Director of library fired after staffers complained

Lots of blame to go around…
These two stories illustrate many of the of the problems in public libraries.

***WARNING***some negativity to follow!

In her defense, the library director is probably trying to get her staff to be more proficient with computers, respond quicker, etc.

Anyone librarian who has worked at a basy ref desk knows that you don’t have the luxury of time to learn how to quickly and properly answer reference queries.

How she handles it makes the difference. I have yet to meet a public library administrator who treats the staff well. They , for the most part, are terrible arrogant to the working staff. I have worked at places that brought new technology and just sort of threw it at the staff after and hour’s time with a non-librarian rep from the company selling the software.

Feeding into this is a lack of staff morale. Maybe staff are stretched to their limits, morale is bad, and more and more is being expected of them while their bennies are cut back and their merit raises are not raised (or raised not at all), and vacant positions are not filled.

So, after years of demoralization, staff are not as eager to “learn new skills” (translation: do more with less, as usual). Lack of communication, bad feelings all around, lack of trust, arrogance of the part of those in charge who are frustrated with their employees, and a staff that probably has been whipped so much they no longer feel it do not translate into good public service.

Library pay has always been bad in comparison to what is expected education-wise, but, with the demand of technological expertise added on-well, you get what you and your taxpayers are willing to pay for.

ALA and library administrators need to be aggressive in explaining to the public why good libraries and good staff need to be funded. I the many years of working in public libraries, I cannot tell you how many times the public felt that library staff (mostly women) were all volunteers. The public is still basically clueless about what library staff need to know to be effective information mangagers, what inflation does to serial prices, the cost of books, and why it is so difficult to attract new blood to a library when city mangers and mayors think 22k is too much to pay a professional librarian.

What to do about these problems is discussed over and over, but nothing ever seems to come of it. When economic times were good, then there was some hope public-library salaries would come more into line with other professions. Now, times are bad, and it looks like librarians and other library workers will not get pay parity.

The result will be less new blood, eager to work in public libraries. Library administration will continue to wring its hands about the inability to “get good people”. Good , motivated people will leave public libraries.

I see a lot of fault on all sides for this mess.

Add into this mess the let’s-run-libraries-like-businesses stuff, and I think American libraries are going to continue to deteriorate and “the profession” wither.