Journal & Topics Media Group

Library Board Introduces Director Candidate Smith


Park Ridge Public Library, 20 S. Prospect Ave. (Charles Miller/Journal photo)

The Park Ridge Library Board presented its favored candidate for library director at a public forum Thursday, March 15 and expected to make a decision at its regular board meeting last night (March 20).

Heidi Smith, the assistant director at the Waukegan Public Library, was one of several candidates who had been introduced to the library’s department managers, before meeting with the library board.

Judy Rayborn, who has chaired the board’s recruitment effort since long-time director Janet Van DeCarr retired in June 2017, said Smith received unanimous approval from the nine library board members. Eight of them attended the forum, which counted as a special board meeting.

Smith earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music, and a master’s in library information science (University of Illinois). She joined the Waukegan library staff in 2006, first as an adult reference librarian, and then headed the children’s department.

Heidi Smith, Park Ridge director candidate

She was promoted to assistant director of library services, and then, in 2014, to her current position, which includes supervision of the main library, branch and bookmobile and about 60 employees.

Smith said she had been researching Park Ridge, and sees similarities to her hometown of Highland Park — an excellent location, a small town feel, safe, family oriented, great schools, high taxes and limited diversity.

Waukegan’s library district, while facing some different challenges, also has some similarities. Smith said she has experience in working in a tight fiscal environment.

But for library patrons, she also wants to offer self-esteem, self confidence and enlightenment.

She said she is impressed with Park Ridge’s “amazing staff.”

She spoke of her own experiences with her daughter, who started hearing stories early but seemed to be a “reluctant” reader. Smith is enthusiastic about learning from reading.

Friends helped Smith relax and let her daughter find her own pace. Smith said the girl, now 8, hit her stride and now comfortably reads to her younger brother.

She has been thinking about ways to set goals for the Park Ridge Library’s next decade — a very wide focused strategy. She sees the library as a place to pull communities together, to provide opportunities for personal growth. Her goal is to bring positive change, she said.

But as she brings her ideas to the table, Smith stresses, “It has to be our vision,” rather than her vision, and she wants to make sure how the library, as it moves into its physical renovations this summer, and as it evolves its collection with print and technology. addresses Park Ridge’s needs.

She hopes to build stronger partnerships with the city, the parks and other groups.

She said an outsider may have difficulty in assessing whether regular attendance at Storytime is effective. Parents may be the best to judge how the children develop better listening skills or vocabulary that carry over into their daily lives.

“Literacy is an easy sell,” Smith said. If someone doesn’t have a need to read, it can be a very hard sell, she added.

She said one of her strengths is that she loves ideas; another is she knows when to pull back.

Smith admitted she wants to get things right the first time, and realizes that may not always happen, “but I reset.”

Dorothy DuSold, co-president of the Park Ridge Friends of the Library, asked, “What can we do to help?”

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