Great Neck Library board trustee reflects on the good, the bad and the better

Sixteen months ago, Mimi Hu won a contentious race for a trustee seat on the Great Neck Library Board. Newsday recently spoke to Hu, who is vice president of the seven-member board, about the fallout from that election, her tenure on the board and her plans for the rest of her four-year term.

Q. Why did you decide to run for the trustee position?

It's because of my love for the public library. … The first thing I did when I finished closing on my house and had my address, I came here to get my library card. … I met my best friend at the library. … I was born and raised in China. We had the public library there, but it was a very different setting where you just check out books. … When my son was little, he did the Story Time [program] at the library. I got to know the nursery rhymes. … Going through the programming at a local library is eye-opening for me. … After learning U.S. history, I know libraries are community centers, and I felt like this is so quintessential America.

Q. What’s your take-away from the 2018 election?

That election doesn't represent the community or the library at all. … Things got out of control. People verbally attacked me in the street. … At the time when it happened, I was shocked. … But that was an anomaly. The community definitely has moved on. … What happened afterward was really heartwarming. … I saw [an] outpouring [of] support from the community and love everywhere. … For me, it was a very uplifting experience.

Q. What’s the one thing you didn’t expect now that you are on the board?

Before I came on board, I wanted to change things like right now. Once you get on board, you realize it’s a slow process. It's not even excuses because we only meet once a month for board meetings. You either decide things in this meeting or you have to wait for another month. … So it takes time. … But the good side about the process is that every idea gets vetted. It's not like you're going to push through something and then later find out that it's not working.

Q. What do you hope to accomplish for the remainder of your term?

We're looking at an amnesty program, which is a national trend. We want to get rid of late fees for patrons because we want them to come back to the library. … I'm proposing a policy overhaul to update sections like VCR rentals. … Another thing we're talking about is overhauling our website. … We haven't decided which company we want to hire to revamp it because it was a tedious vetting process. We want to be responsible [with] our tax dollars. At the same time, we want to have a modern website that people enjoy using.

Q. What grade would you give yourself at this stage in your tenure?

I'm gonna give myself an A or A minus. I don’t want to be content with what I’ve done. But in general, I did pretty well.