Hoag Library in no rush to replace interim director

Photo by Tom Rivers – Betty Sue Miller, interim director at Hoag Library, is pictured during a February meeting of the Board of Trustees.

ALBION – In her four months on the job as interim director at Hoag Library, Betty Sue Miller has been tasked with reorganizing some of the library’s layout, removing valuables and other items from the former Swan Library, and rebuilding some strained relationships among library staff and patrons.

Miller has met those objectives, Library President Kevin Doherty said. Two staff members, Cheryl Mowatt and Dee Robinson, both voiced support for Miller at Monday’s annual meeting for the library.

“Betty Sue Miller is just what the doctor ordered,” said Mowatt, a reference librarian at Hoag.

Miller, an Albion resident, was hired as interim director in January after the board parted ways with the previous director. Miller was hired with the intention it would be a short-term assignment, providing time for the board to prepare for another search.

But Doherty said Miller, a retired teacher and school library director in Holley, has done so well that the board isn’t pushing for her replacement.

“We are in no rush to start a search process,” Doherty said. “She is the right person at the right time.”

It’s been a busy four months with library staff and volunteers cleaning out the former Swan Library. That building is being sold to Chad Fabry of Holley for $53,000. A final closing date hasn’t been scheduled yet as lawyers work on the closing documents.

Some of the furniture pieces, paintings and other prized artifacts from Swan have either been moved to the Hoag or long-term storage.

Miller and staff also reorganized the adult section in the Hoag Library to better utilize space, and a future reorganization of the children’s library is being planned.

Miller also is working with the state on a NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) grant for solar panels on the roof of the new library and she worked on a $2,500 grant through the Orleans County Youth Bureau for the library’s summer reading program.

She has added to the collection of library books and other materials and begun weeding the collection based on circulation reports.

“It’s been a fabulous four months and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it,” she said.