Library director moving to Beverly

Glendale Libraries Director Nancy Hunt-Coffey took what would be among her last walks through the aisles of the Central Library on Friday morning, 20 years after entering the system as a page.

As of Wednesday, she will leave her post as director of Glendale’s seven libraries to take charge of Beverly Hills’ lone library.

Just three years into her position as director, the move caught her off guard as much as it did city officials.

Two months ago, Hunt-Coffey received a Beverly Hills mailer soliciting applications for the top librarian job there.

“I picked it up and I put it down, then I picked it up, put it down, picked it up,” Hunt-Coffey said. “There’s nothing driving me out of this job.”

But there were two strong reasons pulling her to Beverly Hills — a 3-year-old daughter and 20-month-old son.

Beverly Hills’ single library, however venerable, offers the promise of fewer hours and more time with family, she said, which eventually pressed her to submit a last-minute application.

As soon as City Manager Jim Starbird discovered she was among the field of top candidates, he knew Beverly Hills would tap her as the top choice.

“It broke my heart in a figurative sense because she’s so good,” he said.

Hunt-Coffey’s contemporary take on how libraries should meet the needs of evolving communities has translated into notable improvements during her short tenure, among them upgrades in technology and expanded library hours and programs, her colleagues said.

“I think Nancy has laid a solid groundwork for her successor,” said John Steele, president of the nonprofit Friends of the Glendale Public Library.

For many, the Adams Hill storefront library, approved earlier this year, is the embodiment of her knack for harnessing the evolution of what a library could be.

At 2,000 square feet, it is to be about half the size of Glendale’s smallest existing library and will feature smaller, more contemporary book collections that will rotate more quickly to keep up with changing tastes.

Hunt-Coffey counts the experiment in neighborhood-based servicing among her greatest achievements, even if she won’t be around to witness its birth. Construction is expected to end in February.

But even with solid advancements, Hunt-Coffey leaves behind a library system in flux. Millions of dollars worth of capital improvement projects are planned, and the Casa Verdugo Branch Library — where she was introduced to the librarian life — will eventually close to make room for the expansion of the adjoining fire station.

Assistant Director of Libraries Cindy Cleary said Hunt-Coffey’s replacement will need to harness those changes and at the same time look forward five or 10 years to an ever-changing landscape affected in no small part by heavy infill from downtown projects like the Americana at Brand.

While Hunt-Coffey leaves impending change behind here in Glendale, there is plenty awaiting her in Beverly Hills.

The library there will soon undergo a major renovation, and Hunt-Coffey said she has an ample set of planned program expansions and upgrades to technology to keep her busy.

Her ability to implement those same goals in an exponentially larger library system in Glendale — combined with her academic and professional history in information technology — is what has Beverly Hills officials eagerly awaiting her arrival, said Cheryl Friedling, deputy city manager there.

“Her background is truly impressive,” she said.

Or truly bizarre, Hunt-Coffey said.

Since 1987, she has bounced from library page to student of English literature to biochemistry to software and Web engineering to business school — all the while maintaining a job as a Glendale librarian.

“Finally I realized I should probably go to library school,” Hunt-Coffey said.

And so she did, earning a master’s degree in library and information science. Her doctorate in the same field is a work in progress.

Now she is poised to transfer her managerial skills to a city that is considering introducing valet service at a library patronized by a long list of Pulitzer and Nobel Peace prize winners, millionaires and scholars.

“I had no idea that I’d be here,” she said.

“It’s been a fabulous experience.”