Department of Repeated Reschedulings
MLK Branch Library Opening:
“Tentatively scheduled for June-July 2004” [page 5]
August 2004 Update: According to an announcement
at the August 4th Agency Managers Meeting, MLK's reopening was rescheduled
for December 2004.
October 2004 Update: Due to what most employees
belive was political pressure from a certain county commissioner, the
opening date for MLK was rescheduled for November 20, 2004. Still no word
on how AFPL administrators--fewer in numbers with every passing month, it
seems--plan to even minimally staff this two-level facility.
December 2004 Update:The branch did reopen on November 20, and employees
were transferred from other locations to staff it, thus creating vacancies
where they'd been working.
Carver Homes Branch Library Opening:
“Scheduled for April [2004]” [page 6]
Update: Carver opened its new branch in June 2004.
East Atlanta Branch Library Opening:
“January 2005” [page 7]
August 2004 Update: According to an announcement at the
August 5, 2004 Agency Managers Meeting, the opening has been rescheduled for
May 2005.
May 2004 Update: According to an April 28th email from
East Atlanta's manager, the library's opening has been rescheduled for
July 9, 2005.
July 2005 Update: The East Atlanta Branch opened
on July 9th as scheduled.
Ocee Regional Library Opening:
“Building completion May-June 2004; opening contingent on availability of staff.” [page 8]
August 2004 Update: According to an
announcement at the August 5th Agency Managers Meeting, the branch will be opened to
the public on October 9, 2004.
Update to Update: Ocee opened as (re)scheduled.
Posted December 8, 2003:
“I think it’s exciting that we managed to work it out so that we will
be able to get books year round.” --Trustee Stephen Dorvee at
the trustees’ meeting on October 22, 2003 [Minutes, page 58]
AFPLWATCH Comment:
For this to be reality instead of a delusion, several unlikely things
would have to be true:
- The county manager would have agreed to exempt the library from
the county purchasing regulation that's hamstrung the library's
year-round book-buying abilities for the past three years: the
requirement that all invoices for library materials purchased with
2003 funds be received and paid for by the end of the county's budget
year in December.
- 2003 funds--and enough of them--would have been set aside from this year's budget
to purchase a substantial amount of materials published from the late
fall--when selectors were told to stop ordering materials--until
ordering is authorized again next spring. Is Mr. Dorvee aware that
branch staff can resume routine ordering of library materials only after
- the county commissioners approve next year's budget at the
end of January
- the library signs contracts with next year's book (and nonbook)
vendors
- detailed accounting, shipping, cataloging, and online ordering
procedures are devised (and tested) for every vendor
- the trustees approve the branch allocations of the book/nonbook
portion of the library system's budget
- branch selectors are trained (by the vendors or by others) in how to
place orders with each of the approved vendors
And that's just what must be in place before the ordering re-commences.
Books (and nonbooks) actually begin arriving on branch shelves only
several weeks to a month after branch staff place those orders..
Furthermore, we would hope that "getting books year round" means
something more than merely obtaining a few copies of a few bestsellers
between November and, say, March or April (or, as was the case this
year, June). Obtaining current bestsellers is important, but they are
certainly not the only concern of the library's users: like the users
of libraries in the counties surrounding us, Fulton County library
users want to see the shelves of their libraries refreshed with new
books on all topics throughout the year, regardless of how many individuals
are buying those books in bookstores around the country.
Although--as is her wont--Hooker may be promising the board the moon,
all that library staff know for certain at this point is that:
- staff have been told, as they are usually told at this time of year,
that they are not allowed to order any more library materials until
further notice
- that an undisclosed amount of unexpended 2003 funds have been
somehow squirreled away to allegedly purchase (some) bestsellers, in
some undisclosed pattern of branch distribution, from now until
next spring when normal ordering will presumably resume
- the person reportedly currently in charge of collection
development--including whatever Hooker's magical "bestseller plan" is--
has no prior experience in coordinating selection of library materials.
December 20, 2003 Update:
On December 17th, area and regional branch managers received a memo
from the Collection Development unit informing them that they each had
$11,000 to spend over the next month on bestselling books and “current"
nonbook materials.
- Does this mean that branches wouldn’t have had any bestseller plan
if they hadn’t failed to spend $110,000 of this years funds by the
end of the regular "ordering year"?
- How does the January deadline for the orders from this portion of
unexpended 2003 funds square with the county purchasing office’s
requirement that all 2003 funds be expended in 2003, all 2003 invoices
be paid in 2003, and all materials paid for with 2003 funds be received
by the end of 2003? Has the library director received a dispensation
from the county purchasing department that exempts the library from
these requirements? If so, why the early January deadline on orders?
If not, what’s the point in coming up with a plan that can’t work?
Posted November 24, 2003:
"So the great thing [about the “initial phase” of establishing at the
Auburn Avenue Research Library the “Ashley Bryan Collection of African
American Children’s Book Art”] is that it’s not going to cost us a lot
of money.” --Auburn Avenue Archivist Kerrie Cotton-Williams
to the trustees at their September 24, 2003 meeting [Minutes, pages
105-106]
Posted August 5, 2003:
"Our tentative go-live date [for the library system's new automation
system]
is April 5, 2004."
--Library consultant Stephen Glover to the trustees,
at their July 23, 2003 meeting [Minutes, page 9]
Posted June 17, 2003; comment updated August 5th:
"We...expect to have anywhere from 70% to 75% of the materials budget
expended by June 30th."
--Brenda Hunter, AFPL Collection Development Librarian,
to the trustees at their April 23, 2003 meeting [Minutes, page 42]
AFPLWATCH Comment:
Materials Budget expenditures as of July 17, 2003 were $860,177--26% of the total
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