Saugus Library trustees interview first finalist

SAUGUS – The Saugus Board of Library Trustees on Monday interviewed a Natick librarian in the running for the job of town library director.Diane Wallace, current director at Bacon Free Library, answered a plethora of questions from trustees, library staffers and the general public during a one-hour session. A Simmons College graduate with a master’s degree in library science, Wallace was assistant librarian at Brockton Hospital from 1974 to 2004.The candidate said she was attracted to Saugus because it seems “the right size” and as library director she would be in a position to meet lots of people. Wallace praised the trustees for obtaining library recertification. “It means you are fighting for the kids,” she said.Asked for her views on retaining a young adult librarian, she said, “It seems to be the prime position to be cut,” adding the age group experiences a high turnover.Wallace said young adults are not an age group that should be turned away. However, many don’t want to read in front of friends or else they get mired in the works of a single genre, like the Harry Potter books.The library in Natick works with the senior center and offers home delivery of books, she said. “They’re welcome to go to the library, but sometimes you have to go to them first.”The Saugus library also offers such services to shut-ins, run by two volunteers, and presently has 11 clients who take advantage of the program.”Volunteers are great, but they don’t replace the staff,” she said, explaining how schoolchildren can volunteer but must be supervised or else they add to the workload.Wallace noted senior citizens in Natick tend to prefer browsing the shelves to search for titles online.Queried about how she might handle a staffing shortage, she recalled a situation in which she had to terminate a janitor to preserve an assistant librarian’s job. She hired a cleaning service to trim costs.The trustees received 11 applications. The list was whittled to three, including Wallace. The first candidate slated for an interview hailed from Illinois and withdrew his application. Wallace was second.The third, interim Saugus library director Ewa Jankowska, faces the same interview process on March 28.The permanent post has been vacant since the last director walked off the job in 2007.