EBR library chief resigns

• By SCOTT DYER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Apr 22, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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East Baton Rouge Library System Director Lydia Acosta, who caused major waves by pushing to relocate the main library downtown, has resigned to take a job in Florida.

Also, one of the Library Board members who had favored moving the main library downtown announced Monday he is resigning.

Stephen Moret, a former president of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, said in an e-mail Monday to Acosta and Council Administrator Brian Mayers that he no longer has time to attend Library Board meetings because of the demands of his new job as state secretary of economic development.

Acosta had played a major role in getting Moret appointed to the board two years ago.

Monday afternoon, Acosta said she had to think long and hard before accepting the Florida position because she and her husband are happy in Baton Rouge.

She said her new job — vice president of information services and university librarian at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale — will allow her to be nearer to family in Florida. The university is private, but maintains a public library on its campus in a partnership with Broward County.

Acosta flatly denied the controversy over whether to move the main East Baton Rouge library had anything to do with her departure.

Acosta and the Library Board ran into more than a little political turbulence by pushing to relocate the main library.

The proposal, initially approved by the board in 2005, drew support from downtown development proponents, but ran into resistance from library patrons who wanted to keep the main library in centrally located Independence Park.

Mayor-President Kip Holden intervened in early 2007. At his suggestion, the Library Board adopted a capital improvement plan that called for construction of a new main library in Independence Park and a new downtown branch library.

Library board Chairman Dan Reed said he tried unsuccessfully to convince Acosta to stay in Baton Rouge.

“She’s going to be making a lot more money where she’s going,” Reed said Monday.

Before coming to Baton Rouge in 2003, Acosta served as director of the Fountaindale Library District in suburban Chicago. She worked as dean of library and learning resources at Chicago State University from 1994 until 1997.