CHAPTER VIII
The "New" Middletown Thrall Library - A New Director -
A New Era - Automation and Beyond
Kevin J. Gallagher's first 11brary position was as a prison
librarian at Greenhaven State Prison, a maximum security
facility, just outside Fishkill, New York. This experience made
him quite aware, early on, that librarians and libraries serve
nontraditional populations. Many of Greenhaven's prisoners had
limited literacy skills which forced him to find and provide
materials of interest to the inmates and yet appropriate to their
reading levels. Much later Mr. Gallagher worked as a reference
librarian and headed the local history department at Adriance
Public Library in Poughkeepsie, New York. He then served as
director there for eleven years before becoming Director of
Middletown Thrall Library in September 1994.
Mr. Gallagher remains optimistic about the future of public
libraries and Middletown Thrall Library in particular. While
automation, technology, the online public access catalog, and the
Internet are impacting public libraries' budgets, collection
development policies, and 'staff requirements the library itself is here to stay. The book is not dead, and, in fact, book