Longtime La Grange Park library circulation director retires

LA GRANGE PARK – After a 15-year tenure with the La Grange Park Public Library, its circulation director recently announced her retirement, along with who she'll be passing on the torch to.

Ursula Stanek, whose retirement was effective as of March 31, helped the library develop its fiction, audio book and large print collections, according to Library Director Dixie Conkis.

Along with managing the circulation department, the German-born librarian also led a German conversation group – a program which she plans to continue volunteering for.

Throughout her years in La Grange Park, Stanek – who joined the staff in 1998 – also earned the library international attention after discovering a rare Nazi book marked "secret."

Stanek found the book in 2012 after it was donated to the Friends of the Library Bookshop. When no one claimed the book, Stanek donated it to the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

With Stanek's resignation, the library's business manager, Roberta Richter, will become the circulation director as of this April. Richter, who joined the La Grange Park Public Library in 2012, previously worked at both the Hinsdale and Indian Prairie libraries circulation departments.