The Bayonne Public Library Director JP Porcaro is leaving for the same job in East Orange on March 24th and Outreach Librarian Melody Scagnelli-Townley has been appointed as his interim replacement.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Porcaro has served as library director in Bayonne since 2018, when he succeeded Sneh Bains.
“Since starting my position as Director in April 2018, I’ve worked to bring our library into the present culture. I am very happy with the progress the Trustees and I have made, not the least of which is our $2 million-plus renovation project,” he wrote in a letter to the library’s board of trustees. That project is currently underway.
He also thanked “our Library Trustees, the Davis Administration, and the residents of Bayonne for allowing me to serve as Director of this beloved institution and trusting me with its future.”
Porcaro also expressed gratitude to the Bayonne Board of Education “for working closely with me on history and reading partnerships.”
The incoming interim director, Scagnelli-Townley, has served as outreach librarian in Bayonne since 2019 and will earn a salary of $69,000 in her new temporary role.
Among her previous employers have been the Bergen County Cooperative Library System, the Mahwah School District, and the Woodbridge School District. She earned a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science at Rutgers University in 2013.
Also at Rutgers, she completed a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology and Informatics, with a minor in Comparative Literature.
Scagnelli-Townley also holds a New Jersey Professional Librarian Certificate and a Certificate of Eligibility as a School Library Media Specialist.
Furthermore, she was named an American Library Association Emerging Leader in 2017 and recently finished a term on the 2022 Alex Award Selection Committee.
The Alex Award is a national award given annually to 10 books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.
