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Brookline Trustees of the Public Library {_getChooseLabel(this.selections.length)}

Twelve are elected as Brookline Library Trustees to oversee services and programs provided at the three Brookline public libraries. Each year after the May election, the Trustees elect 4 officers from their membership: Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. The Trustees represent the interests of the Brookline electorate in matters concerning library policy; they oversee the hiring and function of the head librarian and investing and spending a specific portion of the library s trust funds (gifts and bequests made to the library over the years either for specific purposes or to an fund). Other activities include planning library events like Brookline Reads, authors groups and lectures and exhibits; looking at long range planning for library services; having input on physical plant maintenance issues; reviewing and improving library policies; representing library patrons interests to the Select Board, the Advisory Committee and Town Meeting as needed; and other activities that arise from patrons input, trustees concerns or staff concerns.Meetings of the whole Board of Trustees are held one evening a month in the Trustees Room of the Brookline Village Library. Sub-committee meetings are held as needed (these include committees on public relations, fiscal matters, library services, buildings, etc.). (No salary; no health insurance.)* following a candidate name indicates an Incumbent.For Incumbent Town Meeting Races, Attendance Record for last three years is shown.(NP) shows for all candidates and races. The Brookline Municipal Election is Non-Partisan.

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    Judith Goleman*
    (NP)

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    Kristin J. Hung*
    (NP)

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    Carol Troyen Lohe*
    (NP)

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    Sassan Zelhka*
    (NP)

Biographical Information

Biographical Data:

Given rising costs and the many ways libraries are being used, what would you do to sustain the staffing, book collections, media sources, and technology of Brookline Public Libraries?

Campaign Mailing Address 57 Mason Terrace
Brookline, MA 02446
Campaign Phone 617-939-7457
Attendance Not Incumbent TM Member
As a resident of Brookline for 37 years, as well as a retired English professor and administrator at the University of Massachusetts Boston, I believe I have values, knowledge, and skills that are relevant to a position on the Library Board of Trustees.
As a current Trustee, I attended all the Town budget hearings for 2024-25 and supported the Director's proposal for the Library; I serve on the Finance Committee and examine the Library's investments monthly; I am a liaison with the Friends of the Brookline Public Library and am familiar with the donations that they (as well as the Brookline Foundation) make to the Library. Municipal support as well as foundation support are important to sustain Library services. In my one-year term as a Trustee I have made an effort to be familiar with these sources and to advocate for additional sources as well.
Campaign Mailing Address 10 Vernon Street
Brookline, MA 02446
Campaign Phone 617-285-1660
Campaign Website http://kristinhung.org
Attendance Not Incumbent TM Member
I joined the Board of Library Trustees in 2021 and have enjoyed being part of the Library's efforts to foster inclusion and opportunity for everyone in our community. I am a mom to a 4th grader at the Florida Ruffin Ridley School where I serve as one of the PTO co-chairs and help lead the FRR Equity PAC. I also work as a physician at MGH and have a passion for improving my patients' quality of life through reconstructive pelvic surgery. In my free time, I pretend that I know how to play golf and hope to get back to playing the piano one day.
Continued advocacy for the Library is essential to bolstering our infrastructure so that we are able to maintain and expand our collections in a way that is relevant to the needs of today and allow more usage and therefore more support for the Library. As a public-facing system, nurturing relationships with Brookline community members and organizations will ensure that the demand for and use of diverse and accessible library resources continues to drive our growth in a direction that is useful to library users and that will enable more people to benefit from the Library.
Campaign Mailing Address 25 Salisbury Road
Brookline, MA 02445
Campaign Phone 617-739-0892
Attendance Not Incumbent TM Member
I was appointed, then elected, a Library Trustee in 2012, and was elected Treasurer in 2014. I have served on the Long Range Planning Committee, the Library Services Committee, the Programming Committee, “Brookline Reads,” and the Investment Committee. My husband, Werner Lohe, and I have lived in Brookline since 1988; our daughters, Erica and Ellen, graduated from Driscoll and Brookline High. I attended Yale University (B.A., Ph.D.) and have spent my professional life in museums, as Curator of American Art at the Museum of Fine Arts and as Acting Chief Curator at the Wadsworth Atheneum. I serve on the Board of the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry, a social justice organization based in Roxbury.
Town allocations, State Aid, ARPA grants (to support the purchase of an electric bookmobile), and funds raised by the hard-working Library Foundation and Friends have provided adequate funding for the Library despite rising costs. Trustees should continue to advocate vigorously for the Library’s increasing needs as annual budgets are developed, supporting operational overrides when necessary. But sustaining the Library financially is not our only obligation. Increasingly libraries have come under fire, from both the right and the left, about titles on the shelves and programmatic offerings that some deem offensive. While such challenges have not yet affected our Library, we are not immune. The Trustees need to be vigilant in defending the Library against these pressures, always remembering that, as Justice Holmes argued, the essence of free speech is freedom for the thought that we hate.
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