Two Finalists for PL Director in Grand Rapids; One is Ex-Director at Atlanta-Fulton PL

-- Library Journal, 9/15/2004

The Grand Rapids Public Library Board, MI will interview two finalists for its open directorship on Saturday, Sept. 18, then aim to name one of them to the position later that day. The finalists are Marcia A. Warner, director of the Public Libraries of Saginaw, MI and Mary Kaye Hooker, former director of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System. Veteran director Robert Raz retired in July. Initially, a third finalist was named--Elaine K. Didier, professor at the Kresge Library at Oakland University and chair of the State Library of Michigan--but she withdrew from the process. The library board's advisory committee compiled the list of finalists with the help of the search firm Gossage Sager Associates of Deerfield, IL. "The interview process has been on-schedule toward our desired goal of having a new director in place for the start of the new calendar year," Nancy Douglas, Library Commissioner and chair of advisory committee, said in a press release. "More importantly, we have a very capable and talented set of finalists from which the full Board may choose." Hooker's presence as a finalist may raise some eyebrows back in Atlanta; she was fired from her post in June after being a named defendant in a race discrimination case against the library that was settled for $18 million and was the subject of severe criticism by employees, both in a workplace audit and on a web site run by critical staffers.