The Board of Trustees of the San Juan Island Library has selected Marjorie Harrison of Scottsbluff, Neb., as the new library director.

The hire was announced Wednesday. Harrison succeeds Laura Tretter, who resigned to move to the Bayfield Public Library near Durango, Colo.

Harrison is coordinator of the Panhandle Library System, working with many types of libraries in Western Nebraska, and has experience in administration, collection development, library technology, public service, and youth services.

“I look forward to working with everyone at the library and settling in to my new job and life on San Juan Island,” Harrison said in the board’s announcement. “I sense that the island just might be our ideal ‘home.’”

Harrison will be at the library by Nov. 1. Her annual salary will be $71,000, according to Library Board President Lynn Weber-Roochvarg. She will manage a budget of about $1.1 million.

The new director was chosen after a nationwide search and extensive review. The search attracted about 30 applicants; eight were interviewed by phone and three were invited to the island for in-person interviews, Weber-Roochvarg said.

Applications were received from across the United States, including Arizona, the Carolinas, and Michigan.

“It was a national search, and we got a national response,” Weber-Roochvarg said.

Of Harrison, she said. “She had excellent qualifications and experience. She has a strong public service orientation, and she’s worked in rural settings. She has experience in management, financial and budget work, has strong personnel oversight experience and good interpersonal communications skills. She has a personality that fits the island and we think she will do really well with our public here.”

Melina Lagios, assistant director and youth services librarian, agreed. “I think that she will be a good fit for the community.”