Denver Public's Beth Elder Named Salt Lake City Library Director

• One of three finalists
• Library won national honor in 2006
• Extensive background in Denver

Beth Elder, a veteran manager at the Denver Public Library, has been chosen to direct the Salt Lake City Public Library. She succeeds Nancy Tessman, who retired in June after leading the library to its selection as the 2006 Gale/Library Journal Library of the Year. The other finalists were Britton Lund, assistant director at Salt Lake City, and Kathlin Ray, university librarian at the American University of Sharjah.

Elder, who starts her job April 28, was described in the Deseret News by library board president Helen Rollins as, "the quintessential librarian whose vision and inspired leadership will vault us into the future. She's a teacher, she's an inspirer, she's a defender of intellectual freedom and she believes in libraries." Elder, a former bookseller who has worked at the Denver system since 1989, has experience in serving diverse communities, early childhood literacy, and strategic planning.