New Penn Hills Library director wants to get a good read on community

After more than a year of searching, Penn Hills Library has found a new director.

Tina Zins, 34, of Export began in her new post May 13 for a salary of $70,000. Zins was appointed to the role in April.

Zins will replace Mary Ann Zeak, who served as the library’s interim director when former director Tyrone Ward resigned in October 2017 without explanation.

Zins plans to move to Penn Hills with her husband within the year. She most recently served as the director of the Carnegie Library of Homestead in Munhall and before that as director at Apollo Memorial Library, where she said she originally fell in love with library work.

“It was very rewarding. I knew it was going to be my career path,” Zins said.

A year after starting at Apollo Memorial Library in 2009 as a library tech, she was promoted to director. During her four years there, Zins earned her Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh.

During her tenure at Homestead, she said the staff was able to develop connections with community organizations to make the library more accessible to more people.

For example, through a 2018 survey, the library learned some residents were in need of social services resources and information.

“So a local food pantry sends a case worker to have office hours to address social service support,” Zins said.

Zins hopes to spark a similar relationship with the Penn Hills community, she said.

“I want to open up to the library — to see as many residents using the library as possible,” Zins said.

As soon as possible, she said she’d like to conduct a survey to learn about Penn Hills residents’ needs to see how the library can help.

“We’re happy to have her as part of the team,” Penn Hills Manager Scott Andrejchak said.

“We had a very thorough search process, and I think we found a wonderful candidate in her.”