The city has hired a library director after a year and a half without a permanent one.
On Monday night, the City Council confirmed the appointment of a new director of the Walker Memorial Library. Karen Valley, a veteran of the Portland Public Library system, will take over the position on Jan. 30.
The appointment comes after an exhaustive search by members of the city administration, the library board of regents, library trustees, and library staff. The search included the assessment of 25 possible appointees, followed by the unanimous recommendation of Valley for the position and her official confirmation as the new library head on Monday night.
According to Tina Crellin, city human resources director, the search committee chose Valley because she will bring “a great depth of experience in staff and resource management, large project development and delivery, and collaboration with outside agencies and organizations in the delivery and enhancement of library services.”
Indeed, Valley brings 20 years of experience in the Portland Public Library system along with her to Westbrook, as well as a master’s degree in library and information sciences with a focus on management. In Portland, she held almost every position in the library system, working her way up from office assistant to library technical assistant to branch manager and eventually department head.
Along the way, she also played various roles in associations for library professionals, including the Maine Library Association, of which she was the membership chair, and the New England Library Association – the regional chapter of the American Library Association – in which she held several posts including president.
In her position in Portland as department head of branch/outreach services, which she held since 1989, Valley managed the five satellite branches of the main library as well as the outreach program which brings the library’s resources to seniors, assisted living residents, and other individuals incapable of getting to the library by themselves.
Reporting directly to the Portland Public Library Director, Valley focused on developing the branch libraries’ collections and acting as the library’s community liaison. On Munjoy Hill in Portland, she worked as a key player in the initiative to combine the new kindergarten through fifth-grade school library’s media center with a branch of the Portland Public Library.
In her own words, Valley believes that a public library should reflect what the community wants and needs and should serve, alongside the school system, as a measure of what the community can offer its residents. In Westbrook, Valley intends “to work with the community to see what it needs and work with the city to get the money to implement those needs.” To that end, she said she will make a tireless effort to attend community meetings and “get out and talk to people,” which she believes is crucial.
As a Westbrook resident herself since 1982, Valley hopes to help the community grow by giving it a top-notch library with a highly trained staff. She intends to collaborate with the public schools and also with the Warren Library, with which she hopes to create a tandem library system offering complimentary services.
“I really love living in Westbrook,” Valley said. “I have four children who’ve gone through the school system, and I’m really excited about helping Westbrook move into the 21st century with a library that can support it.”
When she takes over at the end of this month, it will mark the end of over a year and a half of uncertain waiting for the library, which has operated under two interim directors since August of 2004, following the retirement of long-time director Carolyn Watkins.
For their part, the library personnel are excited to have a new leader at the helm. They have gone a long time without a director and are eager for the positive changes they feel a new director will bring.
According to Children’s Librarian Pat Larrabee, who is currently acting as interim director until Valley’s arrival, the entire staff is “looking forward to going in a new direction in the new year. We are very pleased and optimistic about the new director.”
Larrabee said the entire staff is also genuinely pleased by the choice of Valley, who has a “personable way about her (and seems to be) staff-oriented…a good person to work with.”
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