St. Charles Public Library set to hire new library director next month

The St. Charles Public Library is excited to celebrate National Library Card Sign-up Month with this year’s honorary chairs Tony Award-winning performer, actress, singer-songwriter and philanthropist Idina Menzel and her sister author and educator Cara Menzel.

The St. Charles Public Library will soon have a new library director.

Library Board trustees are set to hire a new director at their Oct. 12 board meeting. In May, trustees hired an executive search firm to help find the next director for the St. Charles Public Library.

Trustees in May unanimously voted to hire library consulting firm Deiters and Todd, which specializes in executive director searches and board development, at a cost of $13,000. In April, St. Charles Public Library Director Edith Craig submitted her resignation letter announcing that she’s stepping down after more than five years in her position. Her last day was at the end of that month.

Craig was hired in September 2016 at an annual starting salary of $108,000.

In her time as director, Craig oversaw the $18.6 million renovation and expansion of the library, which opened to the public in July 2021. That same month, the majority of employees at the library filed to form a union through the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31.

Earlier this year, the library closed to in-person visits for more than two weeks after threats were made against employees for following the state’s indoor mask requirements that were in place at the time.

A group of more than three dozen people in January protested the library’s decision to follow the statewide indoor mask mandate. Employees also received “hundreds of communications” some that included threatening comments, officials previously said.

Many of these communications and posts threatened a form of physical retaliation against the library, including statements that unmasked large groups would enter the library, according to a post on the library’s website.

When it reopened its doors in early February, a security guard was put in place at the library’s entrance to enforce the COVID mask policy.

Craig’s hiring sparked controversy among some staff members because she did not have previous experience as a library director. In an email to the library’s staff after Craig was hired, then-board president Tory Haines acknowledged that one of the staff members’ major concerns was her lack of experience as a director.

“The board placed experience very low on our list of priorities,” Haines’ email in response to staff concerns at the time had stated. “Our previous director had a stellar resume and a wealth of experience, but was not a good fit for our library.”