Library Board Chooses a New Director
The East Lansing Library Board of Trustees and East Lansing Public Library (ELPL) approved the hiring of Kevin King as the new library director.
The board interviewed three candidates – King, Robert Bell and Ann Neff-Rohs – during special meetings held Tuesday and Wednesday (Jan. 9 and 10). The final three candidates were chosen after a five-month search following the resignation of Kristin Shelley in January 2023. Angelo Moreno has been serving as interim director since August.
Each interview was set for a 90-minute period, designating time for the same list of 24 questions, trustees to ask individualized questions and for the candidate to ask the board questions.
After all three interviews were completed, the board went into closed session to discuss candidates and to consider the feedback given by library staff and community members.
After a closed session, the library board announced Kevin King as its choice
Following a half-an-hour closed session, the board reconvened and unanimously moved to offer the position of library director to King.
In a discussion following the interviews and in a follow-up email with ELi, board President Amy Zaagman expressed her gratitude to everybody involved in the lengthy hiring process.
“I would just say that I am incredibly grateful to the Search Committee that has assisted the library board throughout a process that has led us to Kevin King, who we believe will be an amazing new director for East Lansing Public Library,” Zaagman wrote.
As of Thursday (Jan. 11), Zaagman said King had accepted the offer and work has begun on a formal background check and contract negotiations.
King, an MSU graduate, has 27 years experience as a librarian.
King has worked at the Kalamazoo Public Library (KPL) for 25 years, currently as the leader of community engagement, and has been a librarian for about 27 years.
“About 30 years ago I applied to be an aide here [East Lansing Public Library] when I was a student at Michigan State University, but I didn’t get the job,” King jokingly said. “I’ll try to not hold that against you today.”
King said as a librarian, he believes it is his job to “get people connected to resources and make sure they are going to succeed in life.” He said he will bring that mentality to ELPL.
When King was asked about highlights in his professional career, he focused on some of the resources he provided and initiated for patrons.
He talked about how he led the Fine-Free initiative at KPL in January 2020, removing daily fines on overdue materials in order to provide equal access to the services and materials the library provides. King also highlighted his creation of the OneCard program, which provides a KPL card to every Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS) student. According to the library’s website, the program is designed to “enrich and support KPS school instruction.”
King also spotlighted the Peer Navigation Program that KPL added in 2018 under his direction. The program works directly in the library to provide patrons with resources for housing, addiction, public assistance, mental health and more.
He emphasized the importance of not only making sure the library’s patrons succeed, but that the library’s staff needs the resources necessary to thrive as well.
“I am proud of the one-on-one meetings I have set up with my staff,” King said. “I speak to each of my staff twice a month to look at individual goals and benchmarks and help staff achieve those goals.”
King has managed a budget of $2 million to $3 million at the Kalamazoo library.
In light of ELPL and the board of trustees’ current work on a budget and strategic plan, each candidate was asked questions about those topics.
King highlighted his experience with budgeting, stating he currently manages budgets of $2 million to $3 million.
“Budgeting, for me, is a longer process because I really want people involved and I really want to hear from the staff about what they need,” King said. “My experience is building collaborative budgets as a team and making sure we are budgeting to strategic priorities.”
King expressed a positive view of the priority-based budgeting already present at ELPL and said he would continue using that approach.
“I’m a strategic planning geek,” King said when asked about his experience with that practice. “What’s perfect for strategic planning is finding out what the community needs.”
As a department head at KPL, King was trained in strategic planning and has since been involved in three major strategic planning processes at the library.
Candidates responded to questions specific to East Lansing.
Beyond asking general questions concerning library technology, experience with unionized employees, customer service and personnel management, the board asked candidates questions more specific to the East Lansing community.
Zaagman asked candidates’ their opinion on the importance of ELPL’s frequent engagement on social media. She also provided a hypothetical situation surrounding a patron complaining on social media about feeling treated unjustly while visiting the library and asked each candidate how they would respond.
King highlighted the great work marketing and communications specialist Gabby Kindig has done with the library’s social media, saying “she obviously knows what she’s doing” and “like all other tools, social media is good if it’s used correctly.”
In response to the hypothetical situation, King said, “The goal of this library is to never get into that situation.” But, if it were to occur, he would reach out to the patron and apologize, as well as ask both parties involved to share their sides of the story.
Each candidate was given a tour of the library prior to the interview and asked what surprised them about ELPL and if they saw any opportunities to better serve the community.
King emphasized the changes that have been made to the library since he used to study there while a student at MSU 30 years ago.
“The usage of space is really great,” King said. “But I’d like to see the space open up a little more, especially for safety and security reasons.”
Throughout his interview, King frequently turned around to address and joke with the audience and the library staff who sat behind him. He utilized examples in his answers which included facts from the ELPL website and social media page, as well as information about the strategic plan and staff members’ names.
King ended his interview by answering the question of, “Why do you think East Lansing Public Library and our community are the right place for you?”
He said his daughter is a second-year student at MSU and lives less than half-a-mile away from the library and he wants to return to East Lansing. King also shared a short anecdote about how, when he walked in for his interview, he ran into a previous KPL coworker who was getting a library card at the front desk.
“It just felt so right,” King said. “I just love this community, I always have loved coming to East Lansing. It’s just the right time for me.”
The other two candidates also highlighted their many years of library experience.
The other two candidates interviewed were each highly qualified with 20 and 18 years experience, respectively.
Bell worked in libraries for over 20 years in multiple U.S. states as well as in Thailand, Japan and China. In those libraries, he held many roles including library manager, library director, teacher and more. He is currently employed as the coordinator at the Avon Williams Campus Library at Tennessee State University.
Neff-Rohs has spent about 18 years as a public librarian in Jackson and Grand Rapids. She was the branch manager at the Jackson District Library for six years and is currently the director of collections at the Grand Rapids Public Library.