobile will cost about $400,000 and will be funded mostly from a $1 million bequest from the Wagner family. It should arrive and be operational by spring or summer 2023.
“That’s going to increase our capacity 100-fold of being able to be out in the community,” Beck-Griffith said, adding that she will ask the City Council for funding for two or three new professionals to staff the vehicle.
Replacing all the public computers will cost about $65,000 and will come from the library’s budget over several years, she said.
The youth-services department renovation is also a priority. Beck-Griffith said the department’s staff is excellent, but updated facilities are needed.
“It breaks my heart when I hear about Springfield families going to smaller town libraries,” she said.
Still, more than 3,000 people showed up at the library and at pop-up sites for library programs this summer, she said. The bookmobile will help expand services further, she said.
Emily Stone, who has a master’s in library science, worked for Lincoln Library before being promoted by Beck-Griffith to assistant director. After turnover in the director’s job the past few years, morale has improved under Beck-Griffith, Stone said.
“She’s a good listener,” Stone said. “She’s not one to make an empty promise.”
Megan Freeman, a library assistant, said she agrees with Beck-Griffith’s vision of community outreach and appreciates the workplace atmosphere Beck-Griffith promotes.
“Laughter has increased,” Freeman said. “I feel a sense of hope. I’m more motivated to take on more in my job.”
Beck-Griffith said change will take some time.
“It’s a skeptical town,” she said. “There’s always going to be naysayers, but we’re going to do something cool, and we’re going to do something interesting, and we’ve already started those things.”
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer for Illinois Times. He can be reached at dolsen@illinoistimes.com, 217-679-7810 or twitter.com/DeanOlsenIT.
This article appears in Fall Guide 2022.
There is no money for most of these unrealistic dreams.
What is needed is a basic library that can live within it financial means and not try to be something that its not. Stick to the basics, NO NEW PROGRAMS Cut non library programs ! That’s what real leadership is .