WLS director heads to Philly
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- June
- 26
The executive director of the Westchester Library System, Siobhan Reardon has resigned and has been appointed president and director of the Free Library of Philadelphia effective September 4.
Reardon took over the management of the 38-member library cooperative now based in Tarrytown on Sept. 12, 2005 succeeding Maurice J. Freedman, who retired after 23 years in that position. A Yonkers native, Reardon was a former deputy executive director of the Brooklyn Public Library. She had worked at the BPL for nine years.
“We have accomplished much over the nearly three years of Siobhan’s tenure, from the relocation of our offices (from Ardsley) to enhanced programmatic initiatives to technological advances, and have all enjoyed the wonderful leadership, dedication and commitment that she has brought to the Westchester Library System,” Patricia W. Fontanella, president of the WLS Board of Trustees, wrote in an e-mail sent this afternoon.
The WLS Board has begun searching for its next executive director, she added.
The Westchester Library System has an annual operating budget of roughly $5 million which comes from member public libraries and state and Westchester County funding. The cooperative was founded in 1958 and is one of the largest systems in the state of 750 libraries. By sharing services in areas of technology, cataloging and interlibrary loan, the system provides cost savings to individual local libraries and reduces the differences among large and small facilities.
The Free Library system consists of 49 branches, three regional libraries, the Central Library on the Parkway, and the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. It boasts of drawing more than 6 million visitors each year and is one of the most used educational/cultural institutions in Philadelphia. The library was chartered in 1891 as a general library and opened in March of 1894. It has 750 employees, a $55 million operating budget and is in the midst of a $175 million Central Library Capital Campaign, the largest capital campaign in the institution’s history, to build a 200,000 square-foot addition.
And, of course, its main library steps are known worldwide as the athletic training ground for the Sylvestor Stallone character, Rocky Balboa, in the 1980s movie “Rocky.”
(File photo from The Journal News, Aug. 2005)
This entry was posted
on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 2:38 pm by Barbara Nackman.
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A municipal reporter for The Journal News since 1997, 
Rocky did NOT train on the steps of the Main Library. He trained on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art!!!
Paula,
You are correct that it is Rocky’s triumphant run up museum stairs that everybody knows. There is even a neat statue there to remind people. I thought, though, it was also true that he trained at the library center. But now I cannot find the reference I first saw which prompted my mention — and I will pull the incorrect part from my entry. Thanks for your careful reading and appreciation for Philadelphia landmarks.