Brooklyn Public Library Gets a New Director

Brooklyn Public Library President Linda Johnson on Tuesday named Central Library Director Richard Reyes-Gavilan to the new position of Director of the Library and Chief Librarian, where he will oversee the entire BPL system’s librarians and collections.

“Rich is very talented and I am delighted that he is committed to bringing excellent and extensive services to our hundreds of thousands of library users as Director of the Library and Chief Librarian,” said Johnson in a statement. “His contributions over the past several years as Central Library Director have been extraordinary and give me great confidence that his expertise and creativity will raise the library experience to a new level.”

During his nearly four years as Central Library Director, Reyes-Gavilan oversaw the creation of a facilities “master plan” for Central Library and helped to develop the concept for the Leon Levy Information Commons, a learning lab funded by the Leon Levy Foundation. Reyes-Gavilan  also helped to restructure branch service hours and collaborated with the New York City Department of Small Business Services on Workforce One Expansion Centers opening in two BPL locations in October.

Reyes-Gavilan first began his career at the New York Public Library, where he developed Spanish-language collections for neighborhood libraries in the Bronx, before moving to the Donnell Library Center in Midtown to oversee collections and services for adults. He managed the Literature and Language Collection for three years before being promoted to the head of the Mid-Manhattan Library Humanities Department. He earned a Masters of Library and Information Science from the University of Texas at Austin and an undergraduate degree in literature from the State University of New York at Albany.

“The Board is excited by the team that Linda Johnson is building at BPL and there could be no better person for her to appoint to this critical position than Rich Reyes-Gavilan. Rich’s energy, vision and expertise in delivering library services will help BPL further build its prominence and reputation for excellence,” said BPL Board Chair Anthony W. Crowell, in a statement.