Company Profile
Kansas City Public Library
Company Overview
The Kansas City Public Library system consists of a central library, nine physical branches, a digital branch, and an outreach services program serving a constituency of over 250,000 in Kansas City, Missouri. In addition to providing library services to residents, the Library also serves as a resource for the 1.7 million metropolitan residents of greater Kansas City.
https://kclibrary.org/about
Company History
https://kclibrary.org/library-history
Kansas City Public Library was founded December 5, 1873, in an untamed western town still recovering from the social and economic strife of the Civil War. Rapid growth in population and industry outstripped the city’s efforts to provide public education and other resources for civic progress. A public library would prove crucial in the city’s transformation into a great metropolis on the plains.
The Library was founded as part of the city’s school district and would continue to provide both school and public library services for the next 115 years. Initial fundraising efforts resulted in the purchase of a bookcase and around 100 books, including the American Encyclopedia. In 1874, the school board hired James M. Greenwood as superintendent of schools. The book collection resided in district offices in a high school building at 11th and Locust Streets and could be accessed by teachers and students. Two years later, Greenwood began lending books to the public from his own offices in the Sage Building at 8th and Main Streets. For two dollars a year, a subscription service allowed patrons to check out one book at a time. The Library added its first periodicals to the collection in 1879, and during the same year it moved with the school district headquarters into the Piper Building at 546 Main Street.
In 1881, the district hired Carrie Westlake Whitney to serve as the system’s first full-time head librarian. Over the next three decades, Whitney’s leadership resulted in free book lending to the public, a unique emphasis on children’s literacy, two purpose-built Main Library facilities, two museums, and the Library’s first branch, the Westport Branch, in 1899. The latter remains the oldest branch still operating today.
In 1884 the Library moved into another existing building at 8th and Walnut Streets, and, for the first time in 1889, it moved into a purpose-built structure at 8th and Oak Streets in 1889. Even the $10,000 Oak Street building soon proved inadequate to serve the bustling community.
In 1897, the Library moved to a grander facility at 9th and Locust Streets. In addition to its circulating book collections, the $200,000, marble-clad Second Renaissance Revival building housed the Nelson Gallery of Art, the direct predecessor to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The Library also operated an anthropology and natural sciences museum, which later contributed the first 40,000 artifacts to collections at the Kansas City Museum. Whitney additionally oversaw the creation of a dedicated children’s reading room that is considered one the earliest of its kind in the United States. The Library’s circulating and reference collections grew to nearly 100,000 books by 1910.
Between 1910 and 1912, the school board demoted Whitney to assistant librarian and hired Purd Wright as head librarian. In doing so, members of the board followed a trend of placing men in charge of growing public library systems in major cities across the country.
For his part, Wright qualified for the position as the widely recognized founder of the St. Joseph Public Library and recent director of the Los Angeles Public Library. By the time that Wright retired in 1936, the Library had added 20 public library branches, mostly located in schools and community centers to maximize geographic reach with economic efficiency. During Wright’s time as director, annual book lending reached 1 million in 1922 and 2 million in 1931.
Amid this era of rapid growth, the Library supported national efforts in both World Wars, headlined by more than 170 Library alumni serving in the armed forces during World War II. The Library also led campaigns raising thousands of dollars for war bonds and to circulate tens of thousands of donated books to military posts regionally and overseas. The steady progress was punctuated in the interwar period by the financial effects of the Great Depression and debates over a national wave of censorship and book banning. Nonetheless, 44 percent of Kansas City’s population held library cards by 1944, the highest among large cities in the nation.
During the post-World War II era, librarians who had so strongly opposed fascism went on to contest domestic movements to ban or censor books. The Library began supporting the American Library Association’s (ALA) Banned Books Week and later signed on to the ALA’s Freedom to Read Statement and Library Bill of Rights in 1984.
Expansions continued with the opening of a new Main Library (at 12th and Oak Streets) in 1960 and the original Plaza Branch (at Brookside Boulevard and Main Street) in 1967. The Main Library contained the original Missouri Valley Room, where visitors could utilize collections in local history and genealogy. The architecture of both the Main Library and Plaza Branch nodded toward the impact of changing technologies on librarianship and shifting community needs. Across generations, the Library continued to embrace innovations, from player piano rolls and telephone renewal services in the 1910s to its first bookmobile in 1950 and its first network-connected database in the 1970s.
By the mid-20th century, the placement of most of the Library’s branches inside public schools had resulted in service gaps to minority communities, and the Library drew criticism from local media and national library trade journals. Efforts to become more inclusive eventually led to a full reorganization of the branch system from the late-1980s to the early 2000s. Of special note was the opening of the Lucile H. Bluford Branch in 1988 (named for the renowned Civil Rights leader and editor of The Kansas City Call) and the renaming of the Irene H. Ruiz Biblioteca de las Americas Branch (for the prominent West Side librarian in 2001). These measures were overseen by Library Director Daniel J. Bradbury, who also guided the Library through its separation from the Kansas City Board of Education in 1988.
Under Director Crosby Kemper III, who served in that capacity from 2005 to early 2020, the Library expanded its commitment to public programming, technology services, refugee and immigrant services, and community outreach. Recognizing these developments, Representative Emanuel Cleaver II successfully nominated the Library for the National Medal for Museum and Library Service in 2008. The Library became one of the earliest in the nation to eliminate late fees with its Freedom from Fines policy in 2018.
Today the Library operates the Central Library in the historic First National Bank Building at 10th and Baltimore, nine branches, online services, and the Bookmobile.
Benefits
https://kclibrary.org/jobs/employee-benefits
Benefits for All Employees
Educational Support
Employees are eligible for up to $300 per credit hour for up to six credit hours per year for academic coursework towards job or library related courses. Employee must have completed 6 months of employment before eligible.
Educational Loan
Up to $1000 may be available for academic, nonacademic learning activities or related expenses such as books, class fees, additional courses, lab fees, etc. Employee must have completed 6 months of employment before eligible.
Vision Care—Delta Vision
Part-time employees classified who have an FTE of at least .5 are eligible to participate in the Vision Insurance plan. This program provides significant discounts on vision care through selected providers. Cost dependent on level of coverage selected.
Section 125 Tax Savings Plan
This plan allows employees to pay for everyday expenses like childcare, prescriptions, across-the-counter medications and medical/dental plans (not already on a pretax arrangement) on a pretax basis. This benefit is available to full-time staff and also to part time staff at a classification of Library Technical Assistant or above and with a .5 FTE or more.
Cancer/Critical Illness Insurance
Provided through Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company, these plans provide benefits in connection with a diagnosis of cancer or certain other illnesses. Cost depends on the features chosen, the amount of coverage selected and other factors.
Employee Assistance Plan
All employees and their immediate families are eligible to participate in this free, confidential program which offers counseling, life coaching, and other services.
Voluntary Retirement Plans
The Library offers a 403(b) plan and 457 deferred compensation plan through Voya.
Additional Benefits for Part-Time Employees
Paid-Time Off
Part-Time staff are awarded 4-weeks of paid time off on July 1 of every year which expires June 30, the amount is pro-rated for staff hired after July 1.
Additional Benefits for Full-Time Employees
Health Insurance—Blue Cross Blue Shield
We offer three health insurance plans to eligible employees: a traditional PPO plan, a high-deductible HSA plan, and an EPO plan (Spira Care). Cost dependent on plan type and level of coverage selected.
Dental Insurance—Delta Dental
The Library offers dental insurance to eligible employees on a shared cost basis. Dependent coverage is also available. Employee payments are made on a pre-tax basis.
Life Insurance—USAble
The Library pays for a $20,000 life insurance policy for each eligible full-time employee. Employees also have the option to acquire additional coverage.
Long Term Disability Insurance—USAble
The Library pays for disability insurance for each eligible full-time employee.
Dependent Life—USAble
Employees may select to cover eligible dependents.
Retirement—Kansas City Public School District Retirement System
Employee contribution rate is 9% of gross salary. Employee contributions plus interest refunded if employee separates employment prior to retirement.
Vacation
Depending upon position classification and longevity, employees earn three to four weeks of vacation each year on an accrual basis.
Sick Leave
Employees earn sick leave at the rate of twelve working days each year on an accrual basis. Sick leave is cumulative with no limit. An employee upon termination of employment will be compensated at his or her present rate for all earned and unused sick time up to a limit of 900 hours. This payout is made according to the formula:
(Remaining Sick Leave, up to 900 hours) * (full years of service * 3%) * (hourly rate or equivalent)
Personal Leave
In addition to vacation and sick leave, regular full-time employees earn 2.0 hours of personal leave per pay period.
Holidays
Holidays with pay include: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday, President's Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas.
Vacation Leave Payout Option
If desired and minimum requirements are met, full-time Library employees who accrue Vacation hours may opt-in on an annual basis to the Vacation Leave Payout (VLP) program. This VLP Option is for a one-time payout of 8-55 hours (“Payout”) of Vacation hours, which must be elected and earned at/by specific times. Minimum balances are required and must be maintained. For complete requirements, contact the HR department.
Positions Available
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