METUCHEN — The Metuchen Public Library has a new library director.
The Library Board of Trustees, led by Elizabeth Waldron, announced in a letter to staff and library volunteers they unanimously chose Hsi Hsi Chung to be the next director. She has been serving as interim director after John Arthur resigned at the end of June to take another job.
“We are excited about the impact that Hsi Hsi will have on our library and our town in her new role as director,” Waldron said, adding Chung began serving as permanent library director on July 10.
Councilwoman Allison Inserro announced Chung’s new position at a council meeting on July 16.
“We are very happy. … She’s been with the library for a long time and she’s doing a lot of things,” she said.
Inserro said a year or two ago, Chung had an idea to cost share an information database in which the Metuchen Library and Metuchen Board of Education had been purchasing on a separate basis.
“[Chung] and Maryrose Little, Board of Education representative for the library, put their heads together [and determined that] both organizations could go in on the [information database] contract to save money and expand offerings to everyone,” she said.
Inserro said the cost share arrangement offers Metuchen Library patrons access to two additional databases and saves the library $650 and the Metuchen School District gets access to databases at Campbell Elementary School, which the school never had before.
“This is just something really cool that we would like to see more of with the arrangement of organizations in town and on the school side,” she said.