Rockford Public Library director to retire after 11 years here; board selects successor

Lynn Stainbrook spent decades leading library systems in the Midwest

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Rockford Public Library Executive Director Lynn Stainbrook will retire this summer after decades of work leading public library systems here and around the Midwest.

Stainbrook has been at the helm of the Rockford Public Library since November 2014. She was hired as the library was preparing to exit its main branch to make way for ComEd to tackle environmental cleanup at the site, which had a history as a gas plant.

The long process to tear down the former main branch, conduct an environmental cleanup and build a 66,000-square-foot, three-story library on the riverfront at 215 N. Wyman St. was completed a year ago.

“She brought a tremendous knowledge of library science to the position. As importantly, she also brought experience with library construction projects. She was really instrumental in bringing that to completion,” said Paul Logli, president of the library’s board of trustees. “Lynn has been a great executive director. She certainly was the right person at the right time.”

The board has selected a successor to take over after Stainbrook retires Aug. 5. Anthony Cortez, who is now the library’s director of finance and technology, was chosen after a monthslong search process.

The board used an Ohio-based search firm to identify nearly 20 candidates, and Cortez continued to rise to the top as the board narrowed down the field to a few finalists, Logli said.

Cortez has been with the library for nearly 10 years, and before that spent about a decade working with the city of Rockford as an accountant, water billing analyst and then customer service manager.

“He has done an excellent job for us in the last 10 years,” Logli said. “With his finance background, Tony is going to be in an excellent position to address some financial challenges that are on the horizon for the library.”

Those challenges include the library facing declines in state funding while trying to hold the line on property taxes, Logli said.

“We know we’re going to have some financial challenges over the next five six years,” Logli said. “Tony, with his finance background with both the city and the library, is probably the best person to be in the position to address those.”

Becoming a Rockford fan

Stainbrook is a native of Janesville, Wisconsin, who came to Rockford after leading the Brown County Library in Green Bay. She said she grew to love Rockford for everything from its independently owned restaurants to its local museums and other attractions.

“It was my delight to work in Rockford,” Stainbrook said. “I have become one of those big Rockford fans, and I think that things in Rockford are a going to get better and better.”

She and her late husband, Bill Perry, had purchased a home in Lindenhurst with plans to move there to be near their daughter and grandchildren once the library project was complete. That’s where she’ll move after retiring and selling her Rockford home.

“I like to tease that I do have a second job lined up when I leave here, and that is to put my twin grandchildren on to the kindergarten bus,” she said. “I just wish it were a kindergarten bus here in Rockford.”

Aside from shepherding the new library project, Stainbrook also helped the library further expand its digital reach, including a new DigiLibrary that travels around Rockford neighborhoods to provide technology access and education such as youth coding classes.

As the head of the Warren-Newport Public Library in Gurnee in 2004, Stainbrook guided the library through being one of the earliest adopters of passive radio frequency identification technology, or RFID, to automate check-ins of books and media. That technology and the self-check kiosks it allows were later installed in Rockford during Stainbrook’s tenure.

“In Rockford, we have something like 98% of our physical checkouts are done on our check-out kiosks,” she said. “They’ve been very widely accepted, and I think people have discovered how easy they are to use.”

The library also faced financial constraints in the middle of Stainbrook’s tenure that led to the closing of two branches that the organization had leased. Board members at the time said the closures saved rental and maintenance costs and prevented the library from having to make even deeper staff reductions.

The Rock River Branch at 3128 11th Street closed in late 2020 and the Rockton Centre Branch, 3112 N. Rockton Ave., shut down in March 2021. The library responded by adding a mobile library and expanding its digital options. A second mobile library is now in the works, Stainbrook said.

“We’ll be having a fleet of vehicles that will be going all over the city Rockford rather than having some in static locations,” she said. “It’s a different way of meeting the needs of our community where transportation is still an issue for many people.”

Stainbrook, who earned a master’s degree in library science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, began her career in 1974 in an academic library in what is now the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater at Rock County. Her first role working in a public library was in her hometown in Janesville.

She has spent 42 years at the helm of various public library systems, starting with the small community of Milton, Wisconsin, in 1983. She then led the Beloit Public Library, Orrville Public Library in Ohio, Warren-Newport Public Library in Gurnee, Arlington Heights Memorial Library and Brown County Library in Green Bay.

“I feel incredibly fortunate and lucky in my career with the locations I’ve been able to work at and what I’ve been able to do,” Stainbrook said. “They really do love their public libraries, and it’s nice to be working in a field that people enjoy.”

She said the board, the staff and the community have been welcoming, forgiving and supportive during her time in Rockford.

“I’ve worked with great people in this community and the board and the staff have been first class,” she said.

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas