Published in the May 23, 2018 edition
By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — Holly Mercer will be resigning as director of the Lynnfield Public Library early next month.
Mercer and Board of Library Trustees Chairman Bob Calamari made the announcement during an interview with the Villager on Monday. Mercer, who has served as library director for the past three years, is leaving Lynnfield in order to become the director of the Southwest Kansas Library System. She said the system is similar to the North of Boston Library Exchange (NOBLE).
“It’s a system that covers 21 counties and over 50 libraries,” said Mercer. “It provides a variety of services such as a shared catalog, continuing education and consulting services to all of the member libraries and coordinates those services.”
“It’s a wonderful career opportunity for Holly,” added Calamari. “It’s a different beast. (The Lynnfield Library) is a single entity and she’s going to a more centralized administrative role, which is a great opportunity from a career perspective. Her last day will be Friday, June 8.”
Mercer said it’s “definitely bittersweet to be moving on.”
LIBRARY DIRECTOR Holly Mercer’s work in helping the library expand its programming the last three years was praised by Board of Library Trustees Chairman Bob Calamari. Mercer will be bidding farewell to the library on June 8. (Dan Tomasello Photo)
“This is a great place to work,” said Mercer. “The staff is fabulous. We were able to try some new services and expand what was going on. The trustees and I accomplished the writing of the building grant, and we met the qualifications for that. It’s very exciting. Our foundation was established and we more than doubled attendance at programs the last couple of years as well.”
Calamari said he’s incredibly proud of Mercer’s accomplishments during her three-year tenure.
“We are sad to see her go,” said Calamari. “She has accomplished a lot in a short period of time. The programming has absolutely been revitalized during Holly’s time here. The building grant was obviously a big deal in terms of some of the big strategic rocks that we are addressing as an organization. The foundation had been on the back burner and talked about for decades, and the fact we were able to get that off the ground and put ourselves in a position to do some different style fundraising than we have done historically is a good thing. We have only scratched the surface there. The combination of those things in a short period of time is a lot.”
Calamari also noted Mercer has “brought in some new blood to our staff.”
“It has contributed to the revitalization of our programming,” he said.
Mercer said she has enjoyed “being part of the Lynnfield community.”
“It’s been great getting to know people and build relationships,” said Mercer. “It’s bittersweet to be moving on. I want to thank everyone for the support they have shown over the years as we have added new services. I am going to miss everyone.”
Moving forward
With Mercer bidding farewell to the Lynnfield Library on June 8, Calamari said retired Library Director Nancy Ryan will be serving as interim director until a permanent director is hired.
“Nancy is very familiar with the operations here and the staff,” said Calamari. “She said she would be willing to help us on an interim basis. She is happily enjoying her retirement and is involved in all kinds of different things, but she clearly has a soft spot in her heart for this place and gave her heart and soul to it for a long time. It was natural for her to help us with this transition.”
Calamari also noted bringing Ryan onboard will be an asset once the search for a permanent director begins.
“We have a known entity who went through the process and helped us do the recruiting to bring in Holly the last time,” said Calamari. “It’s a confluence of good fortune.”
Calamari said the Library Trustees will be forming a search committee in order to find the next library director. In addition to himself and Library Trustee Faith Honer-Coakley, Calamari said the search committee will consist of residents, library staff and members of the Friends of the Lynnfield Public Library.
“It will be similar to the search process we did when Holly came on board,” said Calamari. “The other (committee members) will be named in the coming weeks.”
After the search committee is formed, Calamari said the library will begin advertising the director’s position.
“The first step in the process is getting the search committee formed,” said Calamari. “We will then advertise the position and do the recruitment. There are a number of paths that we can go down on from a recruiting perspective, and we learned a lot two-and-a-half years ago.”
In calendar year 2017 Mercer made nearly $89,000.
Calamari said it’s “hard to predict” when the Library Trustees will appoint the next director.
“When we went through the search process before hiring Holly, it was pretty expedited and that was six months,” said Calamari. “I am hoping we can do it faster, but I just don’t know. I would certainly like to have somebody in place by the end of the year.”
Calamari said he wants the next library director to build on Mercer’s accomplishments.
“We are taking the steps to try and get a new library built, we are taking steps to enhance this foundation and we have some programmatic momentum,” said Calamari. “Somebody is going to look at that and say ‘there are some positive things going on here.’ To me, it’s an opportunity for an existing director at another library who is looking to get into a growth situation or this is something that will be attractive for a go-getting assistant director who is looking to move up into a director’s position.”
