San Rafael, CA – Lana Adlawan, Division Manager for the Sonoma County Library system, is the County of Marin’s choice to take over as Director of the Marin County Free Library.
Adlawan comes to the County of Marin with professional experience in various cities throughout the nation and many of those in the Bay Area. Over her career, she has served in progressively more responsible roles within the Brooklyn, Sacramento, Oakland, and Sonoma library systems. Most recently, Lana served as a Division Manager for the Sonoma County Library, overseeing nine library branches. Adlawan has a Bachelor of Arts in Community Services from UC Santa Cruz and Master of Science in Library and Information Services from the Pratt Institute.
“We are excited to have someone with Lana’s skills and ability take on this important role,” said Mathew Hymel, County Administrator. “We are confident that she will build upon the success of the past and take our Library system to the next level.”
Her personal and professional background has driven her clear passion for community, innovation and equity.
“I am excited to join the team in serving the entire county. I’ve heard great things about the staff and know their dedication to community is strong,” said Adlawan. “I really want to work closely with them to see how we can best serve our community together.”
Adlawan was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and says her push for an equitable approach comes from her growing up in such a diverse place.
“It’s really been a lifelong commitment to learn from different people and different cultures,” said Adlawan. “Growing up, throughout my life, I have always been positively impacted by other perspectives. I think it is a wonderful way to be and I think we can all learn from one another.”
When asked about what brought her to Marin County, Adlawan highlighted the equity work the County has prioritized and how that has strengthened Marin County Free Library’s leadership role, not only across California but the country. She even commended the Learning Bus program and its incorporation of both equity and innovation in its curriculum.
“Services like the Learning Bus require bilingual staff that are well versed in early education techniques and can make a huge impact to our community,” she added. “We should make the library easy for everyone to use, as they wish and wherever they are. The Learning Bus is a fun, innovative and great example for what libraries can look like in the future.”
Moving forward as the new Director of Library Services, Adlawan thinks it is imperative we learn from our experiences throughout the pandemic.
“Some of the things I am looking at in terms of responsiveness of library system is supporting digital literacy and new technologies. That has really changed for library services during the pandemic,” said Adlawan. “It would be good to prime-time now and build off of that base knowledge to see what fun things we can bring that supports educational advancement in remote learning and exploration.”
After an open nationwide recruitment process, the Board of Supervisors is scheduled to confirm the appointment of Lana Adlawan as the Director of Library Services at their August 10th meeting. Her annual salary would be $178,152. Her benefits will be consistent with those received by other department heads.
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