FAIRHOPE, Ala. — In what she calls a new adventure, Tamara Dean has taken over as the director of the Fairhope Public Library.

Dean, who was appointed Dec. 28, is moving from her position as the library’s youth services director which she held for eight years.

“I feel like the transition was seamless,” she said, and that the board was making a vote of confidence in favor of the library staff by making this in-house hire.

In addition to her Fairhope Library background, Dean worked 15 years in public school administration and she said having that experience qualifies her for the director position.

“I love administration,” she said. “I feel like I have the skills and talents in that area.”

A love of library patrons and building book collections helps, too.

“It’s been exciting for me,” Dean said of moving into the position.

And she’s already looking toward the future.

“This library is kind of the hub of Fairhope,” she said. She wants it to continue as one of the city’s mainstays, while building up and strengthening its existing programs.

“All of our services and programs we plan to take to new standards,” Dean said.

One area that continues to grow is the youth services offered by the library. Toward the end of her time as the youth services director, Dean was able to get a $25,000 Library Services and Technology Act grant to put toward youth services. She said she continues to work with disseminating those funds.

Part of the funds went toward purchasing a Wii Game System to be used in by youth during weekly scheduled events.

Other events, like board game bazaars, have been instituted to bring more teens through the library doors.

“Our youth services is growing by leaps and bounds,” Dean said. “I hope that it will help teenagers understand they are an important part of the library as a whole.”

Other services, such as genealogy and ancestry searches, computer classes and resume-building software in the business center, Dean would like to see continually grow.

“Across the board, we’re all going to be meeting new challenges to up the standard of our programs,” she said.

Dean said she is thankful to be at the help of such a strong library staff.

“We have such dedicated and professional people,” she said.

She said her staff and volunteers through the Friends of the Fairhope Library work tirelessly to keep the library running, but hopes that more staff can be added in the future as programs are added and library hours are extended.

But funding is needed in order for that to happen. Funding is received from the city and by fundraising events put on by the Friends of the Fairhope Library, such as the annual Chocolate and Champagne event which will be March 13 this year.

“We will be looking for ways to increase funding,” Dean said of the future, like perhaps letting businesses use some library facilities for a fee.

Some other more long-term goals, Dean said is making the building more handicap-accessible, adding more multi-cultural programs and collaborating with local schools more.

In general, Dean said, she’d like the library to have a very strong presence in the community.

“We hope to exceed the expectations of our patrons,” Dean said.

Dean replaces former director Ilse Krick, who retired.