Four women librarians were vying for the position of Director to head up the Pima County Public Library system of the Joel D. Valdez Main library and 26 branch libraries. My husband and I attended the public reception at the Z Mansion downtown on February 23 to meet the four candidates:

Melinda Cervantes, currently Director of the Santa Clara (CA) County Library
Teresa Landers, currently Director of the Santa Cruz (CA) Public library
Gina Macaluso, Family Literary Services Mgr. at Pima County Public Library
Amber Mathewson, Library Service Mgr Lifespan Learning at Pima County Public Library

The former Director Nancy Ledeboer resigned to move to Spokane, Washington as library director there, and she worked here in Tucson since 1996. Ledeboer was recently nominated for a Leadership award at the 2nd Annual Women in Government Day hosted by the Pima County/Tucson Women’s Commission.

According to the press release announcing Cervantes’ hiring, she will begin effective May 14, 2012. She was named Librarian of the Year by the Arizona Library Assn. in 1997 and the California Library Assn. in 2010. Cervantes was at one time Director of the Pinal County Library District in Arizona, and has also held library management positions in Alaska, California, Ohio, and Oregon.

For photo & full press release go to Pima County News online – click here.

Welcome back to Arizona Melinda and hope you enjoy Tucson and Pima County.