MARBLEHEAD — Trustees of the Abbot Public Library have chosen Patricia Rogers to replace retiring Director Bonnie Strong.
Rogers will be moving from the Osterville Free Library on Cape Cod, where she has been the director for the last four years.
Meanwhile, trustee Phil Sweeney is praising Strong's 13-year effort here in Marblehead, a tenure that ushered the library into the 21st century.
"She brought to the library more modern library techniques," he said. That meant introducing an array of multimedia resources, from the Internet to digital movies and books.
When she arrived in Marblehead, Strong said, none of her staff even had access to a personal computer.
"It was my job to take that on," she said. Today, the Abbot Library increasingly deals in technology, including CDs that contain entire books.
"Among the highest users (for those) are commuters," she said. "They're trapped in their cars. And it's much better to listen to a book than to go into road rage."
Young people, too, increasingly see the library as a place to access the online world, particularly when it's time to do their school papers. The library staff helps guide them, warning when the information is untrustworthy. For example, she said, the Web-based encyclopedia Wikipedia is popular, "but it's not one of your most reliable sites."
Strong has seen technology transform the library's traditional role as a supplier of books.
"There's been a reduction in the number of books taken out," she said. Young people may be reading less, but "a good number of kids are still reading."
Strong also helped introduced the North of Boston Library Exchange, Sweeney said. The program lets area libraries swap books and other resources, the better to supply the needs of their residents.
"She certainly made some good contributions to the library," Sweeney said. "She's very professional."
For her part, Strong said she believes the helpful attitude of her staff is one of the major contributions she's made here in Marblehead. Having announced her intention to retire last year, she will be honored with a party, open to the public, at the Abbot Public Library on May 28.
The Chicago-born Strong now lives in Nahant.
"I plan to sit on my deck and look out over the water and sip tea and read," she said.
Friends in the Marblehead Rotary will help her chart future plans, although she is considering work with Raw Art Works, an organization in Lynn that uses art to reach troubled kids.
Rogers, the new director, comes to Marblehead after noting that she has relatives in both this town and Swampscott. As a child, said Sweeney, Rogers often spent summer weekends here.
"She'll be a nice fit for Marblehead," he said. The trustees had several applicants but chose Rogers unanimously.
Rogers' impressive academic credentials include degrees from Brown and Simmons. She worked for Harvard University's libraries for 12 years. Later, she was deputy director of the Corning Museum of Glass in New York state. In Corning, she played a role in upgrading the computer system, as well as construction of a $6 million museum building.
That experience might come in handy here where much needed renovations to the Abbot Library are just about to begin.
