After three years of top-to-bottom renovations to the Enoch Pratt Central Library, CEO Heidi Daniel says she can’t wait to throw open the library’s doors and let visitors see the results of the first major facelift in its 86-year history.

The $115-million renovation sought to preserve the integrity of the Central Library—with restoration of its hand-painted ceilings and main entrance—while introducing technology upgrades and increased public spaces to serve the next generation of library-goers. “[Enoch Pratt] is the cultural heart of the city,” says Daniel. “We bring people together, we connect them with resources, and we view that as a major part of our role for not only Baltimore, but the whole state.”

Many of the additions, such as the job/career center, teen and young adult wing, and expanded multi- purpose rooms, reflect how the role of public libraries has shifted from just a place to check out books to a community resource hub—with services ranging from English-learning classes to “hip-hop architecture” summer camps. Now that there’s more room to host large groups for programs such as panel discussions and author talks, the library’s team hopes to have one million people visit the Central Library this year, doubling the number of walk-ins.

Among the additions made to the library are more computers and laptops, now 176 total. This exemplifies the library system’s commitment to not only providing free-to-use technology, but also helping visitors navigate the digital world with the aid of staff members and courses. “We look at it as part of our mission to make sure that people aren’t barred from participating in digital life,” says Daniel.

While Daniel is looking forward to welcoming visitors to the library during its reopening block party and open house on September 14, she says she’s equally excited to see how the community uses its new resources and services for the next 100 years.

“The thought of continual generational usage of this building really makes the time and effort that we put into this historical renovation worth it,” says Daniel.

Sunlight beams through huge glass windows at the Southeast Anchor Library in Highlandtown on an autumn afternoon as personnel gather to give Heidi Daniel, the new president and CEO of Enoch Pratt Free Library, a branch tour. Daniel winds her way through the building while actively listening to the needs and concerns of staff there—what’s working (the outdoor reading garden), what’s not (the windows need something that attracts people from the street), what’s on their wish list (could the former cafeteria be transformed into a maker space?).

“How’s your collection of Spanish-language material?” Daniel asks as she roams through the children’s area in cranberry-red platform heels that add a couple inches to her small stature. “Is it easy for people to get access to cards?”

Daniel, 43, radiates energy and enthusiasm, which, in the role of overseeing 22 library branches across Baltimore City, is needed. But she’s also warm and down to earth, saying hello to staff along the way and introducing herself to new hires.

When passing by the front counter, Daniel leans down until she’s at eye-level with a little girl and boy who stand side-by-side with an older gentleman. “Whatcha got there?” she asks them, beaming. “Are you gonna get some books to take home today?”

The children smile bashfully back at her and then, with the whole library before them, set off to explore new worlds.

When Daniel was growing up in Michigan, the public library was a sacred place. Reading was a way for her to immerse herself in worlds and ideas that she wouldn’t experience otherwise. As the adopted and only child of blue-collar parents—a factory-worker father and a stay-at-home mother—books became a major influence on her life.

“My parents really wanted me to have the opportunity to pursue higher education and be well-educated,” Daniel says, sitting inside her rowhome in Bolton Hill, where she recently moved with her husband and two children. “My mom thought that if I loved to read, then I’d love to learn, so her plan was to take me to the public library. I have all these early memories of picking out books, and the best part was that ability to select things on my own, without limitations. It was never, ‘No, we can’t take that home,’ or ‘We have to wait until pay day.’ There was no economic reason that I couldn’t take 50 books home with me. That was empowering and exciting.”

Pippi Longstocking and The Boxcar Children were among her favorites as a child. In high school, The Color Purple became very formative, particularly in exposing her to diverse voices. “Suddenly there was this literature that was just so incredibly written and so very different from my personal experience,” she recalls, “and yet you always find that piece of human connection and experience. . . . There’s an old metaphor: Books are both windows and mirrors. Reading fiction has been proven to create empathy. For me as a child, it was a window to other people and possibilities, and it can also be a mirror for you to see people like you, which is a really validating experience and why diversity in literature is so important. I think building compassion and empathy is part of creating a civil society.”

“There was no economic reason that I couldn’t take 50 books home with me.”

When Daniel became president of Enoch Pratt in July 2017, she succeeded Carla Hayden, who had held the position for 23 years before becoming the 14th Librarian of Congress.

Daniel had been eyeing Maryland’s state library for years and considers it to be one of the crown jewels of the industry.

“Following a literal legend, you’re coming into an institution that is already well-respected, which is a huge benefit,” Daniel says.

After Hayden left her post at the Pratt, the leadership team and board of directors conducted a national search for nearly a year. Chief operating officer Gordon Krabbe, who has worked at the Pratt since 1989, became acting CEO in the interim.

“You can’t replace Carla Hayden,” Krabbe says, “but 23 years ago, she was in the same kind of situation Heidi Daniel was in. She came around the same age to an organization that she didn’t know a whole lot about, but she had a good baseline experience elsewhere and could see what would work here and learn about the community.”

When the committee interviewed Daniel, who had recently been named Ohio Librarian of the Year, she immediately stood out from other candidates.

“We all thought, ‘That’s it—that’s who I want to work for,’” says Meghan McCorkell, marketing and communication director at Enoch Pratt. “She had ideas that we knew would really move the library into the future.”

She was the unanimous recommendation of the search committee, and the board accepted that recommendation.

“She radiates not just enthusiasm but a real love of libraries,” says Ben Rosenberg, chairman of the board. “Being a librarian is so important to Heidi, and it’s so clear how much it means to her.”

Daniel spent her first year here exploring the city and the library’s many branches and meeting staff, all while working to implement two massive initiatives: going fine-free, which has been a huge success (they’ve had an increase in circulation and materials returned), and extending library hours by more than 30 percent.

“Those are both major policy shifts,” points out McCorkell. “To do one of those things in her first year would be tremendous. To do both is huge. We’re in a totally different place now because of it.”

One thing that Daniel, or any head librarian for that matter, must grapple with is the changing role of libraries in the community. As the digital age has evolved to affect nearly every facet of life, including how literature is acquired and read, libraries have gone from places that house collections of books to community centers that provide access to a variety of resources. Hayden understood that implicitly—and implemented many programs to carry out that vision.

Those include the Pratt’s Lawyers in the Library program, which helps people with advice and can even expunge records; the Social Worker in the Library program, which assists people with finding affordable food and shelter; and the Mobile Job Center, which takes resources directly to neighborhoods where they’re needed the most. The Pratt not only hosts traditional story time for children and myriad book groups (its collections are extensive and constantly being updated) but also houses yoga and meditation sessions, art workshops, and educational classes that are open to the entire community.

And, of course, it’s all free—continuing Enoch Pratt’s original vision to create one of the first free public library systems in the U.S.

These are the things that really drew Daniel to the Pratt.

“It’s all about access,” she says. “Libraries should be a place of possibilities.”

The role of public librarians has shifted, too. While they are still responsible for preserving books—especially specialized cultural collections, such as the Pratt’s African-American and Maryland collections—they have also evolved to become what Daniel calls community navigators, or essential community personnel.

Daniel’s early career path in libraries began with a position at the outreach department of the Metropolitan Library System of Oklahoma City. While there, Daniel led a book club at a juvenile justice center for incarcerated youth and worked with teen moms to ensure that they were getting developmentally appropriate books for their children as well as themselves, so that they, as adolescents, could continue their learning path.

Those early programs affected her sense of what a library can be, which she has continued to focus on throughout her career.

“It introduced me to this idea of a library as a center for community learning and activity, rather than a passive place,” she says. “Now I view libraries as places where people can come do things, make things, learn things, meet with people, connect with information and resources that empower and enrich their lives—and then maybe also take something and leave with it. It’s a place where people come and stay and work and interact.”

“She radiates not just enthusiasm but a real love of libraries. Being a librarian is so important to Heidi.”

In her various library roles—including nearly five years as executive director of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County in Ohio, a position she held just prior to joining the Pratt—Daniel has worked to make the library more inclusive, listening to the needs of each community. Sometimes that means creating more quiet spaces for individuals among shared spaces or creating active and messy areas for young children. At the Highlandtown branch, for instance, a jigsaw puzzle is set out on a communal table. “I had someone tell me they like to go do that because they end up having conversations with people they never would’ve had conversations with,” Daniel says. Because Baltimore is known as a city of neighborhoods, she sees the libraries serving a crucial role as neighborhood anchors that help connect people.

Meanwhile, Daniel is also overseeing the three-year, $115-million renovation of the central Enoch Pratt branch in Mount Vernon. Slated to be completed this fall, it will include quiet co-work spaces, as well as a job and career center with classrooms, dedicated staff, and small-business help provided by the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

“We’re really trying to bridge that gap, not just in terms of accessibility but in terms of equity,” Daniel says. “It’s easy to think that everyone is connected to the internet at all times but, especially in Baltimore, not only is access still an issue for more than 20 percent of households, but digital equity beyond access is important. You can give someone the internet, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into them knowing how to use it to get what they need. So we have people who can show you how to use the internet to talk to your doctor, apply for social services, search for housing, get records that you might need, and also use it for social connection.”

She recounts the story of a man who’d been homeless with his young daughter and had used the Central Library as a place to give her some normalcy and get her away from the stress of living on the streets and in shelters—and also to give himself some dignity. The staff helped him to get a job and a place to live.

“Stories like that happen,” Daniel says, “and you just think, well, this is why I wake up every morning and go to work.”

The Enoch Pratt Free Library has become the first public library in the state to eliminate overdue fines for its customers. The official announcement will be made by Mayor Catherine Pugh and Pratt Library president and CEO Heidi Daniel today at the Free to Bmore community block party at the Walbrook branch on North Avenue. This new initiative makes the Pratt Library one of the first major urban libraries on the East Coast to waive fines on materials.

“As a public library, our top goal is to provide equal access to information, services, and opportunities for all,” Daniel said in a statement. “We know fines are a barrier to access for thousands of Baltimore City residents. We want to break down that barrier for them.”

The branches with the most blocked users are the main library downtown, the Southeast Anchor Library in Highlandtown, and the Pennsylvania Avenue branch in West Baltimore, which include areas with high poverty rates. Fees begin at 20 cents a day for adults for late materials up to $6 and children and teens are charged 10 cents a day up to $3. Once a customer reaches $10, the library card is cut off. Under the new policy, cards will be blocked when the balance reaches $25 and payment plans will be available.

According to Pratt Library records, the system will reverse $186,000 in penalties for 26,000 people and 13,000 borrowers will be able to resume their borrowing privileges.

Beginning today, no matter how late the Pratt-owned materials are, all fines will be waived. Fees for lost, damaged, or materials borrowed through the inter-library loan will still apply.

“I’ve seen parents tell children not to take out library books because they fear having fines they can’t pay,” Daniel said. “We want to ease those financial worries and welcome everyone back to their library.”

Pratt’s chief operating officer Gordon Krabbe says that overdue fines account for less than one quarter of the of one percent of the library’s $40 million annual budget. The library will waive nearly $100,000 in fines collected each year but will continue to charge customers full price to replace books never returned. He says it’s a small problem that accounts for a lot of resources and time that could be put elsewhere.

“We spend more trying to collect the fines,” he said. “This is a policy that just makes sense.”

The Free to Bmore block party will begin at 2 p.m. today and will also feature an unveiling of a new mural by a local artists Mural Masters, music by DJ Landis Exandis, and free food and performances.

You’ve worked at public libraries all over the country—Oklahoma City, Houston, and most recently Youngstown, Ohio, before you arrived here in Baltimore. Where did your love of books begin?
During childhood. I’m adopted, and I grew up in a small town in Michigan. My dad was a factory worker, and neither of my parents went to college. From the very beginning, they wanted education and a love of learning to be a gift that they could give me. So they were like, how do we do that? By reading to her. They started taking me to the library at a really young age. There was a time in my life when I wasn’t fortunate enough to have books of my own, and so the library became a very important place to me. It was never out of reach. It was a way for me to learn about different parts of the world outside of my own four corners. That love of reading continued, but it was always really about a love of place. I loved what the public library was and what it meant, in terms of providing an equal playing field for people. 

Public libraries have become so much more than just books.
To think of libraries as just books would be leaving out a huge portion of what we do. I’m definitely a book person; I still believe our collection is an important piece of what we provide, and it has to be strong. The collection includes books, but it is so much more than that. At the core, public libraries are about resources, which can be books, people, buildings, programs, equipment. And having a knowledgeable staff that can guide people or walk them through things like job applications has become a huge piece of what libraries all across the country can provide.

 In Youngstown, we really focused on enhancing our technology. It’s really important to get more of it into the hands of our customers—for them to use in the library and at home. People don’t realize what a difference it can make in someone’s life to have a good Internet connection. So we started offering Wi-Fi hotspots at checkout. We focused on creating makerspaces where guests could come in and laser cut or use a light box. For me, it’s about making sure that we’re continuing to bridge that gap. I have a huge interest in keeping cities creative and giving everybody access to increase their skillsets, or become entrepreneurs, or just have fun.

You’d never been to Baltimore prior to coming in for your interview. What were your thoughts when you arrived?
It was amazing. I was really impressed. I got to walk around the Central Library on my own, even though it’s in the middle of a major renovation. I went to a few branches—Waverly, Washington Village, Pennsylvania Avenue. Waverly is a beautiful renovation. Penn Avenue is an incredible branch; the mural of the little girl outside really spoke to me. At Washington Village, I saw a lot of potential for ways to spruce up neighborhoods and improve all of the branches. All of the staff was dedicated and caring. I’ve been back a couple times now with my children and husband. Baltimore seems like a very dynamic, diverse city, and we’re just really looking forward to being a part of it.

The Enoch Pratt library system is much larger than that of Youngstown. Is that intimidating or inspiring?
I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t nervous. It is a larger system. It is a bigger budget. I have big shoes to fill. I had always known about the Pratt, because in public libraries, it’s known as the gold standard. I can’t remember a time in my career when I wasn’t paying attention to what the Pratt was doing because, from the branches to the buildings to the cutting-edge programs, it was just always doing great work. I am nervous, but I think any normal human would be. At the same time, it’s really exciting for me. I’ve worked in large urban systems before, never as the executive director, but I think I’m ready. And I have a great board and great staff, which really helps.

What’s first on your agenda?
Getting to know the city. I have lots of ideas about ways that we might want to go, but I really can’t make a decision on new services or changes until I understand the neighborhoods and how the system functions. I’m very excited to get to know the branches and to look at each community to really figure out how we can enhance what we’re doing and keep things moving forward.

I’m also very excited about the renovations. A little interesting piece is that Joseph Wheeler, who was the CEO of the Pratt when the Central Library was original built, was from Youngstown! Isn’t that crazy? It’s this weird coincidence, and I get a little chill thinking about the fact that I’ll be there to reopen it, making sure that the building continues to play a huge role in the city and is sustainable into the future. 

With the Baltimore Book Festival returning this month, we have to ask—what is your favorite book?
People ask me that all the time, but it’s impossible to pick. Leading up to this move, I tried to cover all of the big authors with Baltimore or Maryland connections so that I’d be ready. I’m currently reading Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which won the “One Maryland, One Book” award. I’ve read all of Laura Lippman’s books. I’ve read Chesapeake by James Michener. Anne Tyler. I also just started reading Ta-Nehisi Coates—Between the World and Me and The Beautiful Struggle—because he grew up here. You can learn a lot about a place through its writers.