As Johnson County Library moves towards its 75th anniversary in 2027, the Library Foundation will highlight leaders and public servants who have made a difference in Johnson County Library’s history.
Preserving a venerable institution such as a library is akin to tending to a healthy tree: the roots and trunk representing the past and the branches are the present; both are essential ingredients for a prosperous future.
An avid gardener, being compared to a tree fits Ellen Miller perfectly. Her lifetime of work with libraries across the country has been, and continues to be, a vital part of the lifeblood that flows through the branches of the Johnson County Library.
“Libraries are essential,” Miller said. “They have always been there for me, and they will always be a part of my heart.”
To say Miller has spent a lifetime working in and around libraries is not hyperbole.
The 85-year-old got her first job at the Northeast branch of the Kansas City, Mo., Public Library at the age of 14. From there, she worked as a library clerk-typist when she was a student (and single mother) at the University of Oregon. Perhaps the most life (and library) altering opportunity came after graduation from library school at the University of Illinois when she took a job at the Library of Congress.
“I’ve always loved books, and reading was something I excelled at,” she recalled. “So, it was never really ‘work.’”
It was during her time in Washington, D.C., that she became part of a ground-breaking automation process at the Library of Congress in the mid-1960s. She travelled the country, explaining how new-fangled computers and programming were changing the way libraries worked, organized and would expand access for everyone around the world.
“The core purpose of the library is to provide information to a diverse audience without censorship,” she said. “Automation helps us do that.”
The Library of Congress work had global impact and is, to this day, the backbone of the cataloging system used in libraries everywhere. When Miller and her family returned to the Kansas City area, she found employment with the then-new Shawnee Mission School District and helped develop an automated library tracking system. She would move again and become the director of library automation at the University of Cincinnati, before returning to the Kansas City area for good in 1985.
As a public relations consultant based in Overland Park, she worked with libraries, city councils and rural water districts across Kansas. Around this time, she was asked to join the Friends of the Johnson County Library. Despite being busy with her family and business, she accepted and later was selected by the Board of County Commissioner for Library Board of Directors. In 1992, she was co-chair of the committee that led the campaign for the bond issue that paid for what is now the Central Resource Library on 87th Street.
“I was not really interested in a leadership role, I more wanted to be a worker bee,” she said.
Early in her term, Miller found the Board thrust into a battle with some County Commissioners and others who wanted to take away the Library Board’s authority to hire and fire the county librarian and purchase land. She said she had to learn quickly about the history and facts of the Library’s authority. Fortunately, she said she was able to rely on others on the Board, library attorney Fred Logan and head librarian Mona Carmack. They knew how to muster support of VIPs, elected officials and other influentials.
“It was a fast learning curve for me,” she said.
Miller served her eight years on the Library Board and also served on the state library advisory board and as a vice president for the American Library Trustee Association.
She is proud of the esteemed place libraries hold, especially in Johnson County.
“Libraries are not universally loved,” she said, mentioning efforts elsewhere to ban books or force libraries to take certain books off their shelves. “But they are among the most trusted of public institutions.”
In fact, a 2023 national study by the Every Library Institute found that 85 percent of parents are either “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with libraries; and librarians are trusted by 92 percent of parents, grandparents or guardians. This compares to only 23 percent of journalists who were considered trustworthy in the same survey or 6 percent of politicians.
During her career in public service, Miller said she always tried to be ready to help by doing her homework, asking questions, being dependable and being open to discussion.
“For the Library,” she said, “It was important to look for ways to reach out to both public and private entities for beneficial partnerships.”
Although her time on the boards may be over, Miller is far from finished supporting the library. She said she is happy to share her knowledge of libraries, both in general and the Johnson County Library in particular. “I love to talk libraries,” she said.
Miller said she encourages others to become involved in public service work as a means of improving the quality of life in their communities. Collaboration with a wide range of community groups helps not only achieve goals but builds stronger relationships and institutions.
She will also be involved in a new planning project. Thanks to a gift to the library in her honor, Miller suggested funding an impact study to demonstrate the Johnson County Library’s “return on investment” as a means of guiding it into the future.
She said future boards will need to look for ways to bring new and varied ways of providing uncensored information to a diverse community. At the same time, those boards must continue safeguards that ensure age-appropriate information access and safe, attractive and free facilities.
“Libraries meet so many needs,” she said. “There is the information side, there is the convenience side and there is the quality meeting space. Johnson County values and uses them all.”
The Johnson County Library Foundation helps your public library host an outstanding collection of resources, offer programs for patrons of all ages, and better serve the needs of everyone in our community. Visit jocolibraryfoundation.org to learn more.
Johnson County Library – Nurturing the Community’s Collective Wisdom
