One of these days, Springfield will have a permanent director at Lincoln Library.

For now, Curtis Mann is acting director, to be succeeded June 1 by Kathryn Harris, long affiliated with Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Mayor Misty Buscher said she could not coax Harris out of retirement to be more than an interim.

Buscher’s firing of Summer Beck-Griffith made headlines over the past week or so, particularly because another employee – using city resources – waged a campaign on Beck-Griffith’s behalf. But as mayor, Buscher has the prerogative to dismiss department heads for any reason, or for no reason.

The library director former mayor Jim Langfelder hired and subsequently fired, Rochelle Hartman, is not in the running, even though she worked on Buscher’s campaign.

“I think Rochelle has a full-time job. She does not want a job here,” Buscher said. “She actually said this was the most toxic job she ever had in her life.

“She wants no part of it.”