Amy Cawley new executive director of Roselle Public Library.

Amy Cawley was the kind of kid who sat at her breakfast table in Morton Grove munching cereal and taking great delight in reading the box.

Many years later, when she fully realized how important reading was in her life and career, she asked her parents when she learned how. They smiled. They shrugged. They said they couldn't remember a time when Amy didn't read.

"I will read anything in print," the Bartlett resident says. Books, of course. Magazines. Newspapers. And, yes, cereal boxes, because you never know what you're going to learn from the back of your Cheerios.

That passion has served her well in a career that began in September 1980 when she got her first job at the Poplar Creek Library in Streamwood and continues to this day in her new role as executive director of the Roselle Public Library District.

Getting started Amy Cawley was a young mother searching for a professional identity. She had worked in a bank, in an office, in retail - but those were just jobs.She was looking for something more, something that would grab hold and not let go. She was looking for a calling. She already was a familiar face at the Poplar Creek Library, the mom who was always bringing her two children to storytimes. The truth is, she felt comfortable there. She liked the atmosphere, the feel of being surrounded by books and reading and sharing that feeling with her kids. One day a librarian sauntered up and suggested someone who spent so much time in the children's department might actually like to work there as an aide. "I hadn't thought about it," Cawley says now. "But it was intriguing. I like to read and I like children and I like people in general." She got the job, and she's been working at libraries ever since, moving from Poplar Creek (where she gained fame as the guitar-plucking children's storyteller "Miss Amy") to Bartlett (where she eventually was elected to the library board) to the Roselle Public Library District, where she's been head of the youth services department for the past seven years. In that role, library officials say, she helped expand many program offerings and became a familiar and welcoming face in the community.Last September she was named interim executive director when Lisa Poignant left the post in what was described as an amicable parting after less than two years.In addition to the library's day-to-day operation, Cawley found herself helping oversee the installation of a heating and air conditioning system as well as some parking lot improvements. The library board, meanwhile, was launching a regional search for a new director, President Elaine Pizzicaro says, and even interviewed a few candidates. But in the end, board members chose Cawley. They were impressed by her leadership and dedication. They were impressed by her education - she has a bachelor's degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago, a Master of Library and Information Science Degree from Dominican University in River Forest, and a certification in nonprofit management from Harper College. And they were impressed by her attitude and approach."She took hold of the reins and plunged in," Pizzicaro says. "She is enthusiastic and knowledgeable and proved herself very capable." "The board got to know me at a different level, as an administrator," Cawley says.She officially assumed her new duties Feb. 20."It was like a test drive," she says of her stint as interim director. "How many times do people get to test drive their dream job?"Challenges If you were going to choose the perfect moment to become executive director of the Roselle Public Library District - or any other library in Illinois - you probably wouldn't choose February 2010. Everybody, it seems, is facing a budget crunch, brought on in part by cuts in state and local funding. Libraries are even under fire from critics who say they've outlived their usefulness, even as just about anybody in the industry will tell you they've never been busier providing new materials, programs and outreach efforts. Cawley is undaunted."It's time," she says. "It was time for a new challenge."Her first task is to share her vision for the library with both her staff - most of whom knew her as a co-worker - and the community and get as many people as possible to buy into her message. She says she'll do that with her staff through open and honest communication. "Not just an open door," she says, "but an open ear."She already has numerous contacts in the community, but now she will try to create even more connections, to build even more partnerships, to ensure the library is a place where community members can come for their information and entertainment needs, and where everyone can feel as comfortable as she does. She is determined to be visible. She is determined that the library do everything it can to serve the community, expand its target audience and provide a welcoming atmosphere amid its roughly 85,000 items. If it all turns out the way she hopes, she says, "I will have impacted Roselle in a positive way."Making history That she hopes to make a lasting impact is no surprise. Beyond her love of libraries, Cawley's a history buff who volunteers at the 1st Division Museum at Cantigny Park in Wheaton and can be found some weekends serving as a re-enactor at Revolutionary War or Civil War encampments. She does it, she says, because she enjoys exploring "women's roles, women's history ... the kind of stuff that didn't get written about until recently." And she would know. She says she devours biographies, histories, fantasies and adventure stories - along with the occasional mystery. There isn't much mystery in what she hopes to accomplish as the library's executive director and, no, her vision for what a library can be didn't come from the back of a Rice Krispies box.It did, however, come from prolific author Ray Bradbury. She heard him speak about libraries some years back and what he said struck a chord."He called them 'the University of the People,'" she says, "and I've always believed in that."