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A profile of Maureen Hartman –
 What it takes to run a public library

Published Sep 21, 2026
By
Knight Foundation
Photo credit: Murphy Byrne

Overview

Maureen Hartman is the Director of Saint Paul Public Library, overseeing one of the most dynamic public library systems in the country: 250 team members across 13 locations and a mobile library that received over 1.2 million visits in 2025.

Since joining SPPL in 2017 as Deputy Director for Public Services, Hartman has driven changes that have reshaped how the system connects with its community, from eliminating late fines to guiding a $35 million Transforming Libraries initiative to modernize branches citywide, to which Knight Foundation contributed $2 million. We spoke with Hartman about what it takes to run a library system as ambitious as Saint Paul’s.

Q&A

When you’re starting something like this, what’s the very first thing you have to do? Where does it all begin?

As a kid, my family had a regular practice of going to the library at least weekly. It was just a regular habit in my family.

I went to college, got a liberal arts degree, majored in English. I graduated and had a bunch of different jobs, and I thought, what am I going to do next? I was living down the street from, ironically, a Saint Paul public library. I remembered how much I liked the idea of libraries and how much I like reading. So I submitted an application to be a volunteer.

I still tell this story today even though I’m kind of embarrassed by it. I was not a good volunteer. I quit. The job that they gave me was cleaning the covers of the picture books. It was so boring. It made me start looking into what it takes to work in public libraries. I decided to get my master’s degree in library science.

What I found out as I entered the field is that it wasn’t exactly as I imagined, but I was really good at it and I really loved it. People think libraries are about books. But they are, in fact, about people.

“People think libraries are about books. But they are, in fact, about people.”
Knight Foundation
Maureen Hartman
Director, Saint Paul Public Library

What tools, skills or supports do you absolutely rely on to make this work possible?

You have to like working with people. That’s true of anyone who works in a public library, but it could not be more true of the leader of the organization.

The second part is a passion and a love and understanding of community. The community is the whole reason. We have to love our community, but we also have to be in conversation with community members about our services, so they can continue to evolve.

And adaptive leadership. I learned this most importantly in my career leading the library through COVID. We are in the mix on issues like AI, community-first public safety, intellectual freedom, and privacy. Almost any issue that we are facing or challenged by in our world today happens inside the library.

What’s the toughest part of this work — the thing that demands the most from you mentally or logistically?

The hardest part is when there are challenges outside of our control that are impacting our ability to provide good service. Some of those challenges are budget related. Some might be challenges such as mental health issues or fentanyl addiction increase. When it’s outside of our control, that’s a big challenge. But we use the tools that we have, which are bringing people to the table and problem solving together.

Also, there’s still a lot of education about what public libraries do now. Sometimes we’re left out of important community conversations when we know we have an important role to play. Part of this job is educating people about what libraries do now and seeing the different ways people are using libraries.

Knight Foundation
George Latimer Central Library in downtown St. Paul. Photo credit: Murphy Byrne

Who do you lean on? How did you build the team or partnerships that make this real?

I put a lot of trust in my senior leadership team. I am influenced by some language from Brené Brown about who’s in the arena with you. I am very vulnerable, very honest with that team about both the incredible work that we’re doing, but our challenges as well. I can’t imagine leading any kind of organization without a strong team.

What’s one mistake or failure that taught you something essential?

It’s better to be done than perfect. We have a tendency to overbuild things. In the library profession, we want it to be 100% perfect before we launch it. We’ve brought design thinking into the library to help folks more rapidly prototype something, get the feedback and then launch it.

What helps you keep perspective or stay grounded when the work gets overwhelming?

During COVID, I started going to restorative yoga on Wednesday nights and I never miss one.

You have to have people you can laugh with, and I’m really proud that my leadership team remains that. My family keeps me really grounded. I have two teenagers and a spouse. Sometimes when I convert a story that wasn’t funny into a funny story for them, it helps me put it in perspective and move on.

One book everyone should read

Holes by Louis Sachar. As I was studying to be a librarian and as I was entering my library career, this was the book I recommended the most. When this book came out, I would have kids come up to me — middle school boys who aren’t usually the ones coming up to ask for recommendations — and they would just say, “Do you have any other books like Holes?” It became a guiding question for my library, thinking about the folks that are in libraries or want to engage with reading but don’t know where to start. And it gave me the opportunity to really dig into my work with teenagers and try to put the right book in the hands of every kid.

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