ANDOVER – Amy Thomas has stepped in as director of the Andover Public Library, part of a handoff from Nancy Logan, who will be moving on to retirement after Wednesday, Dec. 31, capping off an eight-year stretch leading the institution.
Thomas started working in Andover on Friday, Dec. 5.
“Nancy is still here – she’ll be here until the end of the year,” she said. “It’s a nice onboarding.”
After spending a decade as an assistant professor and library director at Kent State University of Ashtabula, Thomas has plenty of experience running a library. She also worked as a corporate librarian at the Center for Strategic Information and Analytics, a division of KeyBank.
Thomas has master’s degrees in both library science and public health. She worked for three years at the MetroHealth Population Health Research Institute recently as well.
“I’ve learned a lot,” she said. “I have a unique perspective.”
The Andover Public Library offers Thomas an exciting opportunity to get involved in the community in an important way, she said.
“I think they do great things,” she said. “I think Nancy has been wonderful in creating a community hub down here. It’s a very active library and they put out a lot of good programs for all ages and populations.”
Thomas lives in Geneva, but was born and raised in Connecticut. She transferred to Kent State University from a small, private college in Wisconsin to finish her undergraduate degree. She fell for northeast Ohio right away, and she sees taking over at the Andover Public Library as a way to get more involved in her adopted home community.
“At this point that’s where I wanted to be, back in the county,” she said.
Thomas said she plans to use her early tenure as a chance to get out into the community at events and meetings to show her face, get her name out and gauge what sorts of programs people in the Andover area are seeking.
“It’s a very vibrant library,” she said. “They do a lot of great work and I wanted to be a part of it and build on all the great work Nancy has done.”
With a background in grant writing, Thomas is also looking forward to bridging the gap between the sorts of programs that would best help Andover’s residents and any resources or funding available to the library.
“I’m not necessarily a part of Andover, but I want to be a part of the all the great works that’s going on down here,” she said.
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