ITHACA, NY (607NewsNow) – The Tompkins County Public Library has announced finalists for the director position.

On November 19, TCPL shared that after a national search, just two candidates remain.

“We are pleased that our national search has yielded two well qualified candidates to lead this historic institution that is such a vibrant center for learning and community engagement,” said Search Committee Co-Chairs Lis Chabot and Sarah Clausen in a statement. “While we have had able interim directors, we look forward to having a permanent leader to ably steward the resources and services that will align with community needs.”

Susie Gutenberger Fitzpatrick has been the Lansing Community Library Director since 2008. During her tenure, she’s grown programming by 85%, grown circulation by 70%, created an endowment fund that’s now over $200,000, secured the library’s nonprofit status, and grown staff from one to 16, with an additional 60 volunteer positions. The Finger Lakes Library System presented her with the Youth Services Award in 2010 and named her Library Director of the Year in 2016.

Gutenberger Fitzpatrick currently serves on the Ithaca Town Board and the Tompkins Chamber Board of Directors.

She will give her presentation in the Borg Warner Community Room at the Tompkins County Public Library in Ithaca on December 1 at 5 p.m.

Emerson Demeester-Lane is the Deputy Director of Public Services at Pima County Public Library (PCPL) in Arizona, where he oversees the work of 27 library locations. He joined PCPL in 2008 as a library associate and worked his way up to his current role. During his tenure, he co-developed the nationally recognized Library Restorative Practices for Youth program, which won him the Urban Library Council Innovator Award in 2018.

Demeester-Lane also co-wrote and managed successful grant funding applications totaling over $220,000, coordinated a major facilities upgrade and remodel, and expanded mobile programs.

He will give his presentation on December 3 at 5 p.m., also in the Borg Warner Community Room at TCPL.

Each finalist’s presentations will be 20 minutes long and will feature a Q&A session. They will be streamed lived on the TCPL YouTube channel for people who can’t make it in person. TCPL’s Board of Trustees hopes to have the new director in place come January, when the term for Interim Library Director Kat Savage expires.

Savage, who was appointed in October, took over for former Tompkins County Legislator Susan Currie, who came out of retirement and left her role on the legislature to run the library on an interim basis following the resignation of former director Leslie Tabor.