Friday, July 30, 1999
Retiring director saw library grow
BY TERRY FLYNN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COLD SPRING — Phil Carrico will leave his office at the Cold Spring library branch for the last time today, concluding nine years as director of the Campbell County Public Library.
“I'm looking forward to retirement, to traveling and playing more golf,” the 60-year-old Paducah, Ky., native said. “But I know I'm going to miss the day-to-day work. I really love my job.”
Mr. Carrico has been involved in public library development for 35 years, including 26 years with the Kentucky State Department of Libraries and Archives. He was the department's regional library director in Northern Kentucky for 23 years.
He said he and his wife, Pat, will relax in the new home they designed and built on a lake near Warsaw in Gallatin County, and also will travel more.
Mr. Carrico said he can look back with pride at his nine years as Campbell County director.
He obtained two federal grants to build a new branch on Highland Avenue in Fort Thomas, which was named in his honor. The Cold Spring branch was expanded, and another expansion is about to begin.
“Things were not in good shape when I came here,” he recalled. “We were understaffed and underfinanced, and the bookmobile had been taken off the road.”
The library system grew dramatically in other ways.
In 1990, the total annual library circulation was 191,000, and in 1998, it was 615,000. Mr. Carrico said the system's professional staff has grown from one full-time person to 12. The number of books increased from 60,000 to 130,000.
The Campbell County library's audio-visual collection was sadly lacking when Mr. Carrico assumed the director's duties. Since then he has continually added to it, and last month, the library circulated more than 20,000 videos.
Under his administration, the library secured funds to automate the system and bring public Internet access to all branches. There are now 27 Internet access workstations available.
“I hope we can find someone just like him,” said library board member and former Northern Kentucky University President Frank Steely. “We will miss him tremendously. He brought the Campbell County system to really respectable heights, where it had been the stepchild among the three Northern Kentucky libraries before he arrived.”
Mr. Carrico said the library board has received 10 applications for the director's position, and six of those were given additional consideration.
“The board will probably pick three or four from those and bring them in for interviews,” he said. “Because the position was posted on the Internet, we received applications from as far away as Minnesota.”
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