Local candidate named Carson’s library director

Sena Loyd, @Two Digital Learning Center manager at the Carson City Library, was selected Thursday to be Carson City’s next library director.

The Library Board of Trustees, after signaling during deliberations that it was split between two applicants in a 2-2 deadlock, with just one for a third candidate, coalesced after lengthy discussion around the 29-year-old Loyd.

She was chosen over Amy Geddes, 44, of Carlsbad, Calif. Mary Scott Wallace of Reno had one supporter for the post during initial discussions, but after a motion and vote the board ended up supporting Loyd unanimously.

Phyllis Patton, a board member and the president at the Friends of the Carson City Library, supported Loyd from the start but said Geddes was a “very close second.”

Patton was named by fellow board members to negotiate with Loyd regarding a pay package from a preset range between $70,799 and $99,121 annually.

Geddes, a native Nevadan who works as a librarian in the San Diego County Library in Southern California, later said she immediately told Loyd after the selection that she still was interested in coming to Carson City in some capacity with the library.

Geddes was the library director in Tonopah from early 2003 until summer 2006.

Loyd joined Carson City’s library just over a year ago. She was earning $46,800 running the tech learning center on the second floor of the library building.

She was a research librarian at the Nevada Department of Transportation from early 2010 until she joined the city library staff in September 2012.

All four candidates had master’s degrees in library science or library and information science. The fourth candidate was Diane Duquette of Pine Mountain Club, Calif.

A fifth applicant from Oklahoma had been scheduled for an interview via Skype, but a conflict intervened and the board decided it could choose from the field of four.

Despite reservations from two board members during the discussion about experience level and promoting from within someone young with less experience in charge of a staff numbering 20, the board as a group sounded taken with Loyd’s technical expertise and vision for the future. She was the first or second choice of all five board members, which put her in a good spot when the motion came.

“Both finalists were fantastic,” said Sandy Foley, board chairwoman.

Foley said she has heard often that libraries aren’t what they used to be, agreed with board colleagues that experience and vision are needed, and added she also was leaning toward vision and the future.

“This kid can come up to speed pretty fast,” she said as she discussed Loyd, then added about Geddes, “I don’t think that Amy is as young as you might think.”

Her remarks seemed in response to comments by Bob Kennedy, the board member who had favored Wallace as an experienced librarian and Loyd as his second choice. Questions about age aren’t sought in background information or allowed during interviews.

Patton will negotiate not only the pay package with Loyd, but her starting date as director.

Discussion prior to the vote indicated Geddes would stand in line second should those negotiations not work out, but there was little sign that was possible given Loyd’s reaction after learning she was selected.

Loyd is a 2007 graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno, with a major in anthropology, and earned her master’s degree in library and information science from San Jose State University two years later.

She had library experience while doing work on her master’s degree. She was a librarian assistant in California’s El Dorado County Library system and a library intern there in 2008-09.