Ferndale library hires within for newest director

FERNDALE — The new director of the Ferndale Area District Library is ready to step up and take charge.

The library announced that Drew Macaulay had been selected to become the library’s next director after the departure of Jordan Wright, who left late last year to take the same position at the Tecumseh District Library.

Macaulay has been with the Ferndale Area District Library since August of 2021. She most recently held the position of head of reference and adult services.

“It’s a very exciting place to be,” she said of taking on the director’s position. “There’s always something going on. We have a high level of engagement with the schools, a good amount of engagement with the city and Parks and Rec, and all of that interconnectivity has allowed us to really have exciting programming, solid outreach and really good relationships with the populace, and I hope to continue and grow all of that.”

Becoming a director of a library was something Macaulay never set out to achieve, but she said she feels very strongly about the Ferndale Area District Library and she wanted to take on that role.

“Ferndale is an amazing library. For being a small, single-branch library, it has incredible depth, both in terms of programming, in terms of our collections and in terms of the diversity of the community,” she said. “So I did not come into library science intending or thinking that I needed to be a director per se, because I enjoy a lot of aspects of librarianship that I’ve lost by moving into management. However, I feel very strongly about our library and the role we play in the community.”

Library Board President Amanda Hanlin stated in an email that Macaulay’s knowledge, background and analytical capabilities made her stand out as a candidate to become director.

“She is motivated and creative, and it is evident how invested she is in the library’s inclusivity and accessibility,” she said. “Drew displays a rare combination of strength and compassion that told us right away that she is the right leader for our library team and for our community.”

In terms of what next steps she wants to take with the library, Macaulay wants to review any potential gaps the branch has with the programming it offers the public.

“We offer a lot of programming, but we’re going to be very thoughtful and analytical in the next two quarters about looking for any gaps in how we serve our demographics with our programming,” she said. “We have a new series of device-based tech classes. So basically, how to get the most out of your phone that will actually serve a section of our populace that I don’t think is being addressed broadly in terms of their tech needs. So we’re going to be doing some analytics on our programming starting in February to get a sense of if we have any gaps.”