Greetings from the new Director!

My name is Maria Meachum and I am the new director of the Wilmington Public Library. I have been a librarian since 1996 and have had the pleasure of working at the Lemont Public Library and the Bellwood Public Library in Adult Services. I received my Masters Degree in Library and Information Science from Dominican University, and have Bachelor's Degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. I have been happily married to my husband, Woody for 12 years and we have two children Abby and Ian. We make our home in Oak Park, where I am lucky to be able to indulge in my other great passion, gardening! I hope that as you come into the library you will take a moment to shake my hand and introduce youselves. I have met several people already but there 9,200 plus more of you to get to know!

After being here just one week I realise I have some big shoes to fill as we send Mary Soucie forward to begin her new journey as the director of Three Rivers Public Library. I appreciate the terrific shape she left this library in and all she did to make the transition smooth! Still, this being my first director position, I am experiencing so many emotions each day; excitement, gratitude, confusion, exhaustion and even melancholy, etc. The melancholy is for the knowing that gone are my days of simply working a busy reference desk and answering the wide variety of questions that reach librarians everyday (fun, interesting and less chaotic than administration.) Confusion for not knowing all the ins and outs of this new town and library, when I am used to knowing it all about the town I work in. Exhaustion for the the hours I have spent both at the library, and at my home in Oak Park, studying up on things I want to learn about the town and the library. But overriding it all is the excitement to be the captain of this great team, and gratitude for the faith that the Board has placed in me to keep your library running well and living up to its already sterling reputation. I promise you I will do my very best to make sure that faith is not misplaced. I hope you will check in on this blog as I will be making it my journal for this new career. and as a record of things I discover about Wilmington you may not know yourselves!