EVERETT — Everett Public Library Director Eileen Simmons has announced she plans to retire this fall after 19 years with the city.
She said Oct. 31 would likely be her last day, but said that wasn’t final.
Simmons’ departure completes a changing of the guard at the helm of the city’s library system. Longtime library historian David Dilgard retired in April after 40-year career. Dilgard’s fellow historian Margaret Riddle left in 2008.
Everett plans to conduct a national search for Simmons’ replacement.
Simmons, 66, started work as an assistant director of the library Oct. 19, 1998, and took over as director when Mark Nesse retired in 2007.
She’d come from the Wichita Public Library in Kansas, where she’d overseen a collection of materials aimed at nonprofit and foundation management, including fundraising.
Simmons also had taken a class through the Grantsmanship Center, and had become adept at grant writing and fundraising. One of her first tasks as assistant director was to put that knowledge to good use.
“When I came up here there were opportunities through the (Washington) State Library,” she said.
The grants she obtained, usually in the $25,000-$30,000 range, helped launch several new initiatives, including a laptop computer lab, the world languages collection, digitizing the library’s Northwest collections, and several adult classes and programs.
That grant money, she emphasized, originated with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent federal agency that is one of many programs the Trump Administration wants to eliminate in the next federal budget.
“Those funds are due to be cut if Trump’s initial budget is accepted as written,” Simmons said. “I would certainly hate for that opportunity to go away.”
Those grant-funded programs at the Everett Public Library have become self-sustaining over the years.
“Although they started with grant money, we have been able to incorporate those services into our regular way of doing business,” she said.
Simmons also helped launch the popular Everett Reads! program in 2011 and has been overseeing the expansion process of the Evergreen Branch of the library, which was delayed by the 2007 recession but finally got under way in 2016.
“It’s very exciting,” she said. “My plan is I’ll be here through the design phase of the project and hopefully attend the City Council meeting where they vote on the funding.”
After she retires, she said her plans include spending time with her grandson in Massachusetts. Her husband still has another year before retirement, however, so she’ll have a lot of quiet time.
“I am going to take Margaret Riddle’s advice and not do much of anything for much of the first year,” she said. “I’m looking forward to walking through the stacks of the library and picking out things I want to read and have the time to do it.”
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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