LIVINGSTON- After an executive session Tuesday night, the Livingston Parish Library Board announced Michelle Parrish will be the Interim Parish Library Director.
The library system has been looking for someone to take the helm after Director Giovanni Tairov suddenly announced his immediate resignation two weeks ago, saying “it’s time to move on to new opportunities and challenges.”
Tuesday night Assistant Director Jennifer Seneca announced her resignation after 12 years at the library.
Why the two long-time leaders are leaving is surprising to Parish Councilman Gary Talbert, who dismissed his appointed library board member during the last parish council meeting.
“This council, along with the parish council, sent a letter to the library board telling them do some things. They basically flipped the bird at us, and sent it back telling us we’re going to do whatever we want to do,” Talbert said.
Talbert says he has a new member he is ready to appoint on Thursday at the next meeting.
The councilman made headlines in February when he hired a private investigator to access sexual images on a library computer.
That happened after Tairov told council members the library staffers blocked more than 20,000 library cards for minors from being used until a parent or guardian unlocks the card and selects what kind of books their child can check out.
Debate about the library’s operations started last summer when Councilman Jeff Ard put an item on the agenda about how the library classifies books. He claims sexually explicit books are available to children.
The library has told the council they have a system in place to allow the public to comment on books they feel are not in the right section.
Leave a Reply