![Sari Feldman, Executive Director Cuyahoga County Public Library. [Cuyahoga County Public Library]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b4d03d3/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x2012+0+0/resize/840x564!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F3%2F13%2FSari%20Feldman%202.jpg)
The executive director of the Cuyahoga County Public Library is planning to check out this summer. Sari Feldman will retire after leading the library the last 16 years, helping to make it one of the country’s best.
Feldman started as a jail librarian while still a graduate student in Wisconsin. She came to Cleveland to join the library in 1997 and became its executive director in 2003.
She guided the system with its 27 branches through a $110 million capital improvement plan and several successful levy campaigns.
Last October the library won a $100,000 grant from Google enabling it to offer Wi-Fi hotspots.
Feldman received some national honors, serving as president of the Public Library Association from 2009 to 2010 and being elected as president of the American Library Association in 2014.
The library also has received national recognition. Library Journal’s Index of Public Library Service gave the Cuyahoga County Public Library its highest rating of five stars for the last 10 years.
Feldman retires in August. The library board on Tuesday hired a firm to conduct a national search for her replacement.