Will Legislators Reform AFPL's Library Board?
Posted January 28, 2004
Read the
story in the January 28th Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Another Mess in the Making Posted January 16, 2004
Hooker, Carnes Ignoring Board Policy
That Requires Branches to Stock
Basic Reference Sources
Library Director Mary Kaye Hooker and her Interim Collection
Development Librarian Michelle Carnes have decided to ignore a
longstanding written policy of the library system's board of trustees
that requires all AFPL branches to stock up-to-date editions of
certain standard reference sources most citizens expect to be able to
find in a library regardless of its size.
The board developed its policy in the mid-1990s after it got tired
of hearing complaints from library users that certain branch libraries
didn't own certain standard reference resources other branches did
own--things like dictionaries, almanacs, encyclopedias, and handbooks
for finding jobs in Atlanta. At about the same time the board
developed minimum staffing levels for branches and minimum annual
allocations for buying library materials, the trustees directed the
library administration to make sure that certain core reference
resources would be provided at all branches, regardless of their size,
primary service role, materials budget, or location. The policy was
controversial at first because its cost--at first approximately $3,000
per branch per year, later whittled down to $2,500 per branch per
year--dramatically reduced the book-buying capacity of the smallest
branches, and because some librarians believed their patrons would
never use some of the sources deemed "essential"--or use them often
enough to justify their cost, compared to other things patrons wanted
in those libraries.
In any case, as soon as the board published the policy, the library
system's Collection Development Unit was instructed to centralize the
ordering and distribution of the core reference sources, and to
consult with managers every year about which titles would be
considered part of what was eventually christened the Basic Resource
Set (BRS). The finance office began subtracting $2,500 out of every
annual allocation for each branch to pay for these centrally-ordered
sources, and the branch managers were polled each autumn about the
content of the upcoming year’s BRS, with slight adjustments being made
each year. Every October, the Collection Development Unit published a
list of the following year's BRS titles so branch selectors could plan
their purchases of other materials accordingly. Managers didn't have
to worry about ordering these core sources each year, and the
now-defunct Serials Unit made sure these basic reference sources got
to branches at the same time each year, and as soon as possible after
they were published. Often, all or a portion of any materials funds
left unexpended at the end of the year were used to pre-purchase the
latest editions of whatever BRS titles were already in print.
The results of the board’s BRS policy:
- Library users, regardless of what branch(es) they patronized,
could find the latest (rather than an old) edition of, say, the World
Book Encyclopedia or The World Almanac, the latest (rather then an
old) edition of What Color is My Parachute, and so on.
- Centralization of the ordering and delivery of BRS titles took
care of a lot of several dozen “no-brainer” purchasing decisions and
freed those selectors to concentrate on other purchases.
- The board was happier because it felt like its mandated BRS had
brought about more "equity" throughout the county in terms of basic
reference sources being equally accessible to the county's citizens
regardless of what branch library they used.
Evidence that Hooker and Carnes have decided to ignore the board's
longstanding BRS policy:
- Former Collection Development Librarian Brenda Hunter failed to
poll the branch managers for suggestions to adjust the BRS before she
retired last October. No list of BRS titles for 2004 was published in
October or since then.
- A memo Carnes' distributed in late December asking branch managers
to allocate their 2004 funds into age categories did not include the
annual reminder to deduct the $2,500 cost of the BRS from their projected
2004 allocations for library materials before making and reporting to
Carnes their age-level and format breakdowns for branch purchases.
- At no point during any meeting of branch managers was the subject
of the BRS mentioned or discussed, and no memo or email from the
any library administrator has mentioned the BRS since October 2002.
- A January 14, 2004 memo from Carnes to branch managers about
ordering serials for 2004 refers to "the former Basic Resource Set"
and instructions in that memo make it clear that ordering those titles
is now optional rather than mandatory and delivery will depend on
branch-initiated orders rather than being automatic. Branch managers
can order these standard titles, or forget to do that, or refuse to do
that. Other interesting features of Carnes's January 14th memo:
- A list of all serials currently on order by all AFPL branch
libraries that Carnes refers to does not indicate which serial titles
were formerly part of the BRS, so even if a branch decides it wanted
to continue receiving those titles, staff would have a difficult time
identifying them.
- Carnes doesn’t list which--if any--2004 BRS titles were ordered in
2003, so branch staff won’t know which titles not to order themselves.
The probable results of Hooker's and Carnes' non-compliance with the
Board's policy mandating the Basic Resource Set:
- Three dozen different branches must resume ordering "no brainer"
titles instead of a Serials Unit doing that work for all those branches.
- Whatever "essential" titles do get ordered will arrive at branches
at different times rather than at the same time.
- Some branch managers, strapped for book-buying cash as always,
will choose not to buy--or will forget to buy--certain core reference
materials. (For example, they may decide to spend $30 of the funds
that would've been earmarked for BRS titles on the latest slasher
movie DVD release rather than buying a 2004 edition of the World
Almanac.)
- If, as is likely, some BRS titles for 2004 pre-ordered in
2003 have not yet arrived, branches are almost certain to duplicate
orders for those titles because they've no way of determining what
titles have already been ordered for all branches. With branches
facing reduced materials budgets this year, the last thing they can
afford is paying for titles that have already been paid for. For
example, no branch needs two copies of the same edition of the $800
World Book Encyclopedia.
Before the year is over, the library's admirable seven-year-long record
for continuously providing essential reference sources to patrons of
all AFPL branches will be wiped out. In yet another example of deteriorating
library service under Hooker's inept administration, library users
will again be relying on luck rather than the consensus of
regularly-consulted reference-minded librarians when it comes to
finding certain titles most library users expect public libraries to
stock current editions of.
Hooker's and Carnes' decision to ignore the board's BRS policy will
create confusion for branch managers and selectors, re-create a source
of customer dissatisfaction that the board's policy had successfully
eliminated, and will risk wasting tax dollars on duplicated purchases.
It's difficult to say whether Hooker's and Carnes' deciscion is the
result of willful arrogance or merely incompetence in collection-related
matters. AFPL staff are painfully aware, however, that the quality of library
collections has been one of Hooker's lowest priorities as director,
and that Carnes had no previous experience in collection development
before Hooker named her Interim Collection Development Librarian
shortly after Carnes's former boss, Carolyn Garnes, and former
Collection Development Librarian Brenda Hunter both prematurely "retired."
Ironically, the board of trustees may be serenely indifferent as to
whether or not the current administration carries out the board's
policies: more often than not, the trustees don't even remember
what policies they've formulated. It will be interesting to see,
at the board meeting scheduled for later this month, whether one or
more of the growing number of Hooker skeptics on the board will demand
an explanation of Hooker’s and Carnes’ noncompliance with a board
policy. If board members fail to confront Hooker's blatant
disregard of this board policy, will they complain later if Hooker
and/or Carnes decide to ignore other board-approved policies?
What is clear is that, with Hooker still in charge of the library
system and the majority of the board still supporting her continued
employment, library users are steadily getting poorer service than
they enjoyed before the board hired Hooker over four years ago. In
this instance, the library system is about to board the same bus we
were traveling in back in 1995. So much for the board's plans for
providing "world-class" library service to the residents of Fulton
County.
AFPL in the News--Again! Posted January 16, 2004
Creative Loafing Names McClure
Atlanta's “Scalawag of the Week”
Read the January 15th story.
Who’s on First?
Posted January 6, 2004; updated January 8
Pop Quiz for AFPL Staff:
- It’s Thursday, January 8, 2 pm; who’s in charge of Computer
Services? How about Friday, January 16 at 10 am?
- You have a crisis at your branch. You need administrative
back-up. Do you:
(a) Frantically skim the 3,001 memos you have received in the past
4 weeks about which administrator is in charge on which day?
(b) Sacrifice a goat and read its entrails to discover who to call?
(c) Decide to handle the crisis all by yourself, and forgo telling
anyone in administration even if it means screwing up?
- Name the head of the Central Library. Name the manager of the
Northside Branch Library. Name the head of the Cluster of which
Northside is a part.
Advanced Students: Bonus points for explaining how one
person can be in three places at one time. (Consult the Hooker Law
of Transposition of Bodies in the Absence of Sane Decision-Making.)
- Michelle Carnes is in charge of Technical Services. John
Hilinski is in charge of Central's entire 7th floor, including
Technical Services. Yet Michelle does not answer to John. Solve for
X without using hallucinogens.
Now that we’ve established your general level of understanding of this
complex topic, let’s take a look at the broader context.
Fulton County has a policy that anyone handling the duties of a
position with a higher classification must be paid the salary of the
higher position after the 20th consecutive day of handling those duties.
Mary Kaye Hooker has a policy of trying to make herself look like a
budget-conscious manager to her supervisors, the Board of Trustees.
She knows that certain members of the board (OK, William McClure)
have always ridden the hobby horse of “overpaid staff.” So Hooker’s
come up with what passes in her mind for a cunning solution to the
problem of administrative vacancies: put someone in the position for
20 days, then rotate someone else into it for the next 20, and so on
ad infinitum.
Thus, ever since the Deputy Director made her ignominious exit this
past summer, the library staff has been inundated with memos telling
us who the Administrator in Charge is for the next 20 days. (We’ll
leave aside for the moment the notion that there needs to be an
“administrator in charge” other than the director. Why can’t the
director handle administrative problems? How many layers of
administration does she need to lay down between herself and
responsibility for the front lines?) These memos are doubly confusing
since staff also receives memos telling us the rotation of
Administrator in Charge for each weekend. Just printing out and
posting these memos on branch bulletin boards so staff would know who
to consult at any given moment, could be a full time job for someone
in each branch.
But the problem is more serious when this game of Rotating Managers
affects public service. Marty Messmer, the popular head of Computer
Hardware Services, recently joined the stampede out the library door,
retiring in the first week of December. Has an Acting Manager been
named for this very vital department? Has the staff been told who the
Acting Manager is? Have you not been paying attention? This is the
Atlanta-Fulton Public Library!!! We have no need of commonplace and
easy solutions like decision-making and communication!! Currently,
management of the department is being rotated among a couple of
members of the department every 20 days. Think about the implications
of that: goal-setting, management style, supervision, interpretation
of policies and procedures, setting of priorities, communication
style - all that changes every 20 days. What’s more, person A
supervises person B today, but tomorrow person B is supervising person
A! And who’s going to write staff evaluations? It’s a recipe for total
chaos, and chaos in the computer room is a disaster for branches
struggling to serve their patrons. To make things even more chaotic,
one month after Marty’s retirement, the library administration has yet
to even send staff an email mentioning his departure or explaining
plans for coverage. This would be a disaster at any time, but
considering AFPL is in the middle of migrating to a new automated
system, it’s an expression of some kind of organizational death wish.
Pop Quiz #2:
Ms. Hooker doesn’t tell staff vital information because:
- She’s incompetent.
- She doesn’t want them to know (Knowledge is Power! And power is
something Hooker hugs to herself. Kind of like the Divine Right of Kings
but without the attractive coronation features).
- She’s a believer in the mushroom approach to managing people (keep
them in the dark, and cover them with ****).
Let’s look at the evidence. Susan Earl, Central Library Administrator,
departed Central for the less-hostile clime of Nashville P.L. months
ago. Emma Stanley Tate, manager of the Northside Branch, moved into Earl's
office the following week. She appears to be doing the job of the
Central Library Administrator. Has a measly email gone out, saying
that Emma is the Acting Manager of Central? How about a fax? A memo?
An announcement at one of the 3 monthly meeting of managers held since
Emma materialized at Central? Reminder: we are talking
about the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library here. Of course there
has been no email, fax, memo or announcement. We are apparently
supposed to lean our heads against the library’s wall, hoping to soak
up the information we need to do our jobs. But we can top this: not
only has the library staff not been notified of Ms. Stanley Tate's new
role, the staff of the branch she was pulled from was never told who
would be their Acting Manager in her absence! The branch's Assistant
Manager could not get clarification on whether he was to be acting,
for how long, etc. So he too gave up the struggle and retired December
31, taking with him his subject expertise in religion and so much else
that would be valued in any library with a claim to care about
reference service. And the mess doesn’t end there. Ms. Stanley Tate
was also a "Cluster Head." When she was moved to Central, that issue
was never even addressed by the administration. So her Cluster drifts,
dead in the water, just like Ms. Hooker’s entire Cluster concept. And
Northside drifts, awaiting a manager.
We could go on. There’s the 7th floor management issue, a huge joke.
There’s the Maintenance management situation - no one’s ever taken the
place of Willie Kellings, fired by Ms. Hooker a few months ago. Fulton
County loaned the library someone for a while, but he fled back to the
real world. This department doesn’t even rate the rotating manager
"solution"! Who’s going to see that the courier service functions?
Who’s going to do staff evaluations in that department - the Tooth Fairy?
But why go on - each of you can probably list other examples of this
unique theory of library management.
Final Pop Quiz:
Ms. Hooker’s management style is most reminiscent of:
- Abbott and Costello
- The Three Stooges
- Voyage of the Damned
You may choose more than one answer.
January 8th Footnote:
In case you blew the pop quizzes, don’t worry. Here at AFPL, you get
lots of chances to review the subject material for future tests. Case
in point: Anne Haimes had a family emergency over the Christmas
holiday that will keep her away from work for up to 6 weeks. Ms.
Haimes is a Branch Group Manager (one of two public service
administrators, each of whom supervises 15 or more branches). Has the
administration sent out word to the troops that we’re short a Branch
Group Manager? No.
Ms. Haimes is also the Project Manager for the
library’s migration to its new automation system, SIRSI. The library
staff are in the throes of the migration right now, and the "go live" date is in early
April. In other words, we are right in the midst of the most crucial
time for implementing this enormous undertaking. Has an Acting
Project Manager been appointed? No. There are lots of crucial
decisions to be made, all the publicity to coordinate, all the
arrangements to be set up and tested, all those patrons waiting in
blissful ignorance for what’s about to befall them...why would we need
an Acting Project Manager? We’ve got at least 10 weeks to make it
happen!
You know, when the Titanic hit the ocean bottom, it probably
landed right on top of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library. That’s about
where we are, just us and the jellyfish and some sea sponges.
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