People from all over the country and as far away as India and Ethiopia applied to be the next director of the Jefferson County Library.

That is a testament to how well respected the county library in Port Hadlock is in the field, said Ellen Hargis, trustee and chair of the search committee.

“It was a very diverse pool,” she said of the 39 applicants who applied to replace Meredith Wagner, who is retiring this year after 27 years as the library’s director.

“It was not an easy process to find two finalists,” Hargis said.

The library announced last week that those two finalists are Tamara Meredith and Kelly Skovbjerg, both of whom have met with library staff and garnered positive feedback from community members who attended two meet-and-greet events.

“We’re in a really lucky place to have such strong candidates,” said Hargis.

FORWARD-THINKING

Hargis said she believes that what makes the county library so well respected is its staff, commitment to community and pioneering programs.

“I think that, first and foremost, it has an outstanding staff,” said Hargis.

“Everyone that works at the library cares about the library and the community, and the people they serve.”

While books naturally form the library’s core, it also offers myriad programs and informational and educational opportunities.

Hargis noted in particular the Great Decisions lectures, opera previews and the ever-popular Tech Tuesdays. The library also offers a range of youth programs, from story time to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) programs.

“I think it’s been very forward-thinking with what it offers to the community,” she said of the library. “For the size of the community, the depth and diversity of programs is amazing.”

There’s also the “state-of-the-art” mobile library, which she said can hardly be called just a bookmobile, because what it offers goes beyond only books.

THE CANDIDATES

Tamara Meredith has more than 15 years of experience in public, school and academic libraries, and has held positions as the director of a public library in Colorado, department head at the University of Wyoming libraries and was a K-5 library/technology teacher.

She also has presented and published on topics dealing with technology integration, use and training. Meredith holds degrees from Central Washington University, Indiana University and the University of North Texas, where she earned her Master of Library and Information Science degree and doctorate

She enjoys traveling with her husband and daughter, playing music with her friends and “monopolizing all the new science fiction books from her local public library.”

Skovbjerg has worked for the City of Boerne, Texas, for 15 years, first as its reference librarian and then as director of the Patrick Heath Public Library.

She led the planning, funding and design of a new library on a 15-acre campus that opened in June 2011, and has worked in academic, public and special libraries in Germany, Washington, D.C., and San Antonio.

Skovbjerg received a bachelor’s degree in English from Southwestern University and a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of North Texas.

A native Texan, Skovbjerg currently lives in Boerne with her husband, Jan, a Danish citizen, and her two boys, Nikolaj, 14, and Sebastian, 9.

She enjoys traveling, reading, writing and spending time outdoors.

The Jefferson County Library Board of Trustees is to meet July 27 to discuss the qualifications of candidates for the position of library director.

“We want to provide more and more to the community,” said Hargis of future facility updates. A strategic planning process completed last fall is currently on hold, and the plan is to wait until the new director has been hired so that they are involved with the process.

“We really want to get that new person on board,” she said.

New roof completed

Jefferson County Library recently replaced a roof that dated back to 1985, and that project is now complete. “We have a new roof,” said trustee Ellen Hargis. “It was much smoother than we thought,” she said, noting that librarian Meredith Wagner had purchased hundreds of ear plugs in anticipation of the installation-related noise. None of the ear plugs were used.