Article updated with names of search committee members on January 23.

Despite a press release received earlier this month from the Cyrenius H. Booth Library's Board of Trustees 

announcing that Douglas C. Lord would be starting his position as the library's director effective January 16, Mr Lord still had not been on site as of Monday, January 22.

Board President Bob Geckle said on Monday, "Our offer to the Director was conditional on completing certain preemployment processes. We have not finished this work yet."

Mr Geckle estimated that the process would be completed in the next few days, and that an update on the new director's start date would be issued.

Selecting The New Director

Mr Lord most recently worked as the director of the Plainville Public Library, leaving in November 2017.

He was selected to be the C.H. Booth Library director with the help of a search committee consisting of two members of the library's staff, Andrea Forsyth and Anne Mastroianni; four Board of Trustees members, Colleen Honan, Laura Goldstein, Ray Irrera, and Amy Dent; two members of the community, Bill Brimmer and Michelle Rosenthal; and the president of the Friends of the C.H. Booth Library, Jim Maher.

In mid-November,

the library hired Chris Nolan Associates, a consultant firm led by retired Ridgefield Library Director Chris Nolan, to aid the search committee in evaluating potential applicants.

Ms Nolan said on Monday that when she began assisting the director search there were "a little more than 20" candidates that had been narrowed down for the position, with some being seen prior to her arrival.

"I helped with interview questions and process, and I introduced what's called Supplemental Questionnaire that fleshed out [information] beyond what a resume would offer," she said about the strategies she helped implement. "It offered me more insight into [candidate's] own library experience, and then I could share that with the search committee."

Mr Lord had been in the candidate pool, she explained, but had not been seen or interviewed prior to when she was hired.

What she found when evaluating him for the job was that he had experience in different aspects of public librarianship, including Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grants, which she described as a highly competitive and rigorous process.

"He was working with libraries that had really forward thinking. He's had broad exposure throughout the state and some in smaller communities," she added.

To learn more about the C.H. Booth Library, visit chboothlibrary.org.