Patty Uttaro ’95: A Lifetime Devoted to Libraries

When Patty Uttaro was a child growing up in Rochester, she and her nine siblings always looked forward to their monthly walks to the neighborhood library. In junior high, she helped do inventories of the school library, where her mother was the librarian. In high school, Uttaro got a job as a page in a local library.

But it would be several years before Uttaro realized that she was destined to become a librarian herself. “I was one of those kids who graduated high school and didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she says. “I just knew I liked the humanities, literature, and history.”

In February, Uttaro will retire from her job as the director of the Rochester Public Library (RPL) and the Monroe County library system. Her retirement caps a 44-year career immersed in books and public service.

The Path to Library Sciences

After high school, Uttaro spent two years at St. Lawrence University, before coming home and getting a job at the Gates Public Library —where else? — one of the city libraries. This time, she began to pay more attention to what her colleagues were doing.

By the time she started attending Empire State University, she was doing coursework around her interests in libraries and child and family literacy. Her courses enabled her to study children’s literacy, creative writing, and the growing impact of technology on libraries, lessons that later informed her work as her responsibilities grew.

“SUNY Empire is the reason I’ve had a wonderful career in libraries,” says Uttaro, who graduated in 1995 with a BS in cultural studies and a concentration in children’s literature. She got her master’s in library science (MLS) from the University at Buffalo in 1998. 

Loaning Out Experiences

Uttaro’s professional career in libraries began in 1984 at the Gates Public Library, where she worked as a clerk. She went on to serve as youth services librarian and library director at the Ogden Library in Monroe County, before becoming director of the RPL and the Monroe County Library System in 2009.

During her career, libraries evolved. “Libraries of today are not like the libraries of 50 years ago,” Uttaro says. “I consider libraries the great equalizers of our democracy. We open our doors to anyone. You don’t have to tell us why you’re coming to the library. Libraries are a judgment-free zone.”

While books are still at the core of what libraries offer, most libraries are also now loaning out experiences. Museum passes, sewing machines, and fishing rods are available for loan as are backpacks filled with trail maps, binoculars, and magnifying glasses for people who want to explore local nature trails.

Uttaro likens libraries to SUNY Empire. “They let you follow your own course of interest,” she says. “We’ve gone way beyond borrowing books to borrowing experiences.”

Among the most popular services that libraries provide these days are notary services and fax machines. “Our notaries at the central library do over 200 notary services a month,” Uttaro says.   “We look at what’s needed in our communities and try to provide those services.”

The approach is working. In Monroe County, nearly three-fourths of all residents have a library card. And after a decline of library usage brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, borrowing at the libraries is on the rise again. In 2024, the number of items borrowed in Monroe County increased by 870,000 to nearly six million.

An Era of Growth

After 16 years at the helm, Uttaro takes pride in what she has accomplished, including the many capital projects across the Monroe County system. During her tenure, more than half of the libraries in the county were renovated or moved to new buildings.

At the RPL, she started the Archive of Black History, the Shoulders to Stand on LGBTQ Archive, and the Business Insight Center. She also began offering the Raising a Reader and Talking is Teaching programs for young readers and families. For the RPL’s 100^th anniversary in 2011, she launched the “Art of the Book,” an exhibit showcasing books as art. The annual exhibit has since grown to include entries from global artists.

Most recently, Uttaro launched the new RPL GO! Bookmobile, a traveling library that will visit daycare centers, senior centers, and assisted living facilities throughout the city of Rochester.  She has also been speaking out against efforts around the country to ban books that some groups deem objectionable.

With retirement just a couple of weeks away, Uttaro is looking forward to relaxing. She also wants to tackle projects around the house and see friends.

Her larger goal is to encourage more people of color to pursue MLS degrees, a program she hopes to one day see offered at SUNY Empire. “I would love to see SUNY Empire step into this ring, and I would love to help with that,” she says. “Even a bachelor’s degree in library science would be awesome.”