The Board of Trustees of the River Forest Public Library invites you to meet our new Director, Sue Quinn. Join us on Sunday, May 22 at 3:30 PM in Barbara Hall Meeting Room to meet our recently appointed Director, Sue Quinn. Refreshments will be served.
The Board of Trustees of the River Forest Public Library recently announced the appointment of Sue Quinn as the new Director of the Library. Sue’s demonstrated leadership, her familiarity with the River Forest community, her business acumen, and her ability to envision a vibrant future for the library, make her an ideal choice for this position.
The library board engaged in an extensive director search. Its search committee, under the leadership of Alice Calabrese-Berry, reviewed the dossiers of twenty applicants, and interviewed four experienced, talented candidates for the position of Director. The entire board then interviewed three candidates recommended by the search committee. During this process, it became clear that Sue Quinn’s history of steady, reliable dedication to the needs of the library and its staff, and her discerning view of future possibilities within the organization, made her the right choice as our next Director.
“The Trustees are confident that Sue Quinn will be an exceptional Director. She is familiar with the community and its needs. She knows the library and its personnel. Her business background assures us of her managerial capabilities. Most importantly she brings a vision of what the library may become as it looks ahead to future possibilities in this fast-changing electronic age. We are fortunate to have secured the services of such an outstanding, experienced librarian”, states Claudette Zobel, President of the Library Board of Trustees.
A lifelong Oak Park resident and graduate of OPRF HS, Sue has long had a love of libraries. She worked as a reference page at OPPL during high school, and circulation clerk and research assistant in college, at various libraries.
Sue has a BBA in Finance from the University of Iowa and worked for over 5 years in banking, 4 of them in commercial lending and then as an Assistant V.P. in Private Banking. She left banking to enroll in the GSLIS program at Rosary College (now Dominican University) and eventually started a family.
After taking some time to raise her 3 daughters, she worked as an early childhood educator at First United Nursery School for 5 years. She returned to OPPL for one year and then came to RFPL over 8 years ago. Sue has held several positions, including Manager of Children’s Services, Head of Strategic Services, and most recently, Assistant Director.
In 2012, Sue was the recipient of the ILA Youth Forum’s Davis Cup Award, an annual recognition given to a children’s librarian in recognition of resourcefulness, professionalism and caring in service to young people. Shortly thereafter, her role shifted when she took a lead role in the Library’s new community needs driven strategic plan and became the Head of Strategic Services in early 2013. In that role, she was responsible for aligning the Adult, Teen and Children’s collections, programs, services and spaces to meet the targeted objectives of the strategic plan. Sue was promoted to Assistant Director in November 2014 and was charged with reorganizing the Materials Services Department (circulation and technical services) to better support the Library’s organizational needs.
