When the Warwick Public Library’s Board of Trustees was looking for a director to succeed the retiring Diane Greenwald, they pulled out all the stops, searching from Texas to western New York.

Their pursuit ended right in their own backyard.

“We looked nationwide and found that Rhode Island’s library community is very strong, probably from the excellent program” in library science at the University of Rhode Island, said Gerald “Ged” Carbone, chairman of the board. “We couldn’t find anybody stronger than Chris.”

That would be Christopher LaRoux, 60, who, after getting his graduate degree from URI, became library director for the town of Greenville and stayed for more than three decades. He starts work in Warwick on Feb. 3 and is champing at the bit to begin. It turns out he had long dreamed of heading the Warwick library.

“I’m very excited,” LaRoux said. “Three or four years after I started at Greenville I met Doug Pierce, who was director here in the ’90s. I loved this building, even before they added the annex. I was so jealous.”

LaRoux is a native of Half Moon, N.Y., which is located between Saratoga and Albany. He earned his undergraduate degree from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Plattsburgh. Then he was off to study library science. It was the logical path for a young man who had fallen in love with books as a child.

“The first book I read as a kid was an over-size book of ‘Grimm’s Fairy Tales,’” he said.

Although there was no municipal library in his little town, each school had a few books and he soon graduated to science fiction, discovering “Have Space Suit, Will Travel” by Robert Heinlein. LaRoux also developed a fondness for the “Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature,” which was a major clue to what his future would hold.

When the Warwick position was offered, LaRoux said he found the decision harder than he expected.

“I like Greenville, too,” he says. “I had to do some soul-searching. I didn’t want to make the decision for the wrong reasons. But there’s no question Warwick is a great thing. I live in East Providence. My husband and I talked about possibly moving to Warwick.”

LaRoux and his spouse have a 25-year-old daughter who is living at home while she considers colleges.

LaRoux said his predecessor at Warwick had put in place the “San Jose Way,” which was developed in the San Jose, Calif. library system and is focused on making libraries “patron-centric.” He also has familiarity with the system from his time in Greenville.

“We spent two years implementing it,” he said.

Staying on top of the future direction of the library is something that concerns LaRoux. A library, he said, has to be a place people want to go.

“I really have a passion for freedom of information,” he said. “We have to keep libraries relevant into the next generation. We have to provide print books, e-books, have space for people to read.”

LaRoux added that he still takes books out, although he “reads on technology.”

For LaRoux, the numbers change immediately. He has a staff of 26 at Greenville and in Warwick will have approximately 50, many of them part time. He will also oversee three branches – Apponaug, Conimicut and Norwood – as well as the main library on Sandy Lane.

Carbone, the board chairman, said Greenwald “created a cutting-edge library,” and LaRoux “has a willingness to keep that going.”

“He’s going to take the library forward,” Carbone said.