Why is this Web site necessary?
Because library users and library employees need to know exactly how and why
the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System - a potentially important asset to the quality of
life in Atlanta - has been crippled through the chronic incompetent management
of a former director and a former board of trustees.
Says who?
Many people who have worked for, or used, the library system for many years have noticed
with growing alarm the continuing decline in the quality of library service that has nothing to
do with inadequate funds to operate a first-class public library system.
The seriousness
of the situation before the former trustees were replaced and the current director was hired
can be partly gauged by the fact that the library had four different
directors in less than ten years; that over two hundred and sixty employees
had petitioned for the entire former Board of Trustees to resign; that over a dozen
employees filed a group grievance with the county government claiming (among
other things) that the Board continually and deliberately ignored numerous
county government policies and procedures; and that eight employees filed and
won a federal lawsuit (upheld by an appeals court) proving that an
ongoing pattern of racial discrimination previously characterized the former
Library Board's deliberations.
Although the ongoing troubles of the library system resulting from its meddlesome
former Board of Trustees and its incompetent former administrators are well-known
in the library profession, the public needs to become better informed of exactly
what happened that resulted in such a mediocre public library system in Atlanta.
The consequences of the former board's and former director's decisions (and
failures to act) are still evident in many aspects of the institution's activities,
policies, and practices, and continue to obstruct efforts to improve the library's
services to library users.
Who is sponsoring this Web site?
A group of concerned citizens (and library system employees), open to all,
called Atlantans For Progressive Libraries: AFPL. This organization
is not affilitaed with or authorized by any other group or organization,
including the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library, the library system's staff
association, or the library employees who filed the federal lawsuit against the
Library Board and the Library Director.
APPLWATCH.com is an ongoing, collaborative project; all interested
persons are invited to contribute.
The responsibilities for managing AFPLWATCH rotates among
AFPL members able and willing to take a turn at monitoring the site.
How can a Web site make a difference in the library
system's dysfunctional situation?
AFPLWATCH.com is a method for educating AFPL members, the library
profession, local politicians, and the public about the library's
longstanding problems, and for conveniently and quickly alerting these
groups to new developments. By providing reliable information
(and the historical context) about the causes of the library system's
problems, and by also providing a forum for freely commenting on and
discussing these problems, library users, local politicians, and local
organizations concerned about the library system (including Friends of the
Library groups) can make more informed decisions about how they can
advocate for improvements.
How long have the library system's management
problems been going on?
Since the mid-1990s, when the Library Board of Trustees began meddling into
the day-to-day operations of the library system. The Library
Board then accelerated its micro-management of the library system
after library director Julie Hunter resigned in 1998 because of it. After William
McClure (now deceased) became the most powerful figure on the library
board, eventually becoming chair, he orchestrated the hiring in 1999 of
Mary Kaye Hooker as library director and the appointment of Carolyn Garnes
as Hooker's deputy.
The regime of McClure, Hooker, Garnes and their cronies lasted approximately
five grueling years. Almost a decade after their departure, the consequences of
their attitudes and decisions continue to thwart current efforts to rid the
organization of their ill-conceived, divisive, and self-serving values and practices.
After a six-year (!) campaign by library reform advocates, Georgia legislators
rewrote the law that spells out the structure and powers of AFPL's trustees. The
former board was replaced with (mostly) new members, and the county manager
(instead of the trustees) hired a new library director in April 2005. Unfortunately,
some of the former board's (and/or former director's) appointees are still employed
by the library system, and many policies and practices instituted by these
administrators are still in force, and continue to block or hamper internal and
external efforts to improve library service or collections.
A single example of the former regime's relentless campaign to destroy the
library's ability to deliver quality services was the illegal, involuntary transfer
in May 2000 of approximately two dozen managers, assistant managers, and
subject specialists from the Central Library to various branch libraries whose
operations did not require the expertise of these individuals, and the subsequent
degradation or elimination of previously superlative services and collections
formerly provided by the Central Library. The Central Library continues operate
without the skills of the subject specialists Hooker exiled to branch libraries
almost ten years ago.
Is AFPLWATCH.com meant to be "objective"?
No. The facts it presents will be accurate, and errors brought to the
webmaster's attention will be corrected. But in addition to the need for
reliable information about the current troubles in the library system is an
equally important need for a place where voices and perspectives
suppressed by the previous administration can be shared.
The library system's recently-deposed administrative regime
routinely attempted to systematically marginalize the influence
of anyone, no matter how competent or sincere,
who disagreed with the regime's draconian pronouncements, wrongheaded
schemes, and waste of taxpayer dollars. Only those library system employees
willing to completely mirror the administrative line were listened to or
rewarded; all others were ignored, excluded, verbally or psychologically abused,
threatened, punished - even when this treatment sabotaged an employee's
work or derailed an employee's career.
AFPLWATCH.com was established in November 2003 as a response on behalf of
all library employees and library users to that former regime's chronic and flagrant abuse of
power. The WATCH continues to protest the dysfunctional remnants of that
former regime's policies and practices. AFPLWATCH.com encourages the examination of
perspectives routinely dismissed or considered taboo by the previous library
administration, as such a forum to offset the lingering consequences of--and the
systematic misinformation campaign waged by--William McClure, Mary Kaye
Hooker, and their appointees.
So AFPL and AFPLWATCH.com have an "agenda"?
Absolutely. The most important goal of the organization
was accomplished in early 2004: the Georgia Legislature's
abolition of the current structure and authority of the Library
Board of Trustees, and the creation of a completely different
Board, with administrative control of day-to-day library
operations specifically returned to the Library Director under
the supervision of the county manager.
Meanwhile, AFPL continues to monitor the behavior of
current library administrators with a view to exposing and
examining egregious excesses or failures - particularly those
rooted in the decisions and practices of the library system's
former administration.
What can I do to help?
|
.com