PROVIDENCE – Providence Community Library, the new nonprofit organization that took over operation of the city’s nine library branches last week, has hired a Pawtucket native as its first executive director.
The organization announced today that Ann A. Robinson, who was most recently associate head librarian of the Worcester Public Library in Massachusetts, will start as the branch system’s top administrator on Monday. Her office will be located temporarily at South Providence Library.
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“I look forward to working with Ms. Robinson and the Providence Community Library as we preserve the core mission of the former Providence Public Library,” Mayor David N. Cicilline said in a statement. “This work is tremendously important to the residents of Providence and especially our children.”
Robinson was raised in Pawtucket and moved to Providence with her family in 1971, according to a news release. She received her bachelor’s degree from Clark University in Worcester and her master’s in library sciences from Simmons College in Boston. She was a social worker for a decade before starting her career as a librarian in 1987, as director of the Bancroft Memorial Library in Hopedale, Mass.
“Despite receiving applications from across the country, we found Ann Robinson to be the person best suited for Providence,” Maureen Romans, co-chair of the search committee that selected Robinson, said in a statement. “We are delighted that she is from the area and will understand our needs.”
Robinson’s most recent employer, the Worcester Public Library, had an annual budget of $4.7 million and 840,438 annual visitors in the 2007 fiscal year, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Providence Community Library has proposed a similar-sized budget of about $4.8 million this year.
Unlike the PCL, however, the Worcester library is a municipal department rather than an independent nonprofit subsidized by city taxpayers.
Patricia Raub, one of PCL’s founders, said the organization’s leaders were particularly impressed by Robinson’s leadership style and managerial skills. Marcus Mitchell, PCL’s president, said he believed her “experience in administration, team building and outreach, along with her focus on running a customer centered library, will serve the city of Providence well.”
“I commend the dedication and hard work of all those who were determined to safeguard branch library service,” Robinson said. “As executive director of the Providence Community Library, I look forward to building on Providence’s tradition of excellent branch library service by working toward the goal of providing easy access to a high-quality, responsive, neighborhood library system.
Raub declined to disclose Robinson’s compensation package. The executive director’s job was advertised as having a salary range between $80,000 and $100,000.
Raul also said the salary would be “considerably less” than that of Dale Thompson, executive director of the Providence Public Library. The amount earned by Thompson and other PPL administrators was frequently criticized by patrons’ advocates prior to the system’s breakup. They have taken a 10 percent pay cut in the new fiscal year as the PPL transitions to running just the Central Branch.
Additional information is available at ProvComLib.org.
