Seattle PL's Deborah Jacobs Leaves To Head Gates Foundation's Global Libraries Program

Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 4/9/2008

• Director in Seattle since 1997
• Job will be based in Seattle
• Opened new libraries, including iconic Central Library

Deborah L. Jacobs, Seattle’s City Librarian, announced today “with absolute but mixed joyful emotions that...I will be leaving The Seattle Public Library on July 2, 2008 to begin a new chapter of my life at The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation leading their Global Libraries Initiative later this summer.” The foundation is based in Seattle.

Jacobs came to Seattle in 1997 from Corvallis, OR, where she directed of the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library and, in 1994, won LJ’s Librarian of the Year honor. In Seattle, she is perhaps most noted for advancing a $235 million plan—including the largest bond issue approved by U.S. voters at the time—to nearly double the space in 22 branches and to build a spectacular new Central Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas, which opened in 2004. As with some other libraries, however, operating funds have not always kept pace, so in the 2005 budget, for example, bookmobile service was partly curtailed.

“Deborah is an outstanding leader who brings tremendous expertise and passion for libraries to the foundation,” said Chip Lyons, Director of Special Initiatives for the Gates Foundation, in a news release. “She has a deep understanding of the important role libraries play in addressing inequities through free public access to information.”

“This is a big change, but our Library is stronger than ever,” Jacobs wrote in an e-mail. “I know that staff, along with the Library Board, Foundation Board, Friends Board, Mayor, and City Council will continue moving forward together to create an amazing library of the future.”