Interim Director Tapped
to Head Savannah Library
Eschewing a potentially lengthy and expensive search, the Chatham-Effingham-Liberty Regional Library in Savannah, Georgia, unanimously voted November 21 to name Bill Johnson as library director. Johnson had been serving as interim director since the board fired director Lon Dickerson in August following months of conflict.
Board member Richard Riley told the November 22 Savannah Morning News that a national search for a new director would have cost at least $35,000 and could have been contentious. Riley noted the turbulence of the past two years, which saw turmoil surrounding Dickerson’s stormy tenure and the delayed reopening of the system’s Bull Street main facility amid funding controversies. “We need someone who understands where we’ve been, where we are now, and where we’re going,” he said.
Johnson, who has been with the system since 1981, told the News that his priorities would be “building community support for the library and out of that building financial support for the library.” He noted that the system’s facilities and collections both need improvement.
Posted November 27, 2000.
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