Day in the Life with Annie Busch

A typical day for Annie Busch isn't what you'd imagine for someone just weeks away from retirement.

Even as her career winds down, the executive director of the Springfield-Greene County Library District continues at full speed. With her retirement set for mid-December, Busch's last days on the job are still covered end-to-end with meetings - between 15 and 25 a week - and countless projects that need her visionary guidance.

On this day, Busch arrives at her office at The Library Center a little after 8 a.m., fills a cup with Diet Coke from the library's Mudhouse café and checks her calendar. Her morning routine isn't ever much more complicated than that.

"I'm a night person, not a morning person," she laughs. "I'll get up early, but I don't like it."

Administrative staff members begin filtering in for an 8:30 a.m. meeting on project management, and Busch stops to chat with several in the library's sun-filled lobby. The normal hustle and bustle at the district's most popular branch has yet to begin, and a lone patron shuffles in to return a couple of books.

Busch starts the meeting on time. At age 61, she has perfected a balanced management style, moving easily between imparting great wisdom and cracking a silly joke. One moment, she preaches the importance of communication - "It's absolutely crucial and the hardest thing we do" - and the next, she insists that a staff member share a Dilbert cartoon that mistakenly pops up on the projector screen.

Just more than an hour later, Busch wraps the meeting and heads to her second-floor office. She peruses e-mail as she waits to dial in for a 10 a.m. teleconference with the long-range planning committee for the Missouri Online Bibliographic Information User System, or MOBIUS. The consortium of academic and public libraries shares an automation system for lending books across the state, and the Springfield-Greene County system is one of only two public libraries involved.

"MOBIUS started with under $700,000 from the state to make that happen, but about three years ago, the state took the money away, at the same time that those academic institutions were getting their budgets cut," Busch says. "That has made it difficult. Our goal is to expand membership to bring other public libraries into the mix."

Busch brings that point of view to today's discussion, and she clearly has a vision for the organization she's helped build.

"We have a story to tell, and we haven't been telling it," she tells the group. She recommends that the committee define the benefits and costs of MOBIUS membership and present those at the Missouri Public Library Directors meeting in December.

Busch breaks from the teleconference early in order to make an 11 a.m. meeting down the hall with interior designer Audrey Girard of Grooms Office Environments. Girard has brought a smorgasbord of colorful carpets, tiles, swatches and other décor for Busch to consider for the new Willard library. A new building is going up at the East Shopping Center on Jackson Street, where the Willard branch currently is, and the library is leasing 5,000 square feet for relocation in spring 2009.

This, obviously, is Busch's favorite part of the day. She takes great interest in decorating each of the library's branches, and this one will incorporate environmentally friendly features and outdoor themes. Busch tries out a recyclable desk chair, marvels over a tile that resembles bamboo and fingers a sample of rocks that could be used in flooring.

Busch then heads to the café for a quick lunch, where staffers know her favorite of late is the chicken salad sandwich, and then it's back upstairs for a meeting with Computer Services Manager David Patillo and Associate Director of Public Services Jim Schmidt.

Busch, Patillo and Schmidt are at lightning speed today, bouncing ideas off each other and finishing each other's sentences. The two bring Busch up to speed on a wide spectrum of information technology projects, from the district's massive transition to radio frequency identification to new voice-over-Internet protocol to electronic invoicing.

The meeting is interrupted briefly by Business Office Manager Debbie Eckert, who asks Busch if she can work in another meeting to "talk buildings" with Schmidt and Facilities Manager Allen Woody. Eckert is "my brains," Busch says. "She keeps me straight."

After meeting with Woody, Busch finds a few spare moments to check e-mail and voice mail. But the downtime is short-lived.

Two auditors from accounting firm Roberts, McKenzie, Mangan & Cummings arrive to meet with Busch about The Library Center's gift shop, which has the same federal employer ID number as Friends of the Library, the nonprofit that supports the district. The issue is causing some mix-ups in tax reporting.

For her final commitment of the day, Busch heads across town to Drury University's Hammons School of Architecture to visit with professor Jay Garrott and several of his architecture students. They're working with the city of Willard to formulate a long-term community plan that makes use of the area's natural features, and they want Busch's input.

The students are intrigued to learn that the library is eyeing a permanent Willard branch in the future, and it, too, would likely incorporate the city's trails and waterways.

"This is absolutely perfect timing," Busch tells them. "We have some creative young minds at work."

The Q&A

What role does the library play in today's society?

The future of this country and its economy is in an educated work force. It's an information economy. We are a crucial hub in that wheel ... because we cross all sectors.

Your library career has spanned 30 years, 23 years of them in Springfield. Any regrets?

Even though we've renovated every branch in the system and added four branches since I've been here, I haven't been able to bring all the facilities up to the standards I'd like to see. That's been the big disappointment for me.

You're known for taking the library district into the Information Age. Are you a fan of technology?

Every time I see a new gadget, I want to buy it. This is my third-generation Blackberry. It opened up a whole new world for me when I got the Blackberry. Of course, that's old technology, and now there's (instant messaging), Facebook, Second Life and Twitter. The best are Web sites like Digg that aggregate some of that information, or you get a reader. I'm trying to get mine set up, so I can pull things from various sites into one page and look at those all at one time. If you use the technology right, it can really make you much more effective and efficient.

You'll retire in mid-December, and your replacement - Regina Cooper, associate director at the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library in Alabama - starts Jan. 2. Were you involved in the hiring process?

I stayed out of that process because I didn't think it was appropriate for me to insert myself, and the board did an excellent job. (Cooper's) been in the business for 28 years and she came from a good system, and she has the support of an excellent administrative staff here. (When I retire), I'm going to back off quite a bit. I want her to be judged on her own and take this in the direction that she wants to take it, and not have my shadow hanging over her.

What do you plan to do in retirement?

(My husband Don and I) love to travel. We've never really had the time for car trips - we both like to just get in the car and see where it goes. I also have grandchildren in California, and we want to have the flexibility where if they need us, we can go out and help. I'm looking forward to reading a huge stack of books I've said I'm going to read for years. When I was first in the business, ... I ordered the books, and when they came in I got to look at them. I started to make a list, and then I realized I don't have time to read them. It wasn't realistic, so I stopped making lists. I've started to make a list again.

Which books are on that list?

I've spent an awful lot of time reading professional stuff, and now I want to do more fun stuff. I'll read a few mysteries, but I really am fascinated by the world and why it is the way it is. I'm interested in history, politics. "Three Cups of Tea" (by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin) has been recommended to me."

How did you decide to retire?

I've heard that you'll know when it's time to retire. It really is true. The feeling that I've done what I can do, I've done a lot, but it's time for somebody new with new ideas and new energy to come in and take this to the next level. I've brought us through the last technological revolution, but I look at the stuff out there, and I'm just too old a dog to learn those new tricks. What we need is new, young blood to embrace that. We've got to retain a relevancy to the new generation.[[In-content Ad]]