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"I was thrilled," Savas said of her reaction when she learned she was being transferred from Aspen Hill to the Germantown branch.

Savas started her new job on Aug. 18, replacing Maria Pedak-Kari, who was one of four library branch mangers to leave in June after taking an early retirement incentive from the county. Savas said that she was impressed by what she had seen of the library and the community.

"It's beautiful. It's a brand new building," she said. "It's exciting for me to embrace the community and learn about the staff."

Savas inherits a building that opened in March 2007 as a focal point for Town Center in what she calls an "up and coming" community. Since then, the library has quickly established itself as having the highest circulation among the county's 22 branches. It circulated 97,000 items in July, she said. She entered her first week of work in charge of 15 full-time and 14 part-time employees, she said.

Carol Petzhold, vice president of the Friends of the Aspen Hill Library, said Savas' transfer is a "big loss" for her library.

"She got a large number of community programs going," Petzhold said.

"She had a lot of good ideas. She got a lot of people going through the library," she said. "Circulation increased and she was just a good friend."

Savas has not put all her planning on hold as she gets acquainted with her new surroundings. She said she is committed to more special, one-time programming at the library such as the Asian New Year celebration scheduled for early next year. Such projects take months of planning, but they are worth the interest they generate in the community, she said.

"My personal philosophy is we do these programs whenever we can, she said.

Savas said she plans to move cautiously in making changes at the Germantown Library. She said she is waiting to see the results of a customer survey conducted among county libraries in April to determine the needs and priorities for the various branches.

The results of the survey, which received more than 7,000 responses, will be released in the fall, said Bette Anne Hubbard, coordinator of planning and evaluation for the library system.

In the meantime, Savas said she is also spending time with staff.

"They're the ones with the history and the knowledge," Savas said.

Savas is used to working around books and extolling the joys of reading. She said she has vivid memories of stamping books in second grade during her childhood in the New York City area. She continued volunteering in libraries through college. She earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education, but soon realized that working in libraries was her real passion.

She began working as a librarian in 1983 in the New York City area and moved on from there to Gateway Inc. in North Sioux City, S.D. from 1996 to 2003. She moved to Waldorf in 2003 and joined the Montgomery County library system as manager of the Aspen Hill branch in 2003.

Her reflections on what being a librarian means are filled with lyrical and romantic imagery. She describes libraries as "magical" places and kingdoms of learning.

"These kingdoms are the keys to information, to knowledge and when you have those keys, you can go anywhere, do anything, be anything you want to be," she said.