Thank you to the donors, staff, and supporters, who came together to celebrate the dedication of the Charlotte and William Bloomberg Medford Public Library on June 1st. It is hard to believe that four years ago the Medford Public Library Foundation was established to solicit the private funds required for the construction and outfitting of the new library. As Johnny Tremain said during the ceremony, dedication really IS the word to describe what it took to make the new library possible. The dedication of two Medford mayors, the City Council, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, the MPLF Board, the Friends of the Medford Public Library, the staff of the Medford Public Library, the Trustees of the Medford Public Library and over 1,000 donors. Thank you for your dedication.
Yes - there was a READ carpet!
Rolled out for Medford natives Michael Bloomberg and his sister Marjorie Tiven, library director Barbara Kerr, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners commissioner Mary Ann Cluggish, Medford Public Library Foundation Board President Barry Sloane, Senator Ed Markey, Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, writer Paul Theroux, and poet laureate Terry E. Carter.
The ceremony was punctuated by musical performances led by multiple Grammy Award–winning drummer, producer, and educator Terri Lyne Carrington and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. Special guests included Johnny Tremain, Paul Revere, and Amelia Ehrheart. Seating assistance was provided by the Scouts of Medford. A benediction was given by an inter-faith group of Medford's faith leaders.
Fundraising for the construction and outfitting of the new library was completed as of June 1st, 2022.
The pledges and gifts from private sources exceeded $5,878,583.42 from 1012 donors. In addition, Cummings Properties and East Cambridge Savings Bank made in-kind gifts for reduced rent at the temporary library and storage spaces valued at $324,000.00. This brings the total raised from private sources to $6,202,583.42.
You can find a list of all the inaugural donors to the library here.
The Medford Public Library Foundation Board met for our 2022 annual meeting in June.
The following officers were elected:
President Barry Sloane
Vice President Rick Caraviello
Treasurer Gilda Nogueira
Secretary Rocco DiRico
Holly Sargent has served the MPLF board as executive director since 2018. Now that the campaign is complete, she will serve the MPLF Board and the library as an advisor. All issues related to fundraising should be addressed to Joey Leroux (josephleroux@htsargent.com), who is the ongoing project manager of the MPLF.
The Medford Public Library Foundation will continue to fundraise for special projects to enhance and supplement the City of Medford's budget. One ongoing fundraising project will be the Barbara Kerr Book Fund for new acquisitions to maintain the relevance of the collections and enhance their diversity.
Looking to Fiscal Year 2023
The trustees of the library effectively negotiated with the City to make certain that adequate funds for maintaining the new building were made available for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2022. Director Barbara Kerr also successfully negotiated for critical staffing enhancements to facilitate library programs and full operational capacity as of the autumn.
In collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies, the library has hired Susan Kent of S.R. Kent LLC, an experienced team of library consultants, to work with library staff and trustees on a strategic plan for the new library. This plan will focus on programming, with a special emphasis on technology.