CURRENT POSITION Youth Librarian (Des Plaines Public Library), Board President and Trustee (Niles-Maine District Library, IL) DEGREE MLIS, University of North Carolina–Greensboro, 2023 FAST FACT Keane earned her MLIS on the advice of her mother-in-law, noting, “She doesn’t give me advice very often…so when she does, I listen.” Photo by Michael A. Foley

Balancing the Board

Becoming a library trustee wasn’t on Becky Keane’s radar until a neighbor gave her an earful about the shortcomings of her local board. Intrigued, Keane sought appointment to the library board in fall 2019. She was idealistic going in, she admits, thinking, “Maybe I can come in and even out the waters.” But, she recalls, “It became clear very quickly that it was a lot worse than I thought, and I had to start fighting almost immediately.”

The board was in disarray, with four of its seven members forming a fiscally conservative bloc that sought sweeping changes, including a freeze on spending, hiring, and capital projects; reducing the budget and open hours; and raising staff insurance rates. The director was forced out. And while the board eventually adopted a compromise budget, Keane and her two board allies—along with the library’s staff and community—were not happy.

Keane persisted in her battle to keep the library a vibrant, viable resource, and refused to back down. She cultivated relationships with state and national legislators, journalists, and advocates to build a support network; participated in trustee trainings; and in 2023, ran for board president—and won.

“I had to do what I had to do to make sure that the board turned over in a positive way,” says Keane. Two of the oppositional board members are still seated—another, who lost his bid for reelection last year, sued, unsuccessfully, to have Keane removed—but the library has now lifted the hiring freeze, raised the budget by almost 18 percent over 2022, and helped oversee a successful staff unionization effort. “I feel like we won—for now,” she says.