Remembered as a lifelong champion of youth public library services, acclaimed librarian Regina Minudri died June 18 at the age of 84 after a series of strokes.
Known as Gina to friends and family, Minudri dedicated her life to growing and sustaining public libraries and was admired for her spirit and dedication to the library system.
“You’ll know about her for her sense of presence,” said Diane Davenport, member of the Berkeley Board of Library Trustees and a good friend of Minudri. “She was a woman who was large in spirit: She loved telling stories, she loved working with the public, she just had an energy that was electric … She was bigger than life.”
Tess Mayer has taken over as director of the Berkeley Public Library. Photo: Pete Rosos
Tess Mayer could not have taken over leadership of the Berkeley Public Library at a more difficult time.
Mayer moved from Seattle to Berkeley in late September to take up the helm of an organization with 116 full-time equivalent employees, a $19 million budget funded by taxpayers, five branch locations, 110,000 library cardholders and more than 1.5 million moving parts. (The amount of material circulating.) Yet the new director of library services has had to work in an almost deserted office (at the central branch of the library), has not been able to even shake anyone’s hand and has only met most of her staff and the board members who hired her via Zoom because of COVID-19 social distancing requirements.