The new head of the Enoch Pratt Free Library says his career in libraries didn’t start with a lifelong love of reading or a youth spent lingering among the stacks.

Instead, Chad Helton says he sees libraries as an agent of change in people’s lives, something he experienced himself. He landed on his career a decade after he dropped out of college and spent years couch surfing and taking odd jobs.

“I really view the library as a place of social impact,” he said.

After a national search, the Pratt Libraries boards selected Helton as president and CEO of the 142-year-old city library system. Pratt announced that the central library on Cathedral Street will be closed Monday — Helton’s first day — because of a nearby underground fire that disrupted power.

He follows Heidi Daniel, who held the position for seven years and now leads the King County Public Library in Washington state, and Carla Hayden, who spent 23 years in charge before becoming the head of the U.S. Library of Congress.

Helton has been working as a consultant since resigning amid controversy from his role as director of Minnesota’s Hennepin County Library system, which includes Minneapolis. Much of the time he held that job, from August 2020 to February 2022, he lived in Los Angeles.

Christine Espenshade, chair of the Pratt’s boards of trustees & directors, said Helton stood out as the right choice because of his background in guiding libraries through large building projects. His resume notes that as a consultant he steered a nearly $10 million renovation project for the main library in Richmond, California.

“We were looking at individuals with extensive capital experience, we went through the process and Chad really rose to the top as having a lot of these key skills that can take us forward with our strategic plan,” Espenshade said.

The Pratt boards’ goals for Helton include pursuing a “massive capital undertaking” of raising $200 million, Espenshade said.

Helton said he’s not worried about hitting that goal.

“Considering all the work the library does, I really do believe that it shouldn’t be too much of a challenge getting that done,” he said.

Nor did he say he was particularly concerned about infrastructure. He said one of the three facilities he had toured as of Thursday had a broken elevator. On Thursday, the central library had a power outage that caused the cancellation of a major event.

“All libraries have facilities challenges,” he said.

A native of North Carolina, Helton said he had relatives in Baltimore and would visit regularly. He said he has moved to a downtown city neighborhood and will walk to work.

Helton had been driving a golf cart restocking shelves in a library when a former University of North Carolina professor encouraged him to re-enroll, finish his degree and lean into library work.

During that conversation, the professor “said to me, the library is the way for you to help people change their lives,” Helton said. “And I really took that to heart, and I put everything I had into working in libraries and making sure that I created opportunities for people that were like me.”

Since then, he said, he has worked “every job imaginable” in libraries, including security.

“I got into libraries quite frankly because I needed a job,” he said.

Helton, 46, will be paid $275,000, which a Pratt spokesperson said is what Daniel was making. (City salary records show Daniel was earning $189,880 in her last full year, but the spokesperson said the library board pays the balance.)

His resume notes that he received a Bachelor of Arts in African American studies from UNC in August 2009 and a Master of Science in library and information studies from Florida State University in December 2011.

He held a variety of jobs at university libraries and then went on to top positions at several community libraries in California, including working as the Los Angeles Public Library’s director of branch services.

Helton was selected as Hennepin County Library director in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Local news reports revealed in 2021 that Helton had been working remotely from Los Angeles, where he had lived before taking the Minnesota job.

He said at the time that he could perform his job through videoconferencing, even as library staff was coming back in person, and that remote work “makes us incredibly nimble.”

Although neither Helton nor county officials said so at the time, he now says his return to LA was prompted by a series of major eye surgeries at UCLA. He said county leaders were aware of the situation.

Asked if he regretted not providing more information publicly at the time, he said, “In my head, you know, I told my bosses, I told my team, I told the board. Who else do I have to tell? Another piece that is in my head is, I am an employee, and I do have rights related to being confidential about health issues that I’m facing.”

Still, he acknowledged, “Maybe things would have turned out different had I mentioned that.”

He described the stress of dealing with a medical issue that could have resulted in the removal of his eye and the public scrutiny about where he was living as “quite honestly hell.”

Helton’s medical issue was known and his remote work approved, Assistant County Administrator Daniel Rogan said. A Hennepin County library union official declined to comment.

The county later implemented a policy requiring agency directors to live in the county. Helton stepped down from the Minnesota job in early 2022 and received $75,000 from the county for “emotional damages” and legal fees, according to a settlement agreement.

While still employed by Hennepin County, Helton was a finalist for the Seattle Public Library’s top position, and in October 2023 he appeared before the Nashville, Tennessee, city council as a finalist to lead that city’s library system.

Espenshade said the board is “very comfortable that he’s going to be able to lead us into the future of what we need.”

Helton’s references talked up his ability to connect with staff, Espenshade said.

Indeed, Helton said he plans to meet every employee of the Pratt system and hold monthly town halls to generate ideas for improvement.

He will also, however, have to navigate ongoing negotiations for the library staff’s first union contract.

Helton said he embraces the role of libraries in serving as community hubs to address a range of issues.

One of his proudest accomplishments, he said, was creating a program in Los Angeles to make library parking lots available for people experiencing homelessness to park their vehicles safely.

“While they were parking in the spaces they had use of restroom facilities, and people would be transitioned into permanent housing,” he said.

Last year, the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services partnered with Pratt to offer aid to people experiencing homelessness. And on Saturday the Highlandtown branch of Pratt opened a free grocery store, a pilot project to address food insecurity.