Meet the Director

I am delighted to welcome you to the Orange County Library System. The District's diverse population of more than 1 million is served by the Main Library and 14 Branches. I think you will find our library to be quite innovative. We believe in experimentation and innovation, constantly striving to find ways to provide you with lifelong learning opportunities. The Library has Wi-Fi access to the Internet at all 15 locations for all of our cardholders.

We have recently been named the 2010 Florida Library of the Year by the Florida Library Association.  The FLA cited our many innovations at its annual conference in Orlando in April during National Library Week.  We were thrilled to be awarded this honor and the statewide recognition by our peers for our staff’s efforts in finding new ways to provide great service to the community.

We have also been awarded the B.E.S.T. Partner (Businesses for an Environmentally Sustainable Tomorrow), by the Orange County Utilities Department for our water conservation programs this year.  It seems this year, good things come in threes.  We were also the recipients of a Golden Brick Award for our Citizenship Inspired program which helps residents become naturalized citizens by providing assistance in learning English and classes in American government and civics.  These awards are all the more amazing considering that our budget is down by 11% and our resources are even more limited than in past years.

Our Mac Labs at the Main Library and at Alafaya, Edgewater and West Oaks offer a wide variety of Mac classes like iWeb, Garageband, iPhoto and iMovie.  Our classroom training program provides hands-on experience in a wide variety of software applications.  Podcasting, Quick Books, Google Earth, How to Type, Digital Photography, Photoshop, Windows Media Player Jukebox, and Movie Maker 2 software, as well as the full Microsoft XP office Suite, given in English and en Español are just some of our offerings.  These classes are free to cardholders, but because of their popularity, a reservation must be made to secure a seat.  Watch for more classes on our Web Site each month or sign up for our "Technology @ OCLS" Newsletter or an RSS feed to keep you informed about new technology available through OCLS.

We are leading the way in online historical preservation and innovation with the launch of the Orlando Memory site. You can visit this site, register and begin uploading your favorite Orlando memories in many formats, including photos, video, audio, websites, and text.

On our website we have a number of streaming videos available to you, including 23 tutoring videos for e-learning Math and Algebra, 9 SAT preparation videos and 12 English as Second language videos. You can see and use these videos online, just by clicking on the title you want to view. There are also a number of promotional online videos that give you a virtual taste of some recent events held at our facilities. We also have some online versions of our classes in Excel I, Word I and Powerpoint in English and Spanish and Publisher I as well. We are committed to putting more of our classes online because we hear from you that you want access to our services at all hours. Our catalog lists more than 1.5 million items in the many formats that we offer, including DVDs and downloadables. We hope you take the time to visit one of our branches near where you work or live to "check us out." Staff will be most pleased to see you and help you. If you have questions, concerns or suggestions, please do not hesitate to Share a Comment with us.
Mary Anne Hodel
Library Director/CEO