Gordon Conable, director of the Monroe County (Mich.) Library System since 1988, will become vice-president of West Coast operations for Library Systems & Services in April, responsible for overseeing the private management firm's outsourcing contract with the Riverside County (Calif.) Public Library (see American Libraries, August 1997, p. 19).
The announcement was made at a February 23 meeting of the Monroe County library board, at which Conable said the library is in the best shape ever, according to the Monroe Evening News: "The library is on the brink of addressing a number of longstanding challenges and has a bright future--one that I would be pleased to be a part of."
Conable told AL that he had not been job hunting, but when the company came knocking he considered it an interesting challenge. "I will still be doing the same thing that I've done for the past 25 years, which is to figure out how to provide the best possible public library service for everyone in the community," he said.