Public Comment

The Berkeley Public Library, well-funded by book-loving Berkeley and staffed by outstanding experienced librarians, is not a luxury: it is as vital to the community as police and fire stations and public schools.

Why, then, are management and the Board of Library Trustees trying to fix what is not broken?

Library management and the Board of Library Trustees have recently—by fiat and on the sly—transformed a previously successful workplace of collegiality and professionalism into a hierarchical and centralized “command and control.” The result? Grievous harm to both the collections and the staff. It has also given birth of a group of Berkeley citizens called Library Advocate of Berkeley (savethebplbooks.org).

In 2015 two managers replaced the entire team of 28 professional librarians and performed a massive weeding of the library collection: 39,500 books were removed, 13,000 of which were irreplaceable last copies of books. The public was told that the criterion for discarding a book was that it had not been taken out for three years! With this as a criterion we are in danger of being left with a library of only current best-sellers.

The professional librarians who work directly with the public and the collections on a daily basis were locked out of the room and continue to be locked out of any collection responsibilities. The Library director, Jeff Scott, was blamed for the debacle and resigned. Unfortunately, nothing has changed. It seems he was just a convenient fall guy. 

Weeding is a fundamental requirement of a healthy library collection. A great library collection is crafted by a team of specialists who read many reviews in both their subject areas and a great variety of library sources. We don’t think that Berkeley wants a collection that is the reflection of two people’s judgement without requisite expertise using only check out statistics. We think Berkeley assumes and approves of teams of professionals with current in-depth knowledge of what the public is asking for and expertise in the subject area. 

Teams of professionals built our collection over the years and it has served us well. What happens when two people in a back-room make these incredibly important decisions: the two managers against the express objections of the library staff decided to drop Tutor.com (live homework help from graduates for those of us who can’t afford a private tutor) and Opposing Viewpoints (a nationally recognized database used to sharpen critical thinking skills on current events). See the entire list of 39,500 deleted books at www.savethebplbooks.org and look for the gold tossed with the chaff. 

We can only guess at the reasons for the changes in practice at Berkeley Public Library. We have attended every Board of Library Trustees meeting for over a year and asked for answers. Not a single response from the Trustees! Not once since the weeding debacle has the Library Board even agreed to put the librarians’ issues on their meeting agendas. Some of us have met with library managers and the interim director, who is a gifted administrator, but not a librarian. 

At present there is a search for a new library director. Can we trust this Board of Library Trustees and these Managers to chose a trained and experienced librarian who recognizes the vast reservoir of talent and expertise in our well educated staff and enable them to do the job they were trained for? 

Library management and the Trustees should take a moment to remember what Gloria Steinem said recently to Michael Krazny on Forum: “I was rescued by librarians everywhere I went. Librarians saved my internal life...Your profession is the greatest profession. You democratize knowledge. Nothing on earth is more important.” She emphasized how important the role of librarians is in protecting unpopular opinions and history that can’t be found elsewhere. This type of library isn’t possible when the life of a book is defined by last checkout rather than its role in a well rounded collection of viewpoints. 

The public must weigh in on this issue. It affects our entire population. In the words of Andrew Carnegie, a founder of America’s library system, “A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never failing spring in the desert.” 

Come to the next Board of Trustees Meeting at 6:15pm on May 11 (call the library 510-981-6195 on May 10 for location), write to the interim director, Beth Pollard and the Board of Library Trustees. Send questions to LibraryAdvocateOfBerkeley@gmail.com