• About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Pickem Terms and Conditions
Friday, February 3, 2023
The Platte County Landmark Newspaper
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Pickem!
    • Weekly Pickem Updates
    • Results by Week
    • The Leaderboard
    • Pickem Rules and Help
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
  • es_MXSpanish
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Pickem!
    • Weekly Pickem Updates
    • Results by Week
    • The Leaderboard
    • Pickem Rules and Help
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
  • es_MXSpanish
No Result
View All Result
The Platte County Landmark Newspaper
No Result
View All Result

Potter will retire as head of library district

Landmark Staff by Landmark Staff
March 11, 2022
in Headlines
Steven Potter
7
SHARES
181
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email

After 12 years as director

Mid-Continent Public Library Director and CEO Steven V. Potter announced this week that he will retire at the end of June.

Potter has been the director at MCPL, which operates 35 service locations and serves more than 850,000 residents across Jackson, Clay, and Platte Counties, for 12 years but he has worked for the Library since 1988. During his 34 years with MCPL, Potter has served in a variety of different roles-from shelving books and managing day-to-day branch operations to cataloging and digitizing items, overseeing system-wide technology projects, and performing administrative functions at the library’s headquarters.

RelatedNews

Caution tape around downtown building

KC’s new airport ready to fly on Feb. 28

First Watch is open at Tiffany Springs

“I feel much has been accomplished in my three decades at MCPL,” said Potter. “We have worked hard to provide the best library experience, and I think the people I’ve worked with for all these years have exhibited exceptional stewardship, allowing the library to have a great collection, welcoming facilities, and a strong financial position. It has been my great honor to serve this library, and I know staff will continue to provide great service in my absence.”

During his tenure as director, Potter ushered in many significant milestones and achievements for the library, including:

.2010 – “MyMCPL.org” website is launched. This is a significant upgrade of the Library’s website and information infrastructure. Incidentally, Potter coded and launched the Library’s first website in 1995.

.2011 – Downloadable eBooks are added to MCPL’s services. eBooks become the fastest growing and most quickly adopted service in the Library’s history.

.2013 – The Story Center at MCPL is established with support from the Kauffman Foundation to help storytellers create and share their work and connect with the work of others.

.2014 – MCPL wins the IMLS National Medal for Museum and Library Service Award, presented by First Lady Michelle Obama.

.2014 – Square One Small Business Services at MCPL is established with support from the Kauffman Foundation to help local entrepreneurs and business owners.

.2015 – The Library celebrates its 50th anniversary.

.2016 – Voters pass Proposition L, which increases the Library’s funding for the first time in more than three decades, allowing the Library to enhance its offerings and update its physical spaces.

Prop L enables MCPL to expand branch hours, grow its collection (books, movies, music, online resources, etc.), and increase early literacy and other special programming.

.2017 – MCPL launches its “Reading Rocket,” a mobile early literacy unit that travels to “transportation deserts” to provide Library services.

.2018 – MCPL kicks off its Capital Improvement Plan, made possible by Prop L, which calls for improvements at all of its branches as well as the addition of two new branches.

To date, the Plan is nearly complete, with the majority of Library branches having been renovated or replaced and a new location added in Lee’s Summit (East Lee’s Summit Branch).

Currently, four construction projects are underway (construction of the Green Hills Library Center to replace the current Boardwalk Branch, the renovation of the Lee’s Summit Branch off Oldham Parkway, the replacement of the North Oak Branch building, and the addition of an auditorium to the Woodneath Library Center).

The Green Hills Library Center will open later this year and will become the home of the first public library culinary literacy center in the region, which will help people learn about food preparation, nutrition, and food culture. It will provide culinary-based programming to teach reading, math, science, and other subjects in a commercial kitchen with classroom seating. In addition, the branch will feature two health department-certified kitchens available for local food-based businesses.

To complete the construction promise made during the Prop L campaign, MCPL is in the final stages of property acquisition for the new Grain Valley Branch, East Independence Branch, and a replacement branch for Riverside.

“Mr. Potter has been an exceptionally effective leader and strong advocate for libraries, and Mid-Continent Public Library is well-respected and nationally renowned as a direct result,” said MCPL board member Joycelyn Tucker Burgo. “His long, successful tenure has allowed the MCPL district to flourish through child and adult literacy, small business development, and building the modern community resource MCPL is today. As a community, we have been extremely fortunate to have had him at the helm as director for the past 12 years. On a personal note, if there was a way to keep him at the helm, I would be all for it. I applaud his many accomplishments and wish him well.”

In 2015, Potter wrote an article with Diana Kander for Library Journal, and he coauthored the book The Purpose-Based Library with John Huber about how libraries can best serve their communities by adapting their offerings to people’s needs, a strategy he’s used throughout his career.

In addition to his work for MCPL, Potter is a member of many regional and national organizations, including:

.Clay County Economic Development Corporation, Board of Directors

.Independence Chamber of Commerce, Public Policy Committee

.Truman Heartland Community Foundation, Board of Directors

.Amigos Library Services, Board of Directors

.EveryLibrary Institute, Board of Directors

.Mid-America Library Alliance (MALA), Officer

.Missouri Public Library Directors, Officer

.Missouri Library Association

.Public Library Association

.American Library Association

.Rotary Club of Independence

In looking toward the future, Potter shared his enthusiasm for retirement: “I really look forward to benefiting from Mid-Continent Public Library’s service as a customer for the first time since 1988.”

Tags: Health Departmentplatte countyriverside
Landmark Staff

Landmark Staff

Related Posts

Downtown Platte City

Caution tape around downtown building

by Ivan Foley
February 3, 2023
0

Caution tape surrounds a commercial building at the northwest corner of Third and Main Streets in downtown Platte City. City officials say a few bricks at the top front of the vacant building had worked loose and fell to the...

KCI Airport

KC’s new airport ready to fly on Feb. 28

by Ivan Foley
February 3, 2023
0

FOUR-YEAR BUILDING PROJECT WILL SOON OPEN An opening date has been announced for Kansas City’s $1.54 billion new airport terminal, located in Platte County at the site of the existing KCI Airport. Kansas City officials this week the new airport...

First Watch is open at Tiffany Springs

First Watch is open at Tiffany Springs

by Ivan Foley
February 3, 2023
0

MAHOMES-OWNED WHATABURGER ALSO PLANNED A First Watch restaurant has opened at Tiffany Springs in Platte County. The new First Watch opened recently near the N. Ambassador/NW Skyview intersection at Tiffany Springs. The official address is 9021 N Ambassador Dr., Kansas...

Platte County Resource Center

Sheriff’s office planning to move out of Platte City

by Ivan Foley
February 3, 2023
0

New home may be resource center near KCI A plan is in the works that would move the Platte County Sheriff’s Department headquarters out of the county seat of Platte City. As exclusively reported last week by The Landmark, the...

Next Post
Nan Johnston mug shot

Nan Johnston guilty of eight ethics violations

Popular News

  • Joe Vanover

    Vanover wins Sunshine Law trial

    14 shares
    Share 6 Tweet 4
  • County getting ready to rearrange some chairs

    9 shares
    Share 4 Tweet 2
  • Lawsuit claims toxic heavy metals in herbs and spices

    24 shares
    Share 10 Tweet 6
  • Sheriff’s office planning to move out of Platte City

    7 shares
    Share 3 Tweet 2
  • East side Hwy. 92 will become four-lane stretch

    19 shares
    Share 8 Tweet 5
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Pickem Terms and Conditions
Call us at 816-858-0363

Copyright © 2019-2020 The Platte County Landmark Newspaper - All Rights Reserved

No Result
View All Result
  • Subscribe Online
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Pickem
    • Login / Sign-up
    • Results by Week
    • The Leaderboard
    • Pickem Rules and Help
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
  • es_MXSpanish

Copyright © 2019-2020 The Platte County Landmark Newspaper - All Rights Reserved