After nearly 20 years leading Curtis Memorial Library as executive director, Elisabeth “Liz” Doucett will retire in July.
“Liz has skillfully led the library through the 2008 recession, the closing of Brunswick Naval Air Station, COVID, and federal funding cuts,” said Tahnthawan Coffin, president of the library’s board of directors. “Curtis has thrived under Liz’s leadership — launching the nationally recognized Library of Things and the EV Bookmobile, getting certified by the Sustainable Library Initiative, hosting illustration exhibits by Garth Williams and Robert McCloskey, and growing the endowment fund to over $8 million.
“Liz has also been a careful steward of the library’s buildings, restoring the original windows and doors in the 1904 Building, ‘greening’ the mezzanine, updating the lobby in the 1999 addition, and preserving and now adding to Curtis’ art collection.”
During Doucett’s tenure, she established and championed the Creative Hive and the Genealogy Room, along with extensive genealogy programming; introduced Little Free Libraries throughout Brunswick; wrote the updated history of the library from 1972-2023 and several books published by the American Library Association; and digitized and made searchable The Times Record’s historical database.
Recognized nationally and regionally under Doucett’s leadership, Curtis received two American Library Association grants totaling $200,000 to teach financial literacy; was a 2009 recipient of a Baker & Taylor Product Award Grant and a 2024 recipient of the John Cotton Dana Award for Library Public Relations; and was voted Best Library in Maine by the readers of Down East magazine from 2017-2019.
A Search Committee, chaired by former board President Karen Budd, has chosen the Boston-based executive search firm Isaacson, Miller to conduct a national and regional search for the library’s next executive director.
“Liz is leaving the library — its facilities, finances and staff — in such a strong position for its next leader,” Budd said.
Isaacson, Miller’s Becca Kennedy, of Freeport, is the lead on the search. For more information, including a job description, go to curtislibrary.com/jobs-curtis.
