By Susan Fisher, PR Supervisor, Muncie Public Library—
MUNCIE, IN—Muncie Public Library Director Akilah S. Nosakhere recently announced that she will retire on March 1, 2024. The MPL Board of Trustees Personnel Committee, chaired by Traci Lutton, will establish a committee to conduct a search in the coming months in an effort to fill the position.
Nosakhere joined MPL as Library Director in January of 2017. She previously worked for MPL in 1985 as a database developer as part of a grant made possible through the Indiana State Library. She then worked extensively in libraries throughout the US, including Washington DC, Atlanta, and Carlsbad, New Mexico. She served in a wide variety of innovative leadership positions at academic libraries, special, and public libraries.
Nosakhere is also recognized as an author, contributing to books and other publications dedicated to raising the profile of African Americans in the field of librarianship. A member of the American Library Association (ALA), the Black Caucus of the ALA, and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, she successfully advocated for the inclusion of librarians as research partners in library and academic societies.
As MPL’s Library Director, Nosakhere focused on all areas of management of the four-branch library system, while also successfully pursuing numerous grants that funded upgrades to resources and services to better serve the public. This includes the Health Track and Story Walk feature at Maring-Hunt Library and the most recent successful grant that will provide more than $100,000 for vital repairs and restoration to historic Carnegie Library.
The search committee will be comprised of members of the MPL Board of Trustees along with representatives from the MPL employees and at least two community members. The position requires a Master’s of Library Science (MLS) degree and will be posted on local, state, and national sites that serve librarians.
