Mary Etter, Chairman of the State Library Board announced that Maureen Sullivan has been selected as the Interim State Librarian at the Connecticut State Library. Ms. Sullivan who is a native of Norwich, CT, has held positions in library management at the University of Maryland and Yale University and has served as an organizational development consultant for nearly thirty years, specializing in strategic planning, personnel management, leadership development, assessment, and organizational change. She has taught in the doctoral program in Managerial Leadership at Simmons College and served as Interim Dean of its Graduate School of Library and Information Science. She is a Past President of the American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries, and the Library Leadership and Management Association and served as an Advisor to the Aspen Institute’s program Rising to the Challenge: Re-Envisioning Public Libraries. Her articles on leadership and organizational development have been widely published and she has been honored for her work in support of libraries by professional organizations across the country.
Ms. Sullivan’s six-month appointment will include managing the operations of the State Library, representing the agency in governmental and professional arenas, and working with the Board, its Search Committee, and the selected search firm to name a permanent State Librarian.
Ms. Sullivan’s appointment comes at an important time for the State’s libraries, which are facing the challenges of redefining services after coronavirus closures. The complexities of reopening facilities that normally encourage visits for everything from story hours to taxes; job-seeking to citizenship classes; filling out Census forms and tracking stimulus checks; as well as recreational, reading, photocopying, scanning, and more will require careful planning and thoughtful coordination.