The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Library head from Cheshire starts at end of the month
MIDDLETOWN — The Russell Library Board of Trustees has hired city resident Ramona Burkey, 14-year head of the Cheshire Library, as director and CEO. She begins May 30.
Burkey, who resides in Middletown, is a longtime leader of public libraries. She comes to Russell Library from Cheshire, where she has served as head of the town’s public library for the last 14 years. “We are thrilled to have someone of Ramona’s quality and character coming to lead Russell,” Library Board President Bruce Markot said in a press release. “We just finalized her contract, and I couldn’t be happier in getting this done for the whole Middletown community. It says something about Russell Library and Middletown that we were able to attract a person of such high caliber and experience, as well as a recognized regional leader of library services.”
“Leaving Cheshire is bittersweet,” Burkey said in the prepared statement. “I have so many positive memories and have built so many great relationships there, but I view this as a special opportunity to lead a library that I personally use and that serves my own diverse community.
“I plan to build on the stellar reputation Russell already has and to be honest, I wouldn’t have left Cheshire for any other opportunity.”
“Ramona’s personal story is a gripping one,” Board Vice President Geen Thazhampallath said in the release. “She attributes much of her life successes, progressing from a rural Maine community, to getting into Yale University, to leading Cheshire’s town library, to her early-in-life times within her small rural public library in Maine.
“Her story goes to show what libraries mean to communities and to individuals. They are places to learn, excel, rebuild and to grow as you may need. I think her personal story really drives her to make public libraries a great place to be. I expect nothing less of her here at Russell.”