The Oneida Public Library Board of Trustees announces with regret that Library Director Carolyn D. Gerakopoulos will be retiring after 20 years of service as director effective Sept. 9.
Starting her tenure as director in November 1996, a momentous time for the library as it was evolving from an association library to a special legislature library, Gerakopoulos oversaw tremendous growth in operating hours, staff, library patronage, programming, electronic telecommunications and community services.
Over the years, she has written more than 55 successful grant applications to federal and state agencies and private foundations for a total outside funding of more than $1 million. Grants have supported special programming like the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Prime Time: Family Reading Time; early-childhood, family and adult literacy programs, most notably Madison County Reads Ahead; and the New Oneida Public Library Project. To date, Gerakopoulos alone has secured just over $500,000 in new library construction grants.
“My 20 years at the OPL have been an absolute pleasure,” Gerakopoulos said. “I have had the opportunity to work with creative and talented staff as well as dedicated and hard-working Board of Trustee members. I will never forget the generosity of the Oneida Library Foundation and the faithfulness of the Friends of the Library. But first in my heart will always be the thousands of patrons whom it has been my pleasure to serve and the friendships of so many people who support and work so tirelessly on behalf of the library.
“I deeply regret that I am retiring before our state-of-the-art new library on Main Street is completed,” she added, “but I can no longer put off retirement until the new library is open for business. Though my family has been patient for a very long time, they insist I spend my 75th birthday in October as a member of the happily retired community.”
Gerakopoulos, however, will continue her involvement with the Literacy Coalition of Madison County, of which she is a founder and a member of its management team. Her work to boost literacy rates for all ages in the community began in 2001 when she wrote a state Education Department grant to start up an adult literacy tutoring program at the OPL called Project Read. With her continued grant-writing skills, that program expanded and evolved into today’s Madison County Reads Ahead, a free one-on-one adult literacy tutoring program that serves all residents of Madison County under the Literacy Coalition’s umbrella.
She will also stay busy in retirement by continuing her work with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which provides preschoolers with free age-appropriate books sent once a month by mail. Gerakopoulos initiated the first Imagination Library program back in 2012; to date, it has served 530 preschoolers living in the OPL Special District and distributed among them a total of 11,053 books. Imagination Library has also grown to become a county-wide program under the aegis of the Literacy Coalition; it has enrolled to date 2,165 preschool children and distributed a total of 43,426 books.
It is no wonder that under Carolyn Gerakopoulos’ direction, the OPL was one of two runners-up in Library Journal’s prestigious “Best Small Library in America” award in 2007.
“Carolyn has worked tirelessly to improve and expand the scope of the OPL despite very tight budgets and to bring it into the 21st century,” OPL Board President Patricia Albaugh said. “Her literacy efforts have put Oneida and all of Madison County on the map. We appreciate all she has done on behalf of the entire Library District, and she will definitely be missed. Carolyn’s shoes will be extremely hard to fill, but the Board will work hard to find a new Director who will continue with the accomplishments Carolyn has made and carry the OPL forward. We wish her all the best in retirement, and know that she will continue to be involved in the programs that have been so special to her during her years leading the OPL.”
The OPL Board of Trustees has formed a personnel committee to lead a competitive search for a new OPL director. For a description of the position and requirements, see the link on the OPL web site’s home page (www.midyorklib.org/oneida). Qualified applicants are encouraged to apply by sending a cover letter and resume as attachments to OPLdirectorsearch@gmail.com.