By Miles Layton
EDENTON – The Shepard-Pruden Memorial Library may have found a new librarian, though no hire has been officially confirmed, but…
Chowan County Commissioner Tony Shaffer announced the news at Monday’s commission meeting. Shaffer, who attended the Shepard-Pruden Board of Trustees meeting Oct. 13, said he will wait to release the candidate’s name until the person has accepted the job offer and the trustees have approved the hire.
“I will not announce that name until that offer is officially made and accepted,” he said.
Worth noting, when I was in the library the other day, I saw library leaders courting a job candidate, possibly the woman that Shaffer was talking about. How interesting. When the library folks saw me looking that way while the job candidate was in the library and about to go to lunch with library leaders, they got all nervous, like a teenager opening the front door after busting curfew.
That said, once the trustees select a candidate, the name will go to the Pettigrew Regional Library Board for approval. The regional board’s next meeting is Nov. 23.
Though I reached out to interim Pettigrew Regional Library Director Michele Lawrence for comment to super-duper confirm what Shaffer said, I had not received any as of press time. That’s OK. I’m sure when the time comes, we’ll learn who will be taking the reins at Edenton’s library.
Meanwhile, the Pettigrew Regional Library System is also working to fill the regional director position permanently.
The search follows a period of turnover at the top of the regional system. Nate King resigned as regional director in May 2026 and left the post on July 31. His successor, Anna Louise Kallas, resigned in early August, only days after taking over. Kallas had previously served as Shepard-Pruden librarian before being promoted to regional librarian.
The Board of Trustees accepted her resignation as regional librarian at its August meeting and named Lawrence, Perquimans County Librarian, as interim director.
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