This nomination is for the following award: Lifetime Achievement Award
First Name Barbara
Last Name Stites
Library Affiliation (if applicable) Florida Gulf Coast University Library
Title (if applicable) Associate Dean
Street Address 10501 FGCU Blvd. S.
City, State, ZIP Fort Myers, FL 33965-6501
Telephone Number 239-410-0081
E-mail Address
[email protected]Are you nominating an individual or a group/organization for this award? Individual
First Name Susan
Last Name Dillinger
Library Affiliation (if applicable) New Port Richey Public Library
Title (if applicable) Library Director
Street Address 3611 Richboro Drive
City, State, ZIP Holiday, FL 34691
Telephone Number (727) 417-6599
E-mail Address
[email protected]For how many years total has the nominee been employed as a professional librarian? 41
Will you be submitting any supporting documentation? Yes
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http://www.sptimes.com/2006/04/21/Pasco/New_Port_Richey_libra.shtml
http://www.tbo.com/su/list/news-pasco/director-named-florida-librarian-of-the-year-20140530/
http://dos.myflorida.com/library-archives/services-for-libraries/florida-libraries-as/mental-
nourishment/npr/seed/ http://dos.myflorida.com/library-archives/services-for-libraries/florida-libraries-
as/community-memory/new-port-richey/
Essay I am pleased to nominate Ms. Susan Dillinger for the Florida Library Association Lifetime
Achievement Award. Susan has had a long and distinguished career touching many different aspects
of librarianship and public service beginning in 1975 as an Assistant University Librarian at the
University of South Florida in Tampa. After 15 years working with USF she became the Library Director
of the New Port Richey Public Library, working tirelessly to provide quality library services to this
West Central Florida community. In addition to her library work, she was also chosen to serve as the
Interim City Manager of New Port Richey from 2012 to 2014. She held both positions simultaneously
and worked indefatigably, managing an impossible schedule with her usual determination and
willingness to help. Susan has taken on both formal and informal leadership positions in the
Association, at her workplace and library organizations such as the American Library Association,
Richey Suncoast Theatre, Rotary Club, Beacon Square Civic Association, Tampa Bay Library Consortium
and many others. Susan’s service to FLA, her commitment to the profession and her personal focus on
continuous improvement make her a strong choice for this award. She is a longtime member of FLA
who has provided a great deal of hard work and quality service to the organization. In fact, Susan has
served in numerous leadership roles for the Association over the years, including Treasurer and
Chair/Vice-Chair of both the Public Library Outcomes & Standards Committee and the Legislative
Committee. She has been a member of the Board of Directors from 2001-2003 as well as serving from
2010-2013, and actively participated on the Public Library Standards, Citations & Awards, Continuing
Education and Intellectual Freedom Committees. Susan has long been dedicated to service to the
profession and her contributions to the Association are significant. While I was FLA’s President and
President-Elect, Susan was a trusted colleague who provided strong support and mentorship, which
she has done for countless others over the years. She is also a longtime active member of the Women
in Net-Working and the Pasco County Public Library Cooperative Board, lending her vibrant
personality and encouraging nature to a whole new generation of librarians and other professionals.
Susan has long been known for being an innovative early adopter, not just of technology but of
creative approaches to providing services to her community. Her library was one of the first in the
state to move from card catalog to an online system and implement public access to the Internet.
Susan’s work as Library Director and her recent administrative work for the City, has provided her
with a perfect venue for lasting impact. She played an integral part as New Port Richey Library was
engaged in establishing new and exciting programs such as the museum/theatre pass program, seed
lending library, farmers market, Reading for Life Literacy and Books by Mail. She was instrumental in
developing the library new collections of exercise weights, playaways and MP3books. Susan has made
many outstanding contributions to the advancement of the stature of libraries within the State of
Florida through risk taking over the course of their career. She frequently met with legislators, not
only to advocate for funding but also to help legislators understand the critical role public libraries
play in education and economic development. A publication, “A Librarian’s Choice: The High Road of
Social Responsibility and Ethics or Personal Expediency When Faced by a Devious Government.”,
authored with Dr. Kathleen McCook for the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American
Library Association is just one example of her keen ardor for change. Susan has also been an active
scholar. She has presented a number of workshop and conference sessions, participated on panels
and posts about libraries on social media sites. She has long been an articulate leader with a wide
range of excellent communication and listening skills and an innovator who stimulates effective
change and inspires a shared vision. Of particular note, is that in 2012 Dillinger was appointed as the
Interim City Manager for New Port Richey. In honor of her service in this role for almost two years, an
art exhibition wall in City Hall was named the Susan Dillinger Art Gallery and in 2014 the West Pasco
Chamber of Commerce named her Public Servant of the Year. More recently, under Susan’s
leadership, the library was honored as the recipient of the Florida Library Association's 2016 "Library
of the Year" award and “Librarian of the Year” award in 2014. In addition, Library Journal gave the
New Port Richey Public Library a rating of 4 out of 5 stars in 2013 and was the only Florida library to
earn a rating that year. In 2016, the library again received top-rank rating and was one of only three
Florida libraries so honored. Susan Dillinger’s career has spanned more than four decades and she has
truly had a major impact on library services in Florida and lives of Floridians. Her willingness to take
risks, be innovative and embrace change have provided her community with an extraordinary library
and served as a model for others. I can think of no one more deserving of the Florida Library
Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
Summary Susan Dillinger’s long and distinguished career has spanned more than four decades and has
had a major impact on library services in Florida and lives of Floridians. After 15 years as an Assistant
University Librarian at the University of South Florida in Tampa she became the Library Director of the
New Port Richey Public Library, working tirelessly to provide quality library service to this west central
Florida community. In addition to her library work, she was also chosen to serve as the Interim City
Manager of New Port Richey from 2012 to 2014. Her willingness to take risks, be innovative and
embrace change have provided her community with an extraordinary library and served as a model
for countless others.
This nomination is for the following award: Lifetime Achievement Award
First Name Ann
Last Name Scott
Library Affiliation (if applicable) New Port Richey Public Library
Title (if applicable) Assistant Director
Street Address 5939 Main Street
City, State, ZIP New Port Richey
Telephone Number 7278531265
E-mail Address
[email protected]Are you nominating an individual or a group/organization for this award? Individual
First Name Susan
Last Name Dillinger
Library Affiliation (if applicable) NPR Public Library
Title (if applicable) Director
Street Address 5939 Main Street
City, State, ZIP New Port Richey
Telephone Number 7278531262
E-mail Address
[email protected]For how many years total has the nominee been employed as a professional librarian? 35
Will you be submitting any supporting documentation? Yes
If you would like us to review web pages in consideration of this application (including videos or other
supporting materials that are stored online), please enter the Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) below.
Essay Susan Dillinger’s leadership of the New Port Richey Public Library for over 25 years, a portion of
which she also served as acting City Manager, has led her to be the longest tenured Library Director in
our community. She forged a new mission for the library to empower the community. With over 25%
of our community living in poverty, Susan has led the way to help families displaced from their jobs.
She has spearheaded a job lab where members may apply for jobs and assistance. Susan directs
projects that lift up the roughly 51.9% of our city population that is female. She has inspired and
supported her librarians to create educational opportunities, such as a five county wide literacy
project, partnerships across the community that benefit all age levels, and a farmers market that
provides incentives for EBT shoppers to learn how to keep their families healthier. Susan has always
served as a role model, a powerful, intelligent woman who creates positive change. INITIATIVE:
Susan’s contributions to her community center around education. She strives to serve on boards and
support local industry that help women achieve greatness. A longtime member of NOW and an
advocate for equality for women, she has worked with educators, politicians and business owners in
organizations such as Rotary, PACE Center for Girls in our local community. She also serves on many
professional boards and recently helped pass new standards for libraries that further benefit our
communities. Her many alliances led to our nomination for and receipt of FLA’s First Library of the
Year Award. INSPIRATION: Susan inspires with her passion. Even during bleak budget years, she never
relents in her belief that we can make a change in the world. Her innovative ideas coupled with a high
level of enthusiasm have kept our librarians focused on the future. She also has faith in what we can
accomplish, and that is key to our success. Her love for libraries and what they mean to our
community is contagious. Whenever she sees potential in someone, she tries to create work that will
be meaningful for her. And she has inspired several of our non-librarians to go back to school to
receive their Masters. She even developed a scholarship program through our Friends organization
that pays for the first semester! INVOLVMENT: Susan earned her Master’s in Library and Information
Science from USF in 1981 and has been viewed by her peers as a leader in the field throughout Florida.
In 2014, the Florida Library Association named her “Librarian of the Year” for her intrepid spirit, which
served her well as she was both Library Director and acting City Manager of New Port Richey for over
a year. Susan maintains close ties with instructors within the Library and Information Sciences
program at USF and has made them proud to call her a USF Bull. Susan has hired many USF graduates,
and her staff continues to bring innovative ideas that are currently being executed in New Port Richey
back into the fold at USF.
Summary Susan Dillinger has been a stalwart of best practices in the public library community. She
ardently believes in the power of public libraries to foster democracy, inspire innovation and
empower the disenfranchised. Her optimism and willingness to stand up for library ethics has made
her a champion within the library community. As she announces her retirement, effective Apr.1, our
celebration of her gritty determination is also an acknowledgement of the library standards that she
defends.
December 23, 2016
Dear Dr. Stites and FLA Awards Committee
I am honored to support the nomination of Ms. Susan D. Dillinger for the Florida
Library Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
Ms. Dillinger is a multi-faceted woman who has achieved the highest awards in her
profession—public librarianship; been City Manager of New Port Richey; and has
inspired many to achieve meaningful careers in librarianship.
Ms. Dillinger is a native of Tampa Bay and earned the master’s degree in
librarianship in 1981 from the University of South Florida. Her working career has
been academic—at the USF Library—and public administration as Director of the
Public Library and City Manager of New Port Richey. In each position Ms. Dillinger
has been a deeply committed professional taking on institutional governance and
professional engagement in a variety of roles.
For example, there are over 400 public libraries in Florida—but only one is selected
each year as the state’s most outstanding for programming, service and excellence.
Under Ms. Dillinger’s watch the New Port Richey Library was selected in 2006 as
Florida Library of the Year. It is to her astute management and creative
programming that this honor may be attributed.
Ms. Dillinger has held leadership positions in the Florida Library Association and on
its Executive Board and chaired the statewide committee that developed new
standards for Public Libraries. She was selected from thousands of the state’s
librarians as Florida Librarian of the year in 2014 in recognition of her expertise in
building a new library, developing personnel policies and establishing new statewide
standards.
Additionally, Ms. Dillinger served as City Manager for New Port Richey. Among her
many achievements in this position was her work to equalize pay for women city
employees, She has been a vibrant member of the New Port Richey Community
serving on the Board of the Richey Suncoast Theatre, on the West Pasco Chamber of
Commerce, Chair of the Rotary Club, as well as other Board memberships
throughout the region.
I know Ms. Dillinger as an alumna of the School of Information and as a role model
for those doing graduate work in the information in the information professions. She
has had a significant impact on library services in our state through the development
of new standards and the day-to-day modelling of service with keen intellectual
insight.
With great admiration for her career and personal commitment to community
development I am proud to support the nomination of Ms. Susan Dillinger for the
Florida Library Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sincerely,
Kathleen de la Peña McCook
Distinguished University Professor
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
University of South Florida • 4202 East Fowler Avenue, CIS 1040 • Tampa, FL 33620-7800
(813)974-3520 • FAX (813)974-6840
6 January 2017
RE: Susan Dillinger, Nominee for the FLA Lifetime Achievement Award
To Whom It May Concern:
It is my pleasure to write this letter of support for the nomination of Susan Dillinger to receive
the FLA Lifetime Achievement Award. I have known Susan for more than 25 years, a period that
generally coincides with her tenure as Director of the New Port Richey Public Library. Susan and
I met as colleagues engaged in community education and lifelong learning. Our collegial
relationship developed into a deep, lasting friendship. I admire Susan’s intelligence,
competence, skills, and moral character. It is no overstatement to say that she has become a
living legend in the New Port Richey area for the myriad contributions she has made to the
community, her visionary leadership and steadfast dedication to public service, and her high
ethical standards. Susan’s ethical standards exemplify passionate commitment to the library
profession.
The scope of this letter is not broad enough to mention all of Susan’s accomplishments. My
choice is to focus on three particular positions where she has had a significant impact,
demonstrated initiative, and inspired many through her personal involvement in projects that
have improved the quality of life for women in the community. The three positions – Library
Director, Interim City Manager, and Community Education Partner – are successively
addressed in the following paragraphs.
As Director of the New Port Richey Public Library for more than two decades, Susan has
provided exemplary leadership to an iconic local institution, often called “the jewel in the
crown” of the city. Established in 1919, the NPR Public Library will celebrate its centennial in
just three years. Ten years ago, in 2006, it won the first Library of the Year Award from the
Florida Library Association (FLA).
The Library’s recent history has been marked by growth and greater diversity of programs and
services. Susan has proven her ability to work with elected officials, business people,
disenfranchised individuals, special needs patrons, minorities, non-English-speakers, and people
of all ages. This past year, the NPR Library engaged nearly 115,000 members in library classes,
workshops and events. Close to half a million library visits resulted in approximately 734,000
materials borrowed and nearly 39,500 uses of the public computers. NPR Library resources can
also be accessed from home or work via the Internet. Those who lack home internet access may
now borrow a mobile hotspot with their membership card. Under Susan’s leadership, the NPR
Library continues a long history of supporting community members in their quest for better
opportunities and fulfilling its role as the “People’s University.”
Besides traditional library services and digital access, Susan has fostered the Library’s
reputation as a local arts venue and an ecology resource. Live theater, musical performances,
and film festivals, including the LGBT-themed REEL Pride event and Eco-film Discussions, have
become regular offerings. Most notable are the weekly Tasty Tuesdays organic farmers’ market
in the Library courtyard, the Library Seed Bank, and the Master Gardener Workshop Lecture
Series. Susan is primarily responsible for the rich, diversified contributions of the NPR Library to
the local West Pasco community.
Susan’s exemplary leadership skills led to her selection, in October of 2012, as New Port
Richey’s Interim City Manager. For two years, she did “double duty” as leader of both the
municipal library and City Hall while New Port Richey’s search for a permanent City Manager
continued. During those two years, Susan capably managed the human and financial resources
of the entire city. She had already earned the respect of City Council and city employees. Her
two years of service as Interim City Manager made a difference for women because it showed
that a woman could do the job! It paved the way for the selection, in April of 2014, of Debbie
Manns as City Manager, the first woman ever selected for the position. Of course Susan played
a key role in helping Debbie adjust to her new position. Since 2014, the two women have
worked together effectively, creating a dynamic duo of female leadership in the local
community.
Susan Dillinger has also been a longstanding exemplary Community Education Partner, working
with faculty and staff at Pasco Hernando State College (PHSC), formerly Pasco Hernando
Community College (PHCC). With other community partners (the Richey Suncoast Theatre,
Greater New Port Richey Main Street, the St. Petersburg Times, and more), the NPR Public
Library created a spring festival, Shakespeare by the River, with indoor and outdoor events on
the banks of the scenic Pitlachascotee River. PHCC faculty participated as presenters on topics
such as the Elizabethan Theater and Shakespeare’s Sonnets. College students were players and
patrons.
In September of 2008, on the NPR campus of PHCC, Susan, another librarian from the Pasco
County Libraries, and I did a Constitution Day program on the First Amendment’s protection of
intellectual freedom. We linked the presentation to the American Library Association’s annual
observance of Banned Books Week and called students’ attention to the vital role played by
public libraries in safeguarding Americans’ liberty rights. In early September of 2009, the NPR
Public Library hosted a standing-room-only event to launch the publication, by Yellowjacket
Press in Tampa, of a PHCC professor’s chapbook of poetry. Attending the event, the publisher
commented that she had never seen such a huge crowd assembled for a poetry reading. The
turnout surprised even author Dr. Richard Downing, a bit nervous about the publisher’s
scheduling the event on September 11, anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States
in 2001. Those who know the track record of the NPR Public Library were confident that the
event would be successful.
The NPR Public Library also provides Service Learning opportunities for PHSC students pursuing
recognition as Citizen Scholars or business degrees. Several college students have gotten
summer jobs in the public library’s Summer Reading program for children. One student hired
as Summer Reading Aide a few years ago went on to full-time employment at the NPR Public
Library. She still has the job, and she has been joined by other PHSC students employed there
part time.
In March of 2014, Susan served as a panelist for a Women’s History Month program on the
newest PHSC campus in Wesley Chapel. The overall theme of the panel, Lean In, based on
Sheryl Sandberg’s best-selling book, provided participants and audience with an opportunity to
discuss women at work. Dr. Susan MacManus, Distinguished USF Professor of Public
Administration and Political Science, was one of the panelists. Susan gave an outstanding
presentation that described many obstacles she had to overcome in her career as a public
librarian and municipal administrator. She offered specific tips for success. She answered
questions from students in the audience clearly and cogently. After the panel discussion, she
reinforced to the dean her availability for similar events in the future, particularly events aimed
at helping women.
In the above three positions – Library Director, Interim City Manager, and Community
Education Partner – Susan Dillinger has had a powerful impact on the local community. Her
initiative has compelled her to continue challenging herself and searching for ways to improve
the quality of programs and services at the public library. She has been an inspiration to many,
especially this writer. Susan’s example moved me to earn a master’s degree in Library and
Information Science from USF in 2005 and work as an Evening Reference Librarian at PHSC. Like
so many other women, my professional and personal life has been richer and more fulfilling,
thanks to Susan Dillinger.
Susan Dillinger deserves recognition via the FLA Lifetime Achievement Award. In Pasco County,
she has raised the status of the library profession, historically dominated by women. She is a
virtuoso leader whose achievements and success have not diminished her empathy for those
less fortunate. That is why she remains committed to service in a public library.
Thank you for your consideration of my letter of support.
Sincerely,
Carmine J. Bell, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita
Pasco Hernando State College
