James Hill is retiring as executive director of the Chillicothe and Ross County Public Library after nearly 10 years, and in January 2027 he will join the Southeast Regional Library System as its executive director, according to the library’s own published history at crcpl.org.
The move, first reported by the Scioto Valley Guardian on October 28, closes a decade in which Hill led the Ross County system through a successful levy campaign, capital improvements, expanded specialty collections and increased staffing opportunities — achievements the library credits in the Chillicothe Gazette’s coverage of his selection as Ohio’s Librarian of the Year in July 2021.
The Ohio Library Council presented Hill with that Librarian of the Year award in October 2021, at the same ceremony where it recognized all Ohio public libraries and their staffs as Innovators of the Year for keeping communities connected during the pandemic, according to the library’s history.
Under Hill, the system opened the new Kingston branch library in November 2021, took delivery of its mobile library, known as "The Bee," in May 2022, and added 24/7 BookHive hold-pickup lockers in Clarksburg, the Zane Village area, Adelphi and Massieville, the library’s history records.
The library enters the transition with a large and growing collection. As of January 2026, the system held 107,500 items, including nontraditional items such as metal detectors, bicycles and tools, and in 2025 it circulated more than 150,000 items, not counting electronic and digital formats, according to crcpl.org.
Hill’s next role keeps him in southeast Ohio library work: the Southeast Regional Library System supports libraries across the region, and he is set to take over as its executive director in January 2027, according to the library.
The Chillicothe and Ross County Public Library is governed by a seven-member board of trustees, three appointed by the judges of the Ross County Court of Common Pleas and four by the county commissioners, according to the library’s contact page. The board’s next steps on library leadership were not detailed in the library’s history entry.
Photo: Chillicothe, OH Library, CC BY-SA