Librarian checking out after 36 years

Margaret Danziger

After 36 years of serving Lucas County, a local librarian is saying goodbye to book stacks and circulation desks.

The deputy director of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library for the last 28 years, Margaret Danziger, 75, will retire from her post July 26. In her three decades of service, the Sylvania woman ushered the county library system into the technological era.

On a sunny June day in 1977, a 39-year-old piano teacher traipsed into the public library for her first day of work. A cataloger, Mrs. Danziger would serve as business department manager from 1982 to 1985.

Mrs. Danziger had been a cataloger at Cornell University’s Olin Research Library from 1962 to 1963. She worked in the acquisition department of the University of Illinois’ main campus library from 1963 to 1966.

“I like that [public libraries] are open to everyone, as opposed to an academic library. That’s a smaller audience,” Mrs. Danziger said.

In 1964, Mrs. Danziger obtained her master’s degree in library science from the University of Illinois. After years of teaching private piano lessons through Bowling Green State University’s creative arts program, she joined the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library staff in 1977.

Mrs. Danziger introduced many technological innovations to the Lucas County library system during the following decades, including the installation of the library’s materials catalog and automated borrowing system. In 1986, she started what she claims to be “one of the first public computer labs in a public library in the country.”

Her most recent achievement came near her career’s conclusion, with the library’s successful application for a $2.2 million Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) federal stimulus grant.

The money funded a public computer center at the Kent Branch Library and the Cybermobile, a library outreach center-operated mobile unit of 11 computers that teaches computer skills in housing units, senior centers, and after-school programs.

She also was involved in the renovation or reconstruction of all 18 library branches since 1996.

“There is no doubt that Mrs. Danziger has impacted the quality of life for the citizens of northwest Ohio through her energetic efforts to provide the highest quality of library services,” Clyde Scoles, the library system’s director, said in a statement. “We will miss her steady and wise leadership and wish her well in this next chapter of her life.”

Mrs. Danziger will use her retirement to spend more time with relatives, including her grandchildren, Abigail, 8, Oliver, 4, and Ione, 2. She and her husband, Edmund Danziger, Jr., plan to travel to Australia, New Zealand, and the Nordic nations.

And, of course, she said she will be doing “lots of reading.”

“The library’s got a very bright future — great staff, great programs,” Mrs. Danziger said.

“The library’s in good hands. It’s a great time for me to finish my career.”

Contact Rosa Nguyen at: rnguyen@theblade.com or 419-724-6050.