During her career, Annie Busch has always looked forward.

And now, after 18 years as executive director of the Springfield-Greene County Library District and six years before that as manager of the former Kickapoo Prairie Branch Library, she is continuing to look into the future, only now it’s toward retirement.

“She’s a futurist. Her best quality has always been her vision for the future. Whether it’s new technology or new services, she’s always asking how we can do and be better.” said librarian Martha Love who has worked with Busch since 1990.

It has taken me a while to come to grips with her retirement. She’s been a positive whirlwind for change and she will be missed.

As much as anyone in the library field, Busch has changed the stereotype of librarians and libraries. She’s shown how libraries can continue to be relevant in the 21st century by embracing the best of the new technology and tackling a changing clientele.

One of the first to envision the potential and need for a gateway to the Internet, Busch spearheaded in 1994 the creation of ORION, one of the first community information networks in the state. The Ozarks Regional Information Online Network provided library users with free access to the Internet for six years.

On her watch, Busch bookend-ed Springfield on the north and south with two award-winning “destination” libraries, the Library Station and the Library Center, and added two libraries in the Greene County towns of Willard and Fair Grove.

She was honored with the 2008 Springfieldian of the Year award and last spring received an honorary doctorate from Missouri State University. In a News-Leader editorial on Thanksgiving Day, 2005, listing public figures “we are thankful for,” Busch was cited for making the library district “one of the best in the country.”

Busch, only the eighth leader of the 103-year-old Library District, officially announced that she will retire at the end of this year.

The Board of Trustees, the governing body of the eight-branch system, will soon begin a nationwide search for her replacement. The search committee, chaired by Trustee Cherri Jones, is planning public forums and library staff meetings to gain input on qualities needed for the ninth leader of the District.

Jeanne C. Duffey, the community relations director for the Springfield-Greene County Library District, can be reached at jeanned@thelibrary.org.