Longtime Employee Named New Director of East Liverpool Library

EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio – After 44 years of service with the East Liverpool Carnegie Public Library, fiscal officer Mary Deem has been hired as the new director.

The board of trustees began the search for a new director in July after the retirement of Melissa Percic, who had served in the position since 2004.

The board considered two current employees for the position, according to Deem.

Deem’s experience “spans all physical, operational and management areas of the library,” said Bob Bloor, board president. “We have the utmost confidence that her knowledge and abilities, combined with her motivation and energies, will provide great leadership as the library moves forward in its service and interaction with the East Liverpool community.”

Deem, a 1982 East Liverpool High School graduate, started working at the library while in school.

“I was 15 when I started here as a book shelver,” she said. “I shelved books every day after school in the children’s room.”

Over the years, she worked the desk with the head librarians and in circulation. In the mid-1980s, she started working with finances, becoming deputy clerk in the 1990s and, ultimately, fiscal officer, a position she still holds.

Deem was named assistant director in 2005 and has served as interim director the past seven months.

Among changes Deem plans to see completed is a project to renovate the reference room.

“The materials are outdated,” she said, pointing out most library patrons today are not interested in searching through reference books when they can immediately access information online.

Plans call for transforming the reference room into an internet cafe-like setting with computers, seating and carrels for privacy and outlets for iPods and USB ports.

Deem said the library recently received results of its latest audit, which was “clean.” She also said she hopes to see the library included in the various activities being planned by groups hoping to improve the city.

Construction began on the East Liverpool library in 1900, funded by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. The library opened in 1902. It is now funded through other sources, including a levy.

Pictured at top: Mary Deem, newly hired East Liverpool Carnegie Public Library director.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.