What attracted you to your new position in Rye? The Library is so successful in nurturing broad-based community interest and support. Its place is demonstrated by a dedicated Board of Directors and Auxiliary Board. The staff is experienced, creative and involved. The facility itself is wonderful. What a terrific mix of resources and opportunities.

What do you foresee in the Library’s future? Change, coming from local pressures like funding. Also the world of publishing as it shifts and brings libraries along the way. Digital underpinnings are changing
the way we look at books, services and the nature of work for library staff. These changes are not unique to libraries; we see edges of change in our interaction with business and information in every aspect of our lives. It’s vital that the library keeps pace.

What would you like to share about your professional background? So much of my enthusiasm for the library and the directorship is getting to apply my first career in small business and my sixteen years of successful library management experience. Starting out in retail flavors one’s approach to service, at least that’s my experience. I’ve served libraries in almost every area from behind the reference
desk to senior management. At Queens Library, the highest circulating library in the US, I worked my way up from Young Adult Librarian to Director of Technical Services. In the middle I oversaw operations in programs and services that managed services for adults, teens and children. I oversaw the library’s long term planning processes as Strategic Manager and modernized collection development procedures for the 62 location library system. I hold two masters degrees—Library Science from the University of Arizona and Public Administration from NYU. Having served in almost
every area of library public service and administration, I’m primed.

Read any good books lately? I read all the time. As a librarian I do read oddly, a professional hazard. My lists include adult, teen and children’s books, fiction and nonfiction. Unfortunately I read more
reviews of new books than new books. Here’s the quick answer; I loved the new Fannie Flagg, “I Still Dream About You.” The Rye Free Reading Room Newsletter January/February 2011