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AFPLWATCH Stories Posted in October 2004

Halloween Special: AFPL Memo Hall of Fame
Posted October 31, 2004; link added November 19, 2004

To commemmorate the one-year anniversary this month of the much-wished-for departure of AFPL's former Central Library Administrator, we thought it might be instuctive to dig into our archives and post--exactly as it appeared--one of her countless near-incomprehensible and certainly gloriously ungrammatical memos.
From:  Susan Earl

To:    Sherry Petry; Celeste Tibbets; Diana Aleman; Orlando Jordan; Jacob Crouch; Anthony Miller; Richard Cruce; Loretta Moaney; Linda Thompson; Andrea P. Akiti; Mary Starck; Joyce Burns; James Taylor; Kellye Baugh; Edwin Simmons; Jeanette Shorts; Debra Branton; Mavis Jackson; Maureen Kelly; Sylvia Cordell

cc:    Peggy Watson; Susan Earl; Anne Haimes; Carolyn Garnes; Michelle Carnes; Ed Robinson; Brian Williams; Margaret Roach; Brenda Hunter; Doris Jackson; John Hilinski

Sent:  Saturday, September 21, 2002, 2:27 PM

Attach: printing on computers.landscape.doc; printing on computers.poster.doc

Subject: Signs for Printing

Staff:
The attachments allow you different ways to display the information. You should use a copy printer due to the graphic is more presentable in color. If you do not have a color printer, use bright paper that will help you bring the information to the public. Distribute wherever you need to in order for the public to be aware. Such as where the pc's are located as well as where they sign up. Use as many signs as you feel is appropriate for your unit to convey to the public what is in effect.

The new procedure and policy will benefit public service (less supply fund to computer paper and more supply fund to other materials to assist in programs and services) and provide an equal plane for customers who pay for copies from the photocopiers. Giving the public a week before enforcing the payment will give the public and staff the necessary time to digest the mechanics of the system. I am here if you have any concerns.
Ah, those were the days.... Isn't it amazing that AFPL pays enormous salaries to administrators who regularly extrude such mangled prose? And while it's true that the Central Library remains in a complete shambles from McClure's, Hooker's, Garnes', and Earl's numerous efforts to "improve" it, at least the people who still work there are no longer being forced to read things like this (or like this) on a weekly basis, on top of all the other stuff they're trying to cope with. For this, at least, we--and the hapless Central Library employees--can be grateful.


More on Osborne-Harris' Move to Newnan Library
Posted October 29, 2004

An alert reader sent us a recent newspaper article about Barbara Osborne-Harris' appointment to a position with the public library system serving Georgia's Coweta County, where Osborne-Harris lives.

Read the article.



What Has Wheels But Doesn't Move?
Posted October 12, 2004

Only a few years ago, the library system was in the grips of what can only be called Outreach Madness. Carolyn Garnes, former Outreach Services manager--and, more crucially, a crony of board chair William McClure--had recently been elevated to the post of Deputy Director. Yep, AFPL was our name and Outreach was our game. Every thought, every action, every pronouncement, had to be measured against that yardstick. Sample conversation from that era:
Branch Manager: “Our branch would like to order some paper clips.”

Representative of library administration: “Paper clips? Have you provided justification in terms of how it will affect our Outreach? What new constituencies do you hope to serve with these paper clips?”

Branch Manager (after a lengthy pause to reach deep down into the B.S. well): “The branch is basing our request on the Giant Paper Clip Magnet Theory, which postulates that sufficient quantities of paper clips, properly magnetized, will attract new users to the library and keep them there till we achieve satisfactory Outreach statistics.”

Representative: “OK, but if these magnets pull in any traditional library users, you’ve received your last paper clip! Remember, we are All About Outreach!”
Back in the days of Outreach Madness, the library went all out to acquire, with many thousands of taxpayer dollars (we seem to remember a figure of around $80,000), a second bookmobile. The idea apparently was to burn rubber all round the county, bringing library services to legions of The Underserved. So hot was the library and its board on the topic of the bookmobile that one day the chair of the library board (not McClure, but a subsequent one) actually drove the bookmobile route himself, to see if the route was acceptable in his eyes. (To think that the chair of the New York Public Library board spends his time raising millions of dollars for New York's library, when he could be doing the important stuff like driving its bookmobile route! Are we lucky here in Atlanta, or what?)

Of course, this being AFPL, once they had spent taxpayer dollars on a second bookmobile, our trustees promptly dropped their preoccupation with bookmobile service to move on to the next fad. The library never did put two bookmobiles on the road. (No surprise there, since we only had staff for one vehicle, and only one of those employees was required to obtain the necessary license to operate a bookmobile.)

As it turned out, the bookmobile route was providing service in areas with nearby branch libraries. But rather than tweak the route, or clarify the mission of the bookmobile service, or otherwise make good use of the extra money they'd so recently invested in the service, Ms. Hooker and the board abruptly discontinued the service until the service could be "evaluated."

That was a year and a half ago. And guess what?
  • The board never got around to scrutinizing the purpose of the bookmobiles.

  • At the beginning of 2004, library director Mary Kaye Hooker "temporarily" transferred the bookmobile's entire staff to fill vacancies at branch libraries created by the county's hiring freeze.

  • The bookmobile's collection of over 53,000 items was mothballed and remains inaccessible to library users.

  • "Timelines for...successive steps to be taken to include a plan for the bookmobile," which Hooker promised the board in May 2004, were never produced.

  • Before the legislature abolished the library's former board of trustees at the end of June 2004, the trustees decided to discontinue leasing the space where the bookmobile's vehicles are parked and where its collection is stored.

  • In her written report for the trustees' August 2004 meeting, Interim Library Director Anne Haimes mentioned that, due to budget constraints, bookmobile service is not included in the library's budget for next year.
While we realize the fate of the bookmobile service is far from being the most pressing problem facing the library system these days, its sad little story--featuring superficial and inconsistent decision-making, the squandering of taxpayer funds, poor stewardship of library resources, and loose ends that never seem to get tied up--seems emblematic of all that ails us.

Meanwhile, Inquiring Minds Long to Know:

No Wonder We Feel So Worn Out...
Posted October 8, 2004

The widespread feeling of exhaustion among library employees who have been operating the county's libraries in the teeth of a never-ending county hiring freeze can be partially explained by excerpts from a recently-distributed list of factoids about the amount of county business AFPL employees are handling despite the inadequate personnel resources available to us.

The relevant data:
  • The Library system is open approximately 65,500 hours during the year.

  • The square footage of Library facilities system-wide has increased 20% over a decade, yet the staff has shrunk from approximately 485 full-time equivalents in 1992 to approximately 430 full-time equivalents in 2004.

  • In 2003, the Library System circulated an estimated 7,623,000 books and materials. [Note: This figure apparently includes in-house use as well as items borrowed.]

  • In 2003, the library courier service transported a total of approximately 2.3 million items among the county's 31 branch libraries.

  • In 2003, citizens made an estimated 3,257,700 visits to Library facilities.

  • Approximately 46% of the library's circulation of materials occurs on evenings and weekends.

  • Library usage-circulation, Library visits, and Library cards issued, questions answered--have all increased over the past two years.

  • Hiring is frozen for approximately 40 full-time staff positions--12% of the library system's work force of full-time employees.
Is it any wonder that more and more library employees deeply resent the county commisioners continuing to sit on the county's $10 million surplus rather than authorizing department heads to resume routine hiring for vacant county positions?


Branch Budgets and Staffing Patterns
Don't Reflect Branch Workloads
 Posted October 1, 2004; updated October 3, 2004 and November 3, 2004

September's branch circulation statistics won't be distributed for several days, but a glance at the August data shows that, in many cases, the designations of AFPL's various libraries--designations that dictate the branch's staffing level and the amount of money it receives to purchase library materials--are not related to the amount of the library's business AFPL's various facilities are currently handling.

For example: Circulation isn't the only measure of how personnel and dollars should be allocated, but it certainly should be a major factor, and at AFPL it clearly is isn't.

Here's how Central and the branches ranked in circulation in August 2004.

At a September 29th meeting, branch managers were asked to review the number and types of employees assigned to their facilities. Let's hope that's a prelude to library administrators reallocating staff to reflect more closely the actual workloads shouldered by the various branches.

Staff working at branches handling the lion's share of circulation should also be able to expect library administrators to take that fact into account when they divvy up the money for buying library materials next year--particularly since the budget formula was not tweaked at all for 2004 to reflect 2003 circulation data. (See the chart that highlights this extremely unfortunate decision made by Mary Kaye Hooker and the trustees who hired her.)

Some thought should also go into coming up with more useful groupings for AFPL's branch libraries. The current Regional/Area/Community/Neighborhood scheme has led to chronic staffing and budgeting inequities. We need something more useful so that administrators can more equitably deploy the library system's limited staff resources and its limited dollars for purchasing library materials.

Finally, as we've said before, library administrators and the trustees need to explain why certain branches are being kept open at all, given the miniscule number of items they circulate. Certainly their staffing and materials budget allocations, and perhaps their hours of operation, should be radically adjusted if they are to remain open any longer. Their employees and their materials budgets are needed too desperately elsewhere--a situation exacerbated by the county's never-ending hiring freeze and the opening later this month of yet another understaffed, underfunded branch library.

October 3rd Update:

The recently-distributed September circulation statistics show the same patterns as August's. The raw numbers are slightly different, but the rankings--including those for the busiest branches--show no significant differences.

November 3rd Update:

The recently-distributed October circulation statistics show the same patterns as August's and September's. Again, the raw numbers are slightly different, but the rankings--including those for the busiest branches (even when adjusted to reflect the opening of the Ocee regional branch library in October)--show no significant differences.



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