Erin Sapienza was named Orange County Library Director, county manager Bonnie Hammersley announced Monday. Sapienza, who started with Orange County Public Library in June 2013, had been serving as interim Director since last October.
“Erin’s familiarity with Orange County Public Library and her leadership qualities make her the ideal choice,” said Hammersley. “She knows the people the library serves and has a clear vision for the role the library can play in our community.”
Sapienza has more than nine years of library experience with Orange County and began her career here as a Branch Manager. She managed the budget, hired and supervised staff and worked with local community leaders to develop programming in both branches.
In October 2015 she was promoted to Community Services Librarian and in March 2020 was named Assistant Library Director. When former director Lucinda Munger resigned last October, Hammersley named Sapienza interim director while the county searched for a permanent replacement.
“I love this community and feel honored to serve as the Library Director,” she said. “Much of my library career has focused on community engagement, and I am eager to continue collaborative work that addresses the needs of our residents.”
While serving as Assistant Library Director, she organized a strategic planning team that engaged with community partners and residents to solicit feedback on how the library could improve services. This effort led to a recommendation to eliminate fines for overdue materials, which the Board of County Commissioners approved in November 2021.
“One of our over-arching goals is to remove barriers to service,” Sapienza said. “As an organization whose mission is to lift our residents up, we committed to pursue elimination of fines, and we will continue to improve our services and access for all residents.”
After earning her master’s of library science in 2010 from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Sapienza worked as a librarian for Durham Tech, the Living Arts Institute in Winston-Salem and Alamance County before coming to Orange County.