By BRAD GASKINS / Staff Writer

COLUMBIANA – If you like the Columbiana Public Library, Laurie Hackney would love to hear from you.

She’s the new library director, and her first day on the job is Oct. 10.

“We always take suggestions,” Hackney said. “I do want to know what people in the area are looking for in any kind of format.”

Selected by the city’s library board and approved last month by the Columbiana City Council, Hackney succeeds Jane Bailey, who retires Oct. 7.

Hackney spent a couple days this week working with Bailey for a smooth a transition.

A self-described “Army brat” from the Midwest, Hackney graduated from the University of Montevallo in 2005 with a business administration degree. Hackney got a master’s in library and information studies from Alabama in 2007.

She spent a year as a library page at Mountain Brook’s Emmet O’Neal Library and for the last four years worked as a library assistant at Homewood’s library, where she dealt primarily with children.

“Some people are really good with children,” Hackney said. “I am one of those people.”

Revamping the children’s section at Columbiana will be one of her first priorities, she said.