Susan Hildreth Named San Francisco City Librarian

Staff -- Library Journal, 03/26/2001

Susan Hildreth, who has been serving as San Francisco's Acting City Librarian for more than a year, has been appointed permanently to that position by Mayor Willie Brown. Hildreth assumed the acting role in February 2000, filling in for City Librarian Regina Minduri, who was incapacitated by a stroke in May 1999. In announcing the appointment, SFPL Library Commission President Charles Higueras said, Hildreth is doing an excellent job...her good work has been crucial in maintaining and enhancing public confidence in and support for our public libraries." Hildreth has sought to improve services, including the development of a strategic plan and an evaluation of the Main Library. She also was instrumental in opening the city's first new branch in more than 30 years. Hildreth said that as city librarian, her goals would be to continue to initiate and implement enhancements to customer services so that libraries are available to all users at anytime of the day or night with materials in a wide variety of formats, and expand the virtual library services so that the library's resources are available worldwide. In 1999, she chaired the California Library Association Bond Act Task Force, which led efforts for Proposition 14, a statewide library bond measure that passed with the highest approval rating in San Francisco. Hildreth also led the more recent charge for a $106 million bond issue in 2000 to improve branch libraries, which also passed.