The Springfield-Greene County Library District Board of Trustees needs to find its new director to replace the retiring Regina Greer Cooper.
While specific plans have yet to be announced, Board President Rachael Morrow said the library district is likely to appoint an interim director while a search firm helps identify a permanent candidate for the post.
“We want to make sure that we get the right person for our library and our community,” Morrow said.
Cooper announced during a board meeting Nov. 21 that her last day will be on Dec. 29. Her retirement from the library district was announced in September.
The board is in the process of evaluating proposals from three search firms, one of which will be chosen during the board’s next meeting Dec. 19.
About a dozen firms responded to the Springfield-Greene County Library District's request for quotations. Three finalists were selected during an earlier meeting. Morrow said representatives from those firms will be brought in for interviews.
Board member Aaron Jones, director of the board’s finance and personnel committee, said during Tuesday’s meeting that the three firms bring different approaches to the search process.
“It’s not like they were all similar firms with similar backgrounds and approaches,” Jones said during the meeting. “It seems like three very different approaches, and they have different geographic placements.”
The board is in the process of collecting feedback about what priorities the trustees should emphasize in choosing a search firm.
Stakeholder input part of the process
Once a firm is chosen, the board will begin the process in earnest, Morrow said, developing a plan that includes staff and community input.
“We want to know from them what their priorities are, and what they are looking for,” Morrow said. “Whether there are strategic things they would like us to think about for the future of the library. We want that, because at the end of the day … this library belongs to and is paid for by the citizens of Greee County.”
Speaking for herself and not the board, Morrow said she is interested in a candidate with an eye toward the future, and steering the library in directions its users find valuable.
“I used microfilm and microfiche, that’s the library that I grew up in. A digital library would not have been something I would have imagined back then,” Morrow said. “We want to make sure that we have somebody with the skills to think about what the next generation of libraries would look like.”
Nearing completion of her 15th year as the director, Cooper presided over a time of significant growth and challenges. During her tenure the library built new branches in Willard and Republic, renovated the Schweitzer Brentwood branch and launched a new mobile library. She also presided over the library as it adjusted to changing demands from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The library system earned distinction as Missouri Library of the Year from the Missouri LIbrary Association in 2013 and 2016.
The district operates 10 branches across the county, with five in Springfield and branches in Ash Grove, Fair Grove, Republic, Willard and Strafford. It also operates two kiosks and a mobile library.
