Lightle comes to PCPL

Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Cindy Lightle

GREENCASTLE -- The Putnam County Public Library welcomed Cindy Lightle as its new program director this month.

Lightle said she is used to some confusion between her position and a librarian, even from her own family.

"My dad, in fact, still says 'so you're a librarian,'" she said. "No, dad, I'm not. I'm a program director. I work at the library. I think he's finally starting to go 'ooooh.' It takes an awful lot of people to run a library and there's a lot of us that have a lot of interests and skills."

Lightle said her position involved many different responsibilities, with the most important part of the job being getting people into the library.

"I think you should look at the library as a place not just for books, but as a gathering place for people to come and share ideas," Lightle said. "You hope that they will check out a book, you hope that they will read but you want to get them here to have that exchange of ideas and information. What I'm doing is trying to get them to keep coming here."

"Basically it's to provide programs for all the patrons of the library, to encourage them to come to the library and to know what the library is here for," Lightle said.

Lightle said she is still adjusting to both the community and the library.

"I'm in the information gathering stage," Lightle said. "Of course, there's a lot of things that I'm interested in, but that's not who we're pleasing here. We're pleasing the people of the community.

"They have things that have traditionally been offered and have been very well attended," Lightle continued. "I'm trying to figure out who did those and at what time of year they were done. After that, I'm just an open door to people's ideas."

One of the events Lightle wants to continue is the American Girls events, centered on the line of historical dolls. She also mentioned brown bag lunches and travelogues, where people talk about trips they've taken, as events that will continue. Another ongoing event Lightle is enthusiastic about is Books for Babies at the Putnam County Hospital.

"Books for Babies is a program for all babies born in the Putnam County Hospital," Lightle said. "They get a little packet. In this there's anything from a bib to a pretend library card to a little board book. It talks about why it is important to read to your baby at the start. You read to them to try and show them the importance of reading a book. That program will continue."

Another event that she specifically mentioned was the library's Halloween party, which in the past has been coordinated by DePauw University professor Dave Roberts.

Lightle moved to Greencastle in October with her husband. She has three children, two who are at college and one who has just become a teacher.

"We moved here from Shawnee, Kan., which is a suburb of Kansas City. My husband started working down in Cloverdale -- he's a controller for Endeavor Communications," Lightle said. "I worked with the Shawnee Mission School District in Kansas City. I worked in the library there, so libraries are not an unknown thing."

Lightle said that when she first moved to the area, one of her first stops to learn about the community was DePauw University. That led her to the library, which is across the street from the university.

Lightle said that she's become fond of Putnam County in her short time here.

"I love it (here). It's very comfortable," she said.

Lightle can be reached by her e-mail at clightle@putnam.lib.in

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