A sparkler among the best of the best
By Colleen Gundlach

Award-winning library staff: (Left to right), Mary Ann Anderson, Eileen Fitzgibbons, Rich Dann, Robin Yuran, DeVere Oakes, Sharon Menard and Matt Papnek.

Everyone who has ever set foot in the Norfolk Library knows it is a shining star among libraries.  From its friendly, welcoming staff to its understated sophistication, it is a center of activity in town.  Now the library has been recognized officially, having been named one of America’s Star Libraries by Library Journal, a highly respected trade publication in the United States.  Star ranking was awarded to only 258 of the 122,356 libraries in this country.
Norfolk Library achieved the distinction of receiving the highest possible ranking of five stars. Rankings are based not only on conventional data such as circulation and visits, but on program attendance and public Internet use, as well.
Suzanne Dooley, president of the library’s Board of Trustees, attributes the honor in large part to the work and talents of co-directors, Rich Dann and RobinYuran, and the great staff.  The two have worked together for the past five years, culminating in this distinction.  “Rich and Robin are phenomenal,” Dooley says. “And we have a wonderful group of dedicated trustees and associates who all contribute to our success.”
Dooley goes on to point out that a comparison of Norfolk’s statistics with one other five star library in Connecticut, Greenwich, is quite eye-opening.  The two institutions have virtually equal per capita circulation, 22.2 for Greenwich and 22.0 for Norfolk, and similar visit stats, with Norfolk’s 14.8 per capita to Greenwich’s 10.8.  The most startling statistic, though, is the fact that Greenwich has an expenditure range of $5 million to $10 million, while Norfolk provides its services for $200,000 to $400,000.  “That is absolutely amazing,” Dooley says.
The Library Journal’s Editor-in-Chief, Francine Fialkoff, in an article appearing on the Journal’s Web site, stated that the Star Library program “isn’t about the money, per se…It is about what libraries deliver to their users with the money they have.”  No one seems to do this better than Norfolk Library, it appears.
Far from being just a bibliotheca, there are numerous other value added services available at the library, many of which are perhaps, less familiar. “Everyone knows we sponsor art exhibits and Fireside Fridays and other cultural activities,” Yuran points out, “but we also provide homebound services and reader advisory consultations.”  She cites instances when librarians have delivered books to people who were physically unable to come to the library on their own, and have provided books on tape to the visually challenged. They also keep a book nook stocked with a regularly rotating supply of large print books at Meadowbrook Senior Housing.
Community outreach from the co-directors will continue with Yuran’s plans to teach a creative writing class to Botelle School children in January, and Dann’s extremely well- received presentations at the school relating his experiences in the Peace Corps.  Both directors feel that they are ready to take the library to its next level.  “We need to keep our finger on the pulse of the town,” says Dann. “We just have to keep giving the community what they need and we need to keep getting better at it.”