Marblehead’s Abbot Public Library names new director

MARBLEHEAD – The Trustees of the Abbot Public Library have unanimously named a Cape Cod library director to succeed outgoing Library Director Bonnie Strong.Strong, who earned $78,766 last year, is leaving June 2 after 13 years. Strong notified the trustees last year that she intended to take early retirement, a personal decision triggered by her mother’s illness. Trustee Chairman Phil Sweeney asked the voters to applaud her at last Tuesday’s session of Town Meeting.Sweeney also called for applause for outgoing library trustee Judy Gates, who is leaving Marblehead to work with the Peace Corps in Mongolia.Strong’s successor, Osterville Library Director Patricia J. Rogers, is a cum laude graduate of Brown University, where she majored in art, and she has a master’s degree in library science from Simmons College.Rogers began her career as a children’s librarian at the Brookline Public Library. She spent 12 years at Harvard University, serving as a cataloguer of prints and graphic arts at the Houghton Library and then associate director of book collections at the Harvard Fine Arts Library. She spent 10 years as deputy director of library resources at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, N.Y. She also worked at Tufts University as curator of the department of art and art history.”She oversaw the implementation of an online library catalog and an expansion and remodeling project at the Fogg Art Museum,” Sweeney said. “At Corning she upgraded the library computer system and helped plan a $6 million library building, and in Osterville she strengthened the library’s relationship with local businesses and non-profits and established free summer family concerts.””In the future we have some ideas about preserving Marblehead history and her background as a curator and computer programmer can help with that.”