Another Upbeat Newspaper Interview with Szabo
Posted June 30, 2005
Another local newspaper, this time Atlanta Intown, recently
dispatched a reporter to to talk with AFPL's new director.
Read the interview.
Sandy Springs Voters Create Georgia's Newest City
Posted June 22, 2005; updated June 29, 2005
Residents of metro-Atlanta's most populated suburb decided yesterday
to create their own government instead of allowing Fulton County's
bureaucracy to continue controlling their tax revenues.
Activists disgusted with county officials' delivery of government services
to Sandy Springs had lobbied for decades for this month's referendum. Until
last year, the county's delegation to the Georgia legislature had successfully
blocked that opportunity.
An estimated 94% of the voters chose to incorporate Sandy Springs as a city
and prevent the allocation of local taxes from funding services in other
parts of the 85-mile-long county.
Read the story as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
AFPLWATCH Comment:
The Fulton County Commission should view yesterday's referendum as yet
another in a long series of increasingly strident wake-up calls for better
county government. Previous alarms include the $18,000,000-plus
in legal settlements Fulton County had to pay out of county coffers in
county workplace anti-discrimination lawsuits brought by library employees,
and the expensive corruption and fatal ineptness of the county's sheriff's
department.
Attempts by certain county commissioners to oppose yesterday's
referendum and
their votes to spend county funds to pay for a legal challenge to the
tax-allocation portion of the referendum seem to us to herald more of
an appetite on their part for Business As Usual than any resolve to wake up
and smell the proverbial coffee.
In any case, the consequences of the referendum for county library services
remain unclear. We've heard everything from rumors of another county hiring
freeze to pronouncements that the incorportion of Sandy Springs will have
minimal effect on future county budgets for library services.
We hope that yesterday's long-thwarted and very clear vote of no-confidence
for county government has a sobering effect on the county commission, and
that the threat of other areas of the county forming their own cities will
lead the commissioners to improve library service to
county residents. Since so many county residents use their libraries,
better library service might help restore a bit of confidence in the county's
governors.
June 29th Update:
Fulton County's press release announcing its June 24th request for
a judge to declare certain provisions of the Sandy Springs referendum as
unconstitutional is
here.
A New Day for AFPL Governance?
Posted June 22, 2005; updated July 3, 2005
Last week the transcript of the library trustees' May meeting was
distributed to library staff.
AFPLWATCH was interested in how this meeting would go after the board's
surreal decision last February to invite
the library director's supervisor, Fulton County Manager Tom Andrews, to
the trustees' May meeting. Despite last year's legislative mandate
specifically removing supervision of the library director from the board
to the county manager, the "new" board said they wanted to explain to
Andrews that the trustees expected to play a role in evaluating the
library director's performance.
Fortunately for the library system's staff and the library system's users -
but consistent with the board's chronic tendency toward amnesia from one
meeting to the next - there was no mention at the board's May meeting of
this nonsense about the trustees having a say-so in evaluating the library
director. (Andrews did not attend the meeting, and the transcript gives no
explanation of his absence. Andrews' deputy Keith Chadwell, did attend.)
In fact, the matter was broached only briefly and obliquely, when Szabo
described to the trustees the various organizational set-ups he'd
previously worked within, and how AFPL's current "organizational
structure...works in other communities around the country."
Szabo then promptly moved on to informing the board about his plans for the
coming months. Among other things, Szabo said or implied that he intends
to:
- clarify AFPL’s relationships with other Fulton County departments
- improve AFPL’s public relations efforts
- improve AFPL’s ability to raise funds from corporate and individual donors
- evaluate the library system’s bookmobile services
- reorganize the Central Library (and jettison the bizarre, confusing
names MKH gave to Central's departments)
- evaluate the stripmined Technical Services division
- compile and publish an annual report
- evaluate current assignments of security guards throughout the system
- assign priorities to the multitude of desired building improvements
- improve staff development efforts
- upgrade or increase service provided through AFPL’s web site
- explore reciprocal borrowing agreements with other metro-area library
systems
- revise and submit to the board for approval AFPL’s current policies about
- circulating library materials
- patron behavior in libraries
- the public's use of library meeting rooms
- posting and distributing information in libraries
- library exhibits
- naming library facilities/spaces/collections
- challenges to library materials
Presumably to help the board understand some of the immediate implications
of the board's being out of the library micromanagement business, Szabo
asked the board at its May meeting to:
- stop expecting library employees other than the director to attend
future board meetings
- begin communicating their concerns and inquiries exclusively through
him rather than directly to library employees
- start addressing more systemwide issues and fewer branch-specific ones
- become enthusiastic advocates for public library service
- expect more summary data and less minutiae in any reports he submits to the board
- expect fewer formal notifications of temporary building closures due to malfunctioning equipment, etc.
After Szabo's report, the board devoted most of the remainder of its
refreshingly brief May meeting to further hammering out - and, after wrangling
over it for almost a year, finally approving - its constitution and its
by-laws.
An intriguing exchange that also occurred toward the end of the May meeting
included a statement by Acting Chair (and Fulton County Commission Chair)
Karen Handel that contradicted public statements other Commissioners had
been making about the dire consequences for county revenues should Sandy
Springs residents vote on June 21st to incorporate Sandy Springs as a city.
Handel said that although the loss of revenue resulting from incorporation
(and the part of the referendum mandating the spending of tax dollars in
the part of the county where they were raised) could affect some other county
services, it would have minimal impact on library services because of the
budget mechanism the county uses to fund libraries.
A final observation. The transcripts of the trustees' meetings, including
the May meeting, have gotten considerably less bulky since Szabo began
attending the board’s meetings. Gone are some of the monthly
“micromanagement” reports that the previous board (or, in some instances,
a single board member) had requisitioned. Also, much to the benefit of the
planet’s remaining forests, the board book is now single-spaced instead of
double-spaced.
The board's next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 22nd.
July 3rd Update:
First, a correction: the information above came out of the April
board meeting rather than the May one. At the May meeting, County Manager
Tom Andrews did attend as scheduled, and here is what he said about the
library board's role in evaluating the library director [Minutes, pages
11-14]:
My duties and responsibilities are to carry out policies for the Board of
Commissioners. Those policies are generally expressed in one of two ways:
through the budget annually or through legislative acts that from time to
time the Board enacts.
Department Heads who report to me are extensions of that responsibility.
They are responsible for their particular areas in carrying out policies
for the Board of Commissioners. Some of those departments that those
Department Heads head have boards appointed in various capacities to
either assist them, advise them, or to provide input in recommendations
for policy. These are expressed through the budget but also expressed
through resolution of the Board of Commissioners for the carrying out of
policy, again in one of those tow ways, either through the budget or
through specific legislative acts. I hold my Department Heads responsible
for carrying out their areas of duties. The way I do that in the main is
unlike what’s described in county regulations, which is that Department
Heads and other employees are evaluated in July of each year, but that’s
out of sync with our budget. We are on a calendar year budget. So what I
do for the Department Heads is perform evaluations on a calendar year
basis that coincides with the execution of the budget of the previous year
and plans for next year. That’s how I work it….
Those agencies that have appointed boards or commissions that are attached
to them are in that budget process because that is where the
recommendations will come forward….
I very much expect Department Heads to operate independently in their
group; my job is to assist them where necessary in the execution of their
duties and responsibilities. I have a lot on my plate, [Deputy County
Manager] Keith [Chadwell] has a lot on his plate; I will not micro manage
the Library or any other agency in this government. I don’t have the time
or inclination to do so.…
I’ll expect John to provide me with a plan of action that he likes to take
with the advice, and assistance, and input of this Board over a period of
time….and I will hold him to that list of duties and objectives, which may
or may not be modified during the course of the period. I will be asking
John to…I know you have a Strategic Plan process underway…I will ask him
for 2006 and beyond, however, to prepare a five-year plan, Strategic Plan,
for the Library System, to include capital as well as operating needs. That
plan will be presented in some way, shape, or form to the Board of
Commissioners for adoption and execution. And at adoption and
execution…which may or may not change certain aspects of the plan but
that’s the policy decision which we may make.
If a Department Head needs help in any way, shape, or form with another
department of this government, I would expected them to sit down with their
colleague and ask for that help; if that help is not forthcoming then that
Department Head would elevate [the request] depending on the situation to
Keith and myself and we will be able to deal with the request to make sure
that there’s proper coordination of support amongst the various
departments….
…Department Heads will be evaluated with respect to carrying out policy
towards Commissioners. How I would see this board as specific duties as
you are, of course, assisting, advising, and representing your community’s
wants and needs and desires and input into the policy making and policy
execution process.
[In answer to trustee Barbara Frolik’s questions about what the board
should do if it feels another county department is providing
less-than-satisfactory support of the library, and about how the board
could advocate for more funds for the library:]
…You’re all welcome to contact me anytime on anything that you have in
mind or [have] questions about. What I would recommend…you do, however, is
that you make sure John is communicated [with about] those basic
operational requirements that largely depend on other agencies…. He would
make sure that we were aware that he is having difficulty with other
agencies….if they can’t be resolved…then there’s probably got to be a
doggone good reason why it’s unresolvable. I mean, it may be an
unreasonable request [has been made]. But that would be the chain [of
communication] that I would seek. In terms of advocating, each one of you
was appointed by a Fulton County Board of Commission member who should
always be made aware of your concerns. I’m assuming John will involve you
and I’m assuming that you demand to be involved in the budget process….
That’s where our advocacy needs to be played out,…where you all
decide…what you are going to ask for.
In other words, the library board has no role in evaluating the library
director.
We hope the board will drop further time-wasting attempts to circumvent
The New Dispensation and focus its energies on trying to intelligently
advise the director on goals and long-term planning.
Postscript: The only other interesting news coming out of the board's
May meeting was the swearing-in of a new board member. Commissioner
Emma Darnell has replaced her previous appointee, Zeda Stanley-Sartor,
with Anita Jackson O’Neal, who is Interim Dean at Clark Atlanta University’s School of Library
& Information Studies.
Information, Please?
Posted June 18, 2005; updated June 30, 2005
It’s the middle of June, and AFPL employees still haven’t been notified of
the library system’s holiday closings for the remainder of 2005.
We said it last year around this time, and we'll say it again:
Hundreds of library system employees hope that [the Library Director] will
stop puzzling over what the trustees' druthers are in this matter [of
holiday and near-holiday closings] and simply announce, very soon,
the specific days [this year] that the library system will be closed,
either to observe a holiday or due to expected low use because of a nearby
holiday.
July 4th is [less than] a month away, and many of us would like to make
plans for celebrating it. For some of us, those plans might entail
traveling out of town, and we need to be confident about making our travel
plans. Going out of town or not, we'd ALL appreciate the human courtesy of
being allowed to look forward to carrying out our holiday plans those
plans without the trustees holding our plans hostage till the last minute,
like they did with Easter [last] year.
We were hoping the new director would have announced by now the days the
library would close for the rest of 2005. Will he do so before it’s too
late for people scheduled to work on Sunday, July 3rd to make some
alternate personal plans should the library be (sensibly) closed on that
day?
June 30th Update:
On June 29th, AFPL library director John Szabo emailed employees with
not only a list of holiday closings for the remainder of 2005, but one for
2006 as well. Alas, the library system will be open on Sunday, July 3rd.
Editorial
Orgy of Public Library Thefts
Finally Gets Press Attention (Elsewhere)
Posted June 15, 2005;
reader comment posted June 22, 2005
Many employees of public libraries have resigned themselves to the notion
that the daily theft of library materials is merely a sad cost of
doing business, one of the many downsides of remaining "accessible."
Most library administrators, fearing a backlash from funding sources
should taxpayers and others learn of the (growing) extent of the
problem, aren't exactly diligent about determining how bad the local
theft rate has gotten. (Of course, this doesn't keep some of them from
regularly invoking, in other contexts, the importance of the "proper
stewardship of government property.")
Not only do most library administrators refuse to routinely monitor -
much less publicly report - their institutions' euphemistically-labeled
"loss rate," many are in deep denial about it. If someone asks, they can be
expected to attempt to minimize the problem by citing a completely
unsubstantiated - and self-servingly low - estimate, hoping to deflect any
further discussion.
We realize that no theft-prevention device, no matter how expensive, will
completely eliminate library thefts, and no theft-minimization procedures
will be 100% effective. Those facts are frustrating for everybody except,
of course, the ever-more-numerous, ever-more-cunning thieves.
In our opinion, what's even more frustrating - and reprehensible - is
the fact that few selectors at AFPL are required to routinely inspect the
lists of disappeared materials that the library's circulation system
software generates for each AFPL facility. (We doubt that staff at some
Central departments and branch libraries even bother routinely reporting
their missing items, or even know how to.) And AFPL's selectors are certainly
not required to reorder all stolen items, or even some of them.
Collection budgets in some public libraries don't include a "loss-rate"
factor. Those library systems, like AFPL's, that do include this factor
often use laughably low estimates. In any case, it's common knowledge at AFPL that
funds theoretically set aside to replace lost items are not spent that way,
despite the fact that (or perhaps because?) this practice disguises how
expensive it is to "maintain" AFPL's collections, let alone "improve" them.
For various reasons, the local press usually colludes with public libraries
in averting everyone's attention from the rather large "elephant in the
living room" that the extent of public library thefts represents - and from
the infrequent systematic attempts by librarians to repair
the continuing damage to library collections that those thefts create.
Hence our surprise that the Associated Press has produced a
story about the chronic theft of materials from Portland's public libraries.
The local Library Powers That Be had better hope the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution doesn't dispatch a reporter to AFPL to find out
about the extent of thievery in Atlanta's libraries, because as anyone
working at AFPL knows, it ain't pretty.
AFPL's Staff, Collections, and Computers
Located in Different Buildings
Than the Ones Most Residents Patronize
Posted June 2, 2005
Last month's circulation statistics,
released yesterday, again point up glaring disparities between the library
system's levels of investment of its branch staff, branch materials budgets,
and branch computer equipment resources and which areas of the county most
heavily patronize their libraries.
The different resource investments are reflected in the "facility type"
designations of the library's facilities, and the circulation data reveal
how obsolete those investments currently are. Last month's rankings of the
busiest - and least busy - libraries did not deviate substantially from
previous months, and in fact the resource investments vs. use patterns
have been out of whack for several years.
As we've said before, the library's disproportionately-stressed out staff and the less-than-well-served
customers at the library system's busiest branches have waited long enough
for more rational decisions about the deployment of the library system's
limited resources. We hope AFPL's new director will make data-based
reallocations of branch staff, materials budgets, and computer equipment a
priority of his administration.
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