#140: Tracy Strobel (Cuyahoga County Public Library)

Lay of The Land

Tracy Strobel — CEO of the Cuyahoga County Public Library (CCPL)

Tracy Strobel was appointed Chief Executive Officer of CCPL in July 2019 after serving in the Deputy Director role for nearly 15 years. CCPL has 27 branches that serve the 610,000 residents of 47 communities in Northeast Ohio. CCPL has earned the prestigious five-star rating in Library Journal’s Index of Public Library Service for the last decade; and received the publication’s highest overall score among America’s largest metropolitan library systems for 10 consecutive years (2010-2019).

Tracy’s career in public libraries began with a focus on technology at Medina County District Library (1996-1999) and Cleveland Public Library (1999-2005), where she developed the nation’s first 24/7 virtual reference service. Prior to becoming CEO, she led its 27 branches, Information Technology, Technical Services and Literacy & Learning divisions. Her major accomplishments at CCPL include leading the largest capital improvement program in the Library’s history, which included the replacement of twelve branches and several renovation projects over a period of ten years.

From 2011 to 2013, Tracy served as the U.S. representative to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s International Network of Emerging Library Innovators. She was a member of the Public Library Association (PLA) Board of Directors (2016-2019) and the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Information Technology Policy Advisory Committee (2015-2019). Tracy served as chair of the ALA 2020 Census Library Outreach and Education Task Force (2018-2020) and is currently a member of the PLA’s Continuing Education Advisory Committee.

In February 2020, Tracy was appointed to the board of The Center for Community Solutions, a nonpartisan think tank focused on solutions to health, social and economic issues. She also serves on the board of Youth Opportunities Unlimited and chairs their Community Collaboration Committee.

This was an amazing conversation — we cover Tracy’s childhood dream of being a librarian, the history of the Cuyahoga County Public Library, the business and operations of libraries, their responsibility and role as a civic institution and bastion for education & the robust exchange of ideas, their evolution and relevance in ever dynamic and technologically enabled world, offering opportunity as a product, lesser-known and unexpected services of libraries, and ultimately, Tracy’s vision for the future of the Cuyahoga County Public Library!

If you can’t tell, I am personally a huge fan of libraries, and as Tracy and I will discuss, I think they are of the most underrated public institutions we have, so it was a real treat to hear from Tracy about her experience leading the Cuyahoga County Public Library!

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Connect with Tracy Strobel on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracy-strobel-44421531/
Learn more about The Cuyahoga County Public Library — https://cuyahogalibrary.org/

Follow The Cuyahoga County Public Library on Twitter — https://twitter.com/CuyahogaLib
Follow The Cuyahoga County Public Library on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/cuyahogalib/

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