Lolly's Legacy

Library services expanded under Lolly's leadership.

By 1974, the Iowa City community required services to extend beyond the Carnegie building’s walls. A then-anonymous donation launched the library’s weekly service to Johnson County Jail inmates. ICPL also expanded their services by working with community organizations to host outreach collections supplied by ICPL. Partnerships were forged with a long list of organizations, including Oaknoll, United Action for Youth, the Women’s Resources and Action Center, and local group homes to name a few.

ICPL Director Jack Hurkett resigned in May 1974. By June, Lolly was among 3 finalists for the position. She had her master's degree in library science, had experience as acting director as well as technical services manager, and was a passionate and organized leader.

By secret ballot, the library board voted and, in a split decision, selected Charles Kauderer as the new library director. Two requirements for the job were a library degree and experience in library management. Kauderer had neither.

Lolly was later told by Arthur Canter that the board wanted a man in the position to control the "clique of radical women librarians."

Throughout July, evidence arose that Kauderer falsified information on his application. Lolly was among 7 staff librarians signing a petition requesting a meeting with the board about his lack of credentials. While that meeting never happened, the board held a public meeting on July 25 and scolded the librarians for their fact-finding mission. By July 30, Kauderer submitted his resignation, citing staff criticism.

The public outcry over a bungled hiring decision forced a second search for a new director. Lolly continued on as acting director, delivered results for the library, and relieved the board from making day-to-day decisions. This helped heal the broken relationship between the board and staff. By Spring 1975, Lolly was officially hired as ICPL's 14th library director.

Lolly was a leadership powerhouse wrapped in a petite package.

By the early 1970s it was obvious that the 1963 addition to the Carnegie Library would not suffice for the next 20 years as originally planned, due to its poor design, small size, and limited handicapped accessibility.

One of Lolly’s first major projects as director was to solve the building’s space problem. Lolly led the way through the design process, and the Library Board had accepted a building plan for the new building by 1976.

Building a new library required passing a ballot referendum to approve the funding for the project. Decision day was November 7, the day of the midterm elections under the Carter Administration.

Lolly led weekly meetings with the library’s public information committee, Lynda Ostedgaard and Suzanne Richerson, to plan the campaign that would win enough public votes needed to fund the new building. Lolly directed the committee to gather input at public hearings. She directed staff to find the evidence that would prove to voters that the new library was worth the money.

The campaign slogan was “A New Library for Everyone” for a reason. The Carnegie building and its ‘63 addition failed to serve citizens in wheelchairs. Seniors with limited mobility also struggled to move around in the space. Most of all, the building didn’t even meet the contemporary building codes! 

City Councilmember Carol deProsse campaigned for a Council seat on the promise to build a new library. She moved into a leadership position on the library’s own campaign, allowing Lolly to focus on the details of planning the building and running the library. Public supporters of the building campaign included the Iowa City Education Association, AFSCME (the city employee's labor union), and editorial staff from both high school newspapers.

What happened on November 7? The library campaign won by a slim margin and achieved its funding goal. Every vote counted.

Early in 1979, Lolly closed the Carnegie auditorium and had it converted to a room holding the Library’s first microcomputer and several keyboard terminals. The purpose and goal for the room? Directing library staff to transform each paper catalog card into a computerized bibliographic record, with the now-critical component of a barcode identifying each specific item.

By the time IBM introduced its first personal computer (PC—yes, THAT “PC”), Lolly had forged a path for ICPL to launch the first online catalog in any U.S. public library. Lolly had the foresight to include the costs for an online catalog in that $3.5 million funding referendum—another example of her fiscal and political savviness. 

Lolly planned the groundbreaking ceremonies for October 11, 1979. The place to meet? 123 South Linn Street. The construction phase saw many decisions left to be made.

Lolly led the staff and board members in planning a myriad of details: carpeting, shelving, furniture, audio visual, telephone locations, signage, and security to name just a few.

An automated system needed a barcode both for the item and the borrower. For Lolly, the next step required for automation was clear: Each library user needed their own identification number for borrowing, and that number was pasted to a wallet-sized piece of yellow plastic that would be carried around in handbags and pants pockets for years. 

From 1979 to this day, ICPL patrons know their library card at a glance—it's the yellow one hiding in the plastic thickets of credit and loyalty club cards. Before the end of the year, the automated circulation system was live. “Touch terminals” were added by Fall 1980.

Between the time the Carnegie building shuttered its doors on May 27, 1981, and the grand opening of 123 South Linn Street on June 15, Susan Craig led 700 volunteers in carrying more than 6,000 boxes of books across the street in sweltering heat.

It was a well-coordinated effort, leaning on organizational leadership skills learned from Lolly herself. Books went from shelves to boxes to strong arms to carts to aisles to shelves—a two-week procession led by a librarian with a smile on her face. True leaders lead their team from the trenches. Choosing Susan as the volunteer leader was a smart move by Lolly. The effort saved the Library and City $20,000, or about $60,000 in 2021 dollars.

Lolly’s work in Iowa City’s activist community may have earned her the skills she needed to lead this urban library through budgetary challenges and constant change. Having cultivated great organizing and strategizing skills, she used her political savvy to consistently demand high-quality institutional capacity worthy of the Iowa City community.

The 1970s and '80s saw a budgetary tug-of-war between The City Council and the Library. In order to offer high-quality service throughout the entire week, the Library needed credentialed staff. The City Council supported extending hours but not the money it would take to hire educated staff.

Sunday afternoons were some of the busiest times in the Library, but despite this, budget shortfalls would require cutting those service hours. In 1978, the City Council refused to add additional money for staffing in the FY79 city budget, and Lolly and the Library Board chose to close on Sundays and Thursday evenings rather than provide lower quality service.

Implementing new heights for organizational management, Lolly initiated the Library’s first strategic plan. She developed the five-year plan with the help of a staff, a small group of trustees, and community volunteers.

The plan, called "Library Priorities for the '80s," was adopted by the library board in July. The plan contained many firsts: a mission statement, operating principles, and goals. It was a new tradition: The next Library strategic plan would come in 1988.

Under Lolly's leadership, the ICPL was always innovating.

Nearly 10 years after the official “birth of the Internet,” the Library’s Reference department launched a CD-ROM version of a reference network: REFNET. A precursor to online information databases, REFNET gave librarians easy access to the answers to patron questions. ICPL wouldn’t have its own website until 5 years later, right around the time of the infamous “Y2K” panic.

Having Lolly as a mentor and cultivating excellent leadership and organizational skills herself, Susan Craig became the 15th director of the Iowa City Public Library after Lolly retired in 1994. Susan led the library through the next 24 years of change.