An experienced employee of the Houston branch of the Texas County Library is now leader of the county’s library system.
After spending close to three years as children’s program manager at the Houston branch, Lorette Smith was on Oct. 22 named to the position of library director by the system’s five-member board. She replaces Molly Shelton, who joined the Willow Springs library after holding the position since the beginning of 2014.
“I’m feel very honored by this,” Smith said. “I’m looking forward to learning the details of what a director does. I know how the other side of how things work, but stepping into this role will let me see what actually makes the library run.”
Smith is a Texas County native and lives in Bucyrus with her husband, Lester, and 16-year-old daughter, Pheadra. She’s a graduate of Houston High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, psychology and sociology from Drury University.
“I’m a triple major – and I work at the library,” Smith said. “But seriously, if I had known about this before I probably would have gone into library studies because this has been a good fit for me. It’s so much fun.
“I love the people. It doesn’t matter who it is, from a child all the way up to the grandmas and grandpas, when you help people find a book they want or need, the look on their face is just wonderful.”
To make finding those books easier, the Texas County Library’s four branches (in Houston, Cabool, Licking and Summersville) participate in the Missouri Evergreen book exchange program among 40-plus library systems around the state.
“Since we started that, we have access to a whole realm of books we didn’t have access to before,” Smith said.
A courier stops by twice a week, Smith said, and drops off books ordered from by local patrons and picks up books ordered from elsewhere.
“It’s much faster than the inter-library exchange system we had before,” Smith said. “We still use that if we have to order from outside the Evergreen system, but it can take about two weeks while the new system takes only a couple of days.”
Smith’s vision for the future includes doing whatever is necessary to help a new Houston library building come to fruition. After a proposal for a new location didn’t materialize in 2009, discussion about the matter began again early this year between library and City of Houston officials.
“I think the city is pretty receptive to the idea,” Smith said. “We’ll see where it goes.”
Smith is actively seeking a new children’s program manager at the Houston library, and is now taking applications. She can be reached by phone at her office in the Houston library at 417-967-2258 or by email at lsmith@texascountylibrary.lib.mo.us.
“I believe I have a rapport with the public,” Smith said, “and that goes a long way in a position like this. I love this place and I feel a part of it. It has a warm atmosphere and I’d like to keep it that way.”