Three candidates vie for Saugus library director job

SAUGUS – Three candidates are in the running for the long-vacant position of permanent Saugus Public Library director.The list of 11 people who applied was whittled to Ewa Jankowska, the present interim director of the Saugus Public Library, who has filled the post since the departure of the last director more than three years ago, Thomas Simiele, current director of the Indian Trails Public Library District in Wheeling, Ill., and Diane Wallace, current director of the Bacon Free Library in Natick.Applicants for the job hailed from Massachusetts, Florida, Illinois, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut and New York, according to Pamela Gill, chairman of the Saugus Public Library Board of Trustees.The public will be given an opportunity to meet each of the three candidates before a final decision is made, Gill said.The six trustees are scheduled to meet with Simiele on March 14, Wallace on March 21 and Jankowska on March 28. On each of these dates, the library’s Community Room will be open from 6-7 p.m. to allow the public to meet the respective candidate.”It was a nation-wide search,” said Mary Ellen Picardi, the board secretary.She said the public session will give the public the opportunity to ask questions and fill out candidate evaluation forms.Gill said the state Board of Library Commissioners advised the trustees to update the institutional mission statement and secure a full-time director in order to maintain the library’s newly acquired recertification.”Having a full-time director was a condition of the recertification,” she said.The library was hard hit by funding cuts in 2007, leading to the institution’s decertification by the state Board of Library Commissioners and its eventual closure.Mary Rose Quinn of Woburn, then the library director, walked off the job when the 295 Central St. building was closed.Interestingly enough, Quinn in 2007 was appointed to the state Board of Library Commissioners by Gov. Deval Patrick.As a current commissioner, she would be among those overseeing the certification status of the Saugus library.Quinn is also director of the Stevens Memorial Library in North Andover.