Children’s librarian hiring by spring

SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 2013

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Ogdensburg Public Library plans to have a children’s librarian hired by spring.

Experienced candidates have until Jan. 31 to submit to the City Clerk’s Office a completed Civil Service questionnaire. After that, the city’s Civil Service Commission will review the replies for the top three contestants. Out of those three, the successful one will be chosen by library Director Wayne L. Miller.

City Clerk and Civil Service Commission Secretary Kathleen A. Bouchard said Friday she’s hoping for a prompt turnaround for action by the panel.

“I would hope before March,” she said.

Mr. Miller said he wants to hire the children’s librarian “as soon after March as possible.”

The children’s librarian position has been vacant since the January 2011 retirement of Bonnie Wright.

It was left vacant until last year because of budget cutbacks at the library.

There were two finalists for the position last fall until one of them dropped out. Rather than offer the $32,255-a-year position to the remaining candidate, Mr. Miller instead chose to call for another Civil Service recruitment to find another pool of top three candidates.

“I want to pick from three (candidates),” he said. “I’m not convinced that he’s the best possible candidate.”

Mr. Miller said that hiring a children’s librarian will be a “top priority” for him because he wants one on staff before the start of the spring/summer spike in library youth activities like the summer reading program. Meanwhile, in the absence of a replacement for Mrs. Wright, the library is managing.

According to Mr. Miller, a combination of volunteers, staff, and purchased programs kept the children’s library programming going. afloat.

One example of its success in addition to 32 programs for children with 406 attendees is a 17 percent increase in the circulation of juvenile materials.

It is, Mr. Miller noted, the first year-to-year increase in circulation of children’s materials in four years.