'Bookends': Urbana Free Library director to leave in September

URBANA — Celeste Moutos began her tenure as The Urbana Free Library’s executive director on April Fool’s Day in 2014.

Now, 10 years later, her last day is set for Sept. 13 — Friday the 13th, as it happens.

“It’s kind of fun bookends,” she said.

Moutos will be moving to Michigan to live with her husband. When asked if she will be working at a library there, she replied, “That is my intention, but that is not finalized yet.”

“I love libraries,” she said. “I’ve been a public librarian for over 30 years. I graduated in 1993, and this is my passion, in serving the community in this way. It’s the best job ever.”

The library’s board of trustees voted on Tuesday to appoint associate director Rachel Fuller as interim executive director during the search for Moutos’ replacement.

Moutos said that board President Daniel Urban has asked her, some volunteers from the board and associate director Dawn Cassady, who is responsible for human resources, to “look at a process for hiring the executive director.”

Urban said the group will look for a firm that can help the board with a national search.

“We have a great library here in our town in The Urbana Free Library,” he said. “And it’s something that would draw good, well-qualified people for the position, and we want to make sure that we’re casting a wide net.”

Moutos said that leaving The Urbana Free Library is “bittersweet,” as she has found the love of her life but has to leave the place she’s called home for the past decade.

Leading the library has been rewarding for Moutos, who reminisced about highlights such as helping write an American Rescue Plan Act grant to hire a bilingual programming specialist and negotiating an agreement with The News-Gazette to house its archives.

“It’s hard to leave a place where you know you’ve made a positive impact,” she said.

“She’s guided the library through a lot, and I think she’s done a phenomenal job over the last 10-plus years,” Urban said. “She’s definitely going to be missed at the library. So I think there’s big shoes to fill for whoever’s going to come in and take that over.”