Public Comment

New: Board of Library Trustees Meets Tomorrow Evening--Be There

From Hale Zukas, for SavetheBPLbooks
Tuesday December 15, 2015 - 05:16:00 PM

ALERT: Your powerful presence THIS WEDS at the Board of Library Trustees Meeting—Library's 3-year strategic plan to be discussed!!!

Wednesday, December 16, 6:15 pm — Tarea Hall Pittman (formerly South) Branch Library, 1901 Russell Street at MLK

Your presence this Wednesday keeps our concerns front and center. We expect Interim Director, Beth Pollard, to talk about the previous director, Jeff Scott’s, strategic plan. This is an important document outlining how the library proceeds (and spends your money) over the next couple of years. There may be elements you feel need revisiting in light of what has happened during the first year of the plan! So we urge you to attend and voice your vision. The plan is available here Library Strategic plan (PDF) and slideshow links from the library's homepage). 

 

Ms. Pollard invited us to her office for a meeting where we discussed how and why we got involved in this controversy. The controversy stared with the overzealous weeding of the collection last summer instituted and managed by a tiny team of managers which turned out to bea signal of fundamental changes in the library’s management philosophy. Our main points remain: the traditional management model of many subject specialist librarians selecting books and other materials has built our strong library and the current move toward “centralization” is harmful and unnecessary. Our evolving purpose is to ensure that the new permanent director will be vetted on his or her views on the role of the professional librarian and belief in a collaborative management style which results in a stronger, richer, unique library in keeping with what we have come to expect in our city. 

 

We left the meeting feeling hopeful. Ms Pollard is making a serious effort to understand the issues. We hope she heard our message that our library doesn’t need to blindly follow a national library trend, and since we have historically had the generous support of tax payers and citizens, we have the luxury to craft our own type of library, one that is not justified solely on statistics. Regarding the collection: The public expects the library to supply titles that are older and have continuing value even though they don’t check out as frequently as a popular bestseller. Regarding management: collaboration with staff is essential. We believe that our library is at a turning point and that the BOLT needs to find a permanent director who will articulate his or her management style and be comfortable with transparency, showing a willingness to explain and justify actions to the staff and public. 

Thank you for your persistence and commitment!