Shaw taking consulting position with state agency
CARIBOU, Maine — Caribou Public Library Director Lisa Shaw will be leaving her current position and assuming duties as a direct consulting specialist at the Maine State Library. According to the city’s website, they are now seeking a new director who will “lead the library in continuing to be a dynamic 21st Century Library and realizing the library’s great potential.”
Specifically, the city is searching for a candidate who can develop and implement strategic plans, establish long- and short-term goals for the library, analyze for improvements, serve as a liaison to the public, and oversee all library staff.
“I can’t even begin to express how grateful I have been for my time here,” said Shaw. “If it weren’t the opportunity to further what libraries in rural areas such as Caribou are doing at the state level, I would not be going anywhere. I love this area and this library.”
Shaw’s new role will involve working with, and assisting, rural libraries around the state.
The library’s former Youth Services Director, Katie-Wilcox Bosse, has also left the Caribou Library, and recently began working as a middle school librarian in Mexico, Maine.
The city will also be filling Bosse’s position, however their first priority is finding a new head librarian so that person can be involved with the selection process.
While Shaw and Bosse are gone, the city’s goal is to keep the facility growing and maintain the same services.
According to Shaw, Caribou City Manager Austin Bleess will be temporarily taking over administrative duties for the library.
“Both (Shaw and Bosse) have been awesome to work with and it will be sad to see them go,” Bleess said. “They have been great contributors to the library and community.”
The city manager emphasized the role a library can have on a community and economic development, and that the new director should be able to move the library forward like Shaw has.
“Libraries have changed so much since the 1960s and even the ‘80s,” Bleess said. “They play a much bigger role in the identity of the community. People go there to apply for jobs because they don’t have internet at home, and there are robots that help kids learn about science, math, and engineering. They may not realize they’re learning because they’re having fun, but it is a vital part of a child’s education. All the roles a library can play in a community are huge, and we need to ensure that the new director understands this and works toward that goal.”
Both Shaw and Bleess have said that the function of a library goes far beyond “just shelving books.”
As far as economic development is concerned, Bleess realizes the library opens up previously unavailable opportunities.
“With the creative economy that I believe the United States, as a whole, is moving towards, there are so many opportunities to foster that creativity in children and adults,” he said. “People can come to the library and learn to write code for robots, how to sell goods online, or how to program computers. They can learn about anything they’re interested in by taking a great idea and running with it.”
Shaw, who has been with the library for roughly two years, will be leaving in early October.
“A lot of what happens in the future depends on the next budget cycle,” Shaw said. “For the short term, we will not be immediately resuming our Saturday hours since there are not enough people to make that happen.”
The library’s hours will change while the city searches for a new director, and Bleess says there will almost certainly be a period of time without a director, since the new hire would have to give their current employer a significant notice.
“This is a wonderful place to work,” said Shaw. “The community is very supportive, the staff is top notch, the patrons are fantastic, and the department heads are very cooperative to work with. If someone really wants to make this library grow, then understanding its role in economic development is crucial.”
Shaw will continue to work with the Caribou library as well as other individual communities with the objective of helping them move ahead into the 21st century while still maintaining their cultural identity.
“Rural libraries can be global on a small scale,” said Shaw, “but local on a large scale.”
