Memphis PL Head, Colleagues Retire

Judith Drescher, director of the Memphis Public Library and Information Center, and two other veteran employees retired at the end of December, it was announced earlier in the month. Despite the brief gap between the announcement and the retirements, the moves are voluntary, they told the Commercial Appeal. "I have had a wonderful 23 years with the Library system," Drescher wrote in an email to staff. "We have grown every day to better fulfill our mission of satisfying the customer's need to know." (Some commenters on the newspaper's web site contend that the veterans were forced out.)

Also retiring are the two longest-serving system employees, Sallie Johnson, deputy director and a 40-year staffer, and Val Crook, human resources manager, a 42-year veteran. "Val and I have both been eligible to retire for a number of years," Johnson told the newspaper. The library has both grown and contracted during Drescher's leadership; a new central library opened in 2001, and branches have been upgraded. However, budget cuts by Shelby County, as well as city-suburban tensions, led four suburban cities in 2004 and 2005 to leave the system, then the Memphis—Shelby County Public Library and Information Center, under their own jurisdiction and outsource management to LSSI.