The Board of Trustees of the Rockingham Library Association, Inc., has named Lois W. Jones as Director of the Massanutten Regional Library (MRL), a nine-branch library system serving the residents of Harrisonburg and Rockingham and Page Counties.  Jones brings over thirty years of library management and non-profit development experience to the position and will be responsible for overall operations management of the library system. 

A Lexington, VA native currently residing in Staunton, VA, Jones holds a Masters in Library Science from The Florida State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Theology/Education from Berkshire Christian College in Lenox, Massachusetts.  Jones has extensive non-profit Valley leadership experience including a former post as acting Director of Development at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton and through several board positions held at Skyline Literacy.  In addition, Jones has received three distinguished leadership awards for her dedication to literacy causes; two awards from Skyline Literacy and one from the Shenandoah Valley Reading Council.

“We are confident in Ms. Jones’ abilities to lead the MRL system forward through these tough economic times and beyond,” said Wes Graves, President of the Rockingham Library Association Inc. Board of Trustees. “Her extensive library and non-profit management experience and her connections to literacy causes in the Valley will serve our system and its diverse patronage well.”
Founded in 1928, the Massanutten Regional Library is a private, non-profit organization governed by the Rockingham Library Association Board of Trustees. It maintains an extensive collection of fiction, non-fiction, reference, genealogical and local heritage resources for the community. Financing for MRL comes from the Commonwealth of Virginia, Rockingham County, the City of Harrisonburg, and Page County, as well as from private donations and grants. 

Last year, MRL patrons borrowed over 750,000 items from the system’s branches.  In addition, the library system served additional patrons with over 60,000 hours of public use of computers and free internet access, by hosting over 100 organizations through its meeting room facilities, and by providing free community outreach and education through its reference desk services and through quality programming such as The Big Read and The Deyerle Program series on local history and heritage.  In addition, the system serves thousands of children annually through early childhood educational story times, through the Honored Teachers Writing Contest and with its annual Summer Reading Program, designed to help school age children retain their reading skills.

For more information on the Massanutten Regional Library system, contact Mary Golden-Hughes, Director of Marketing and Public Relations at the contact information listed above, or log on to www.mrlib.org.