City’s new library foundation president ‘thrilled’
Humphrey to lead Add-In campaign
A love of libraries has long defined Ellen Humphrey’s career and now she’s looking forward to a new role leading the Calgary Public Library Foundation.
Humphrey this week took up the position of president and chief executive officer at the foundation and is excited to lead the ambitious drive to raise $350 million as part of the library’s Add-In campaign, which gets into high gear in November.
Much of that money has already been raised, with the City of Calgary’s $175-million funding and a further $70 million from the Calgary Municipal Land Corp. Private donations large and small have taken the overall total raised so far to about $318 million. Now Humphrey will lead the push for the final $32 million.
The Add-In campaign aims to build upon the planned opening of the New Central Library in November 2018, along with improvements citywide to various neighbourhood libraries to transform the system into the best in the world.
That ambitious plan has the new boss of the foundation excited.
“I hope I can bring to the role the passion I have for the library and the belief in the good work we do in the community,” Humphrey said.
“This is a very exciting time in the library’s history, so I am thrilled to have a continuing connection through this new role.”
Humphrey is a longtime staffer with the public library in the city and a former member of the organization’s executive leadership team.
“The mission of the Calgary Public Library is to inspire life stories and a large chapter of Ellen’s life story has been at the library,” said Patricia Moore, Calgary Public Library Foundation board chair.
“Ellen’s vast knowledge of the system, coupled with her passion for our city and the staff at the library, makes her the ideal candidate to lead and grow the foundation.”
Humphrey said she is thrilled with the way Calgarians have already rallied round the fundraising drive and is excited when the official, final year of the Add-In campaign gets underway Nov. 1, exactly 12 months before the expected opening ceremony for the New Central Library.
“We have seen the participation of all kinds of Calgarians in our fundraising effort to date — major gifts as well as donors of all ages and stripes. It reminds us this is the people’s library.
“We look upon this as another golden age for public libraries. Our job is to be as relevant as possible to the communities we serve, and we have seen the number of our active members grow to 600,000. But our goal is to reach 800,000 active users by the end of 2018.”
Humphrey takes over from Paul McIntyre Royston, who led the foundation for six years. She paid tribute to the vision of her predecessor, who has been appointed CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee.
“Paul was an inspiration to me personally as well as to the foundation and the library system,” she said.
“It was his vision that helped the library see itself in a different way and for that we will be always grateful."