Retired Bernards Library Director to Temporarily Head Bernardsville Library

The Bernardsville Public Library's Board of Trustees has named retired Bernards Township Library Director Anne Meany to the position of Interim Director while the Board conducts a search for a permanent director, the Bernardsville Library announced on Friday.

Meany, also a Bernards Township most recently was Director at Bernards Township Library through 2011, and — in previous years — also was director of the Bernardsville Public Library.

Ruth Lufkin is present director of the Bernards Township Library at 32 S. Maple Ave. in downtown Basking Ridge.

Meany will step in as interim director due to the scheduled departure ofcurrent Bernardsville Library Director Karen Brodsky, who announced last month she is leaving on Aug. 31.

The Library of the Chathams announced in late July that Brodsky had been chosen to serve as the new director of that library starting Sept. 1. 

Before taking the post in Bernards Township, Meany had been Director at the Bernardsville Public Library and, according to the Bernardsville Library announcement, also at the Somerville and Raritan libraries in Somerset County.

“We are pleased to have the expertise of an experienced director who knows our community needs well,” Bernardsville Library Board President Donald Burset said in the announcement. 

Meany, who was born in Ireland, has said she developed a lifelong love of reading. She was director in at the Bernards Library for about a dozen years. 

Brodsky has been director for 11 years. While heading the Bernardsville Library, Brodsky said she was involved with strategic planning, and the automation of many services for the public.

Meany had presided over a similar transition to an online and electronic world at the Bernards Township Library before retiring.

The Bernardsville Library's Board of Trustees is already planning the search for a permanent director, the announcement said.

A Board Search Committee has been formed and qualifications will be released shortly.