Nancy Gildart is joining the Homewood Public Library board of trustees after winning a two-year term as a write-in candidate. Gildart, who has lived in Homewood more than 27 years, said she put her name forward in 2017 as a resident interested in a vacant seat on the board, but wasn’t selected. This year she decided to try again to get on the board.
Nancy Gildart is joining the Homewood Public Library board of trustees after winning a two-year term as a write-in candidate.
There were three positions open in the April 2 election, two six-year terms and one two-year term. Three residents filed for the six-year terms. Thomas Nowak was re-elected and Timothy A. Martin won election April 2. Gildart, who got 21 write-in votes, will take the third seat.
Gildart, who has lived in Homewood more than 27 years, said she put her name forward in 2017 as a resident interested in a vacant seat on the board, but wasn’t selected. This year she decided to try again to get on the board.
“I believe it’s my civic duty to participate — to share my outlook and maximize talent with my community — to make the good great,” she told the Chronicle.
When she realized she’d missed the filing deadline, she took the extra step of filing with the Cook County Clerk’s Office as a write-in candidate.
“I made some cards with my name on them and my husband, Tim Prentiss, gave them out at the train station,” she explained. “I also announced on Twitter.”
Gildart believes libraries make a difference in a community.
“Information literacy is at a low ebb with alternative facts taking precedence over the truth,” she said. “Public libraries have an important role to play in providing the means for revealing the truth, as well as providing resources that slice through economic disadvantage.”
Gildart is an artist and also works in the career and professional experience department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She received a bachelor of fine arts and a master of fine arts from SAIC, has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and a master of library science degree from the University of Chicago.
She will be sworn in at the May 15 meeting.