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Library trustees hear finalists at public forum
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County library trustees may decide quickly on a new director to succeed the retiring Carlton Sears after hearing five finalist candidates in a public forum.
Their decision could come at a special meeting at 3 p.m. today at the main library. Trustees have said they’d consider a recommendation from the search committee then on who should replace Sears, who has headed the 16-branch library system here for the past 15 years.
The decision could come less than 24 hours after a Wednesday evening forum at the main library during which five finalist applicants for the post were introduced to the public.
However, Alex Benyo of Austintown, a trustee and search-committee member of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, said the search committee will re-interview all the finalists today before making a recommendation. Any one of the five would make a good director, and no decision has already been made as to who will succeed Sears, he said.
“We wouldn’t have brought five of them in [for the forum] if we had one picked,” he said.
The finalists appearing before about 40 people at the forum were: Stephen P. Bero, of Grayslake, Ill., director of the Warren- Newport Public Library District in Gurnee, Ill., since 2004; the Warren-born Jason J. Buydos, of Cincinnati, assistant director of support services for the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County since 2003; Heidi M. Daniel, of Sugar Land, Texas, neighborhood library team leader at the Houston Public Library since 2011; David J. Mather, of New Port Ritchey, Fla., one of three Pasco County Library administrators since 2011; and Richard B. Werner Jr., of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County human-services director since 2002.
Each entered the forum separately and spoke extemporaneously for 10 minutes on the same three questions, which were spontaneously submitted to all finalists concerning their vision for library system’s future.
“No longer can the library just kind of hang its hat on ready reference. ... If you are wanting to purchase some technology or if you wanted to know how to use technology, the staff should be trained on how to help you do that,” Buydos said.
“The libraries need to be what they always have been, which are places where people can go to get unbiased information” with the assistance of library staff, if needed, said Werner, a Cleveland Public Library trustee for the past five years.
Libraries “have to broaden their horizons,” Mather said. “We’re not just books anymore, and, obviously, we can’t just be the Internet. We’ve got to be kind of all things to all people for as much as we can.”
In libraries, “We can expand people’s lives, either through work-force development or through teaching a young mother the basics of child development and literacy development,” Daniel said.
Bero said libraries now are following two parallel paths. They must retain books and other physical sources of information while they expand into the electronic information age, he said.
“E-books and e-content are transforming public libraries. ... We’re the bridge into the cloud” of new information technology, Bero said.
The panel of five appearing Wednesday was in sharp contrast to the two who appeared from an earlier search at a Poland library forum in January.
One of those who appeared at the January forum was embroiled in controversy over a Detroit library expansion, and the other hadn’t worked in library service since 2008.
After that forum, library trustees decided to conduct a second search that produced 31 applicants, 12 of whom were interviewed by the search committee via Skype.
The second search produced a stronger candidate pool, Sears said, adding that the timing and salary were more favorable for this attempt. Applicants with children prefer to move during the summer, Sears said.
The initial job advertisement gave a salary range between $95,000 and $110,000 annually. The second listing put the salary at $110,000, negotiable depending upon experience. Sears earns $109,430 annually.