Lisa Reisman Photo
Meghan Currey.
Meghan Currey is stepping down from the helm of the Hill’s Wilson Library branch and headed to a new position in the Wallingford library system.
Currey has spearheaded the Hill branch of the New Haven Free Public Library for four years, after previously working as the teen librarian at the library’s Ives main branch.
Her last day at the library is April 5. Later in April, she will start as the Wallingford Public Library’s head of adult reference.
City Librarian Maria Bernhey said that the library is in the process of determining who will fill Currey’s role temporarily and reflecting on the job description that will be posted.
Bernhey praised the Wilson Library team for their commitment to supporting community members in search of more stability and safety, from shelter to employment — as well as for their commitment to welcoming immigrants and refugees to the city through partnerships with IRIS and the Collective for Refugee and Immigrant Women’s Wellbeing.
She said she hopes the next Hill librarian will maintain Currey’s commitment to community outreach. “Meghan was wonderful in doing that in the Hill community. She was very well connected, attended a lot of events, both as a branch manager and just in her free time,” Bernhey said. “We are looking for someone who’s as dedicated in engaging with the community as Meghan is.”
Currey started at Wilson in 2021, one year into the Covid-19 pandemic, as the branch morphed into a vaccine distribution site and an increasingly urgent technology lifeline for community members.
As branch manager, she was tasked with “wearing many hats,” she said — including managing the library branch’s staff and budget and helping other organizations and community members host events in the library’s meeting rooms.
Soon into her tenure, the city’s chief librarian John Jessen — who had previously served as Wilson’s branch manager — died of cancer. “When I walked in there, I felt like I was trying to fill his shoes: putting the community first and going above and beyond,” Currey said. “My biggest hope was that I could make him proud.”
She said she’s most proud of her advocacy for a full-time children’s librarian at Wilson, which in 2023 was the only branch without such a position.
Currey and her colleagues’ advocacy was successful. The library soon appointed Michelle Ziogas to a full-time children’s role. Ziogas has since updated the library’s children’s collection, started a weekly story-time program that now attracts a regular crowd of about 20 people, and supported programming for kids whose parents attend English as a Second Language learning programs at the library.
More broadly, Currey said, working with the library team at Wilson has been the highlight of her time there. From the music room assembled donation by donation to the seed library fueling gardens throughout the Hill, what makes Wilson unique is that “they’re willing to look outside of the box, and the community really appreciates that work that they do.”
“I love this place and it’s a big change in my life,” Currey said, “and I am going to really miss being here, and being a part of the community, and being a part of the work that the entire team has done. It’s with a really heavy heart that I made the decision.”