John Fischer has served as director of the Normal Public Library since 2023. In this role, Fischer leads teams responsible for the educational, cultural, informational and recreational resources provided by the library to enrich the quality of life for Normal citizens.
Fischer has worked in public libraries for more than 20 years, including time at Bloomington Public Library and St. Louis County Library.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in Literature and Language Arts from Fontbonne University, St. Louis, a Master of Fine Arts degree from Illinois State University, and a master's degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He completed the Public Innovators Lab for Libraries at Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, Atlanta, Georgia, the Illinois Library Leadership Initiative, the Illinois State Library Targeting Autism Forum, and was a recipient of the 2005 Illinois State Library Training Grant.
Currently he is a member of the American Library Association, Public Library Association, Illinois Library Association, and the Customer Experience Professionals Association.
Fischer joined the Normal Public Library in 2013. He has been a resident of Normal for over fifteen years and has been an active participant in the Great Cycle Challenge USA benefiting the Children’s Cancer Research Fund annually since 2020.