The librarians: Olive Long to Donna Meeks

1907–present · the succession at documented strength

The line as the record gives it: Five names stand in the record reached, across 119 years, and the line between them is printed with its gaps open rather than filled by inference. Olive Long, the founding librarian — "Miss Olive Long," part-time, in the City Hall room for the whole of its nine years, 1907 to 1916, on the nomination's account; whether she continued into the Carnegie building the record reached does not say. Ella Hodges, librarian by the WPA addition of 1937–38, when the rebuilt library gave its librarian an office for the first time — the twenty-one years between Long's documented end and Hodges's documented presence, and the years of Hodges's own tenure, are not filled by any source reached. Harley Spencer, named "the former director of the Mishawaka Public Library" in the South Bend Tribune's centennial coverage of January 2007, where a library-provided photograph shows Spencer and Myrtle Ward talking with a patron at the old Carnegie — a director of the Carnegie era, then, remembered at its building, with his dates unprinted in the coverage and unfixed. Dave Eisen, the sitting director at the centennial itself: the Tribune's program for the hundredth year lists "Library director [Dave Eisen]" speaking on the history of the library on February 8, 2007. Donna Meeks, the present executive director: the Indiana State Board of Accounts' audit schedules of officials name her Director continuously in the periods January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2019 and January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2024; the State Library's 2026 directors list, current to July 31, 2026, names her still; and the library's own publications quote "Executive Director Donna Meeks" in October 2026, on the retirement of the system's mobile app.Tribune's appointment coverage, and they are named there rather than guessed at here.

Sources:

1. Fine, Carnegie Library nomination (1997), section 8 — Olive Long, 1907–1916; Ella Hodges and her first office, 1937–38.
2. South Bend Tribune, centennial coverage, January 2007, as indexed in the Michiana Business & Research Library catalogue — Harley Spencer, "the former director"; Dave Eisen, director, speaking February 8, 2007.
3. Indiana State Board of Accounts, audit reports of the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library, schedules of officials for 2016–2019 (report B53060) and 2023–2024 — Director Donna Meeks.
4. Indiana State Library, 2026 Indiana Public Library Directors Contact Information (as of July 31, 2026) — Donna Meeks, Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library.
5. Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library, "MPHPL App Has Been Retired" (mphpl.org), October 28, 2026 — Executive Director Donna Meeks, quoted.