By Dana Klosner-Wehner
Former director John Bosco resigned in May after working there for six months.
In the interim, Carolee Ciulla has been the library’s acting director. An employee for nearly 20 years, she was appointed shortly after Bosco resigned.
“We have a relatively new library — we’re just ending its second year of new construction,” said Joy Madera, president of the library board. “My colleagues and I all look forward to having a new director.
“We have a 420-seat auditorium,” Madera added. “We would like to see that as a community gathering place and a cultural arts center.” The BroadHollow Theater now uses the library’s auditorium, and recently completed a run of “The Boy Friend.”
“We’d love to be able to expand that forward and offer the community that and other forms of cultural arts,” Madera said. “We would love to become a community-based center, especially in these difficult economic times. We would like to offer programs where the entire community can benefit.”
Madera said the library’s goal is to offer culturally diverse programs, since Elmont is a culturally diverse community. “We speak over 70 languages in our community,” she said. “The director is the one that would have those visions and reach out to pull those programs in. I think we do the best we can at the present time. With the presence of a director willing to reach out to explore these kinds of possibilities, we could make our programs more excellent.”
Library patrons agree that the library has excellent programs, but they could use a little bit of tweaking. “They’ve been doing great programs as it is,” said Erica Vaccaro of Franklin Square, whose 22-month-old daughter Madison attends the pre-school program. “Their programs are fantastic — the ladies here are great. I just wish they had the pre-school program more than once a month.”
Dorothy Goldblum of Elmont agrees that the library has great programs for children. Her 3-year-old granddaughter Grace enjoys salsa dancing and making crafts. Goldblum said she would like to see more programs for senior citizens.
Phanel Florvil of Elmont thinks the library is doing a great job, but as the father of a 13-year-old and a 10-year-old, he said he thinks the facility needs more programs for kids in that age group. “Kids that age are curious,” Florvil said. “They should have more programs to bring them into the library.”
Because the library is a part of the Nassau County Civil Service system, it must hire someone from a Civil Service list. The board is currently interviewing people on that list and trying to fill the position as quickly as possible. But most important to trustees is finding the right fit.
“It’s most important that we find somebody that fits us,” Madera said. “Someone who has a vision for the library and sees himself or herself as a stakeholder.”
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