Urbana Library Board Names Acting Executive Director

The Urbana Free Library’s Board of Trustees has chosen a new acting executive director.

Associate Director Kathy Wicks replaces Debra Lissak, who entered into an early separation agreement with the board last month following controversy over the culling of books.

Library Board President Chris Scherer said the library is making progress returning books were removed because of the excessive weeding, but he says there are no plans to change the criteria for that process

“The policy was not followed in the first weeding process completely," Scherer said. "It was partially followed, but that’s why so many books left and that’s why over 2,000 have been returned to the shelves.”

The library board said 259 boxes of books were returned from an online retailer when the weeding mistake was found, and that library staff have so far sifted through about 220 boxes.

Scherer couldn’t provide a timetable for when the search will begin for a permanent executive director.