Lewes library hires Andrea Tillinghast as library director

After an extensive nationwide search, the Lewes Public Library Board of Commissioners announced that Andrea Tillinghast, MLS, of Binghamton, N.Y., has been selected as director. Tillinghast will be assuming the helm as the LPL library director as of April 1.

An administrator and librarian for 15 years, Tillinghast holds a master of library and information science from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and a bachelor of English literature from Elmira College.

Tillinghast has worked throughout her career to develop a vision for public libraries which places the civic needs of the community at the center of the library's mission. Her work with strategic planning is rooted in the idea that the public library is more than a concept, more than a place: the library is more about what it does for people rather than what it has for people.

Tillinghast has delivered workshops and seminars on joint-use facilities, outreach, community partnerships and strategic planning. A main focus alignment is with the ALA National Center for Dialogue & Deliberation and the Center for Civic Life - the basic tenets being: the public library as a catalyst for civic engagement will facilitate learning and growth for people of all ages. Public libraries are local, neutral, and respected for providing information that represents different viewpoints. Given its resources and community connections, the public library is the perfect arena to engage the community in civic discourse on important community issues.

Utilizing the civic engagement approach, Tillinghast led the transformation of several upstate New York public libraries to become financially solvent, community-centered organizations.

For the greater Lewes community, a top priority for the new director is launching an outreach effort to work with area organizations, institutions, and businesses. "The public library is part of a network of civic, educational, business, and other organizations that share common interests," Tillinghast says. "My intent is to work closely with people and groups throughout the community to find new means of connecting people so we can work together to accomplish these shared goals... [to] better serve the needs of the entire community," she adds. She believes this will result in a stronger, more relevant public library.

Tillinghast grew up in Seneca Falls, N.Y., and lived for several years in the border community of Las Cruces, N.M. An avid hiker and community volunteer, she and her partner, April Rowlands, a dog whisperer and project manager, relocated to the area from Binghamton.