Viewpoint #1

In order to evaluate Mr. Szabo’s performance, first I’d have to formulate the expectations to measure him against – and that’s where I run into difficulties.

Whose expectations should I use – the county’s? library patrons’? the staff’s? Those could all be radically different. For instance, I don’t imagine the county had any very big expectations from Mr. Szabo, other than to keep the library out of the press, the courts, and trouble. Having gone for so long without a good library, the public wouldn’t know one if it popped up overnight, so probably your average taxpayer had no big hopes or dreams for the past six months of library life. Patrons at local branches may have had expectations – the one who wrote to AFPLWATCH certainly did – but what were those, and could they be met on the branch level that quickly in a system so damaged that any improvement could take ages to work its way down from the top?

What about staff expectations? After all, they know what a library should be and they know better than anyone how very far back we have to crawl just to be at the starting line again. And maybe that’s why the staff seem willing to be patient and to cut Szabo some slack – because they know where we’ve been been and they can see we’re making progress away from that bad place.

The happiest change was the first and the easiest. From day one, Szabo has treated everyone with respect. He’s done all the grace things; he never neglects to thank people for the smallest effort, he made visiting the branches a priority (some of them he’s been to multiple times), he knows staff names and positions, he doesn’t disparage, attack, berate or betray confidences. Only those who lived in fear and terror under the irrationality of the former regime can know just how huge a change that alone has been, and how conducive it is to building a better library, rededicated to public service.

There have been other changes. Of all the recent directors, he alone seems to understand the importance of development, of finding new sources of revenue to sustain and improve library services. Then too, he’s our first wonk – someone who sucks up an amazing amount of information on statistics, contracts, regulations, procedures, and can use all these data to effect in building relationships with commissioners, the press, the funding community, the staff and the patrons. And he acts professionally – there’s no attempt to pose as our pal, but rather an understanding of appropriate boundaries that ensures a welcome consistency.

I’m impatient for more change, faster change. After six years of hungering for competence and standards, I think we’re all starving for change. And when we feel that, we want to blame Szabo for not moving faster. Where is the org chart he’s been working on for months? Why are crucial administrative positions still not advertised or filled? Where are the decisions on revised rules of conduct for library users, for circulation, for computer access? How can we be sure the board is tamed and won’t revert to its old ways once Karen Handel leaves it?

But when I consider how many rocks there have been with awful things living under them, I understand why he has moved slowly to turn over each one and take the measure of what crawls out. I also believe that a good leader doesn’t parachute in and create change for the sake of change and the sake of appearance, but instead takes time to understand the world he’s landed in before taking action. I believe that even after six months there are still rocks that haven’t yielded up their secrets, and that Szabo may still need some additional time, not only to understand what he’s up against but also to assess the abilities of the team he’s inherited as his generals in the battle.

So I give the green light to Mr. Szabo, even as I acknowledge that we all want More! Faster! Better! Like the hole in the plaza in front of the Central Library, we have moved a few levels up from rock bottom, and I think we can see the rest of the way home from here.

* * * * * * *
Viewpoint #2

Some of the things that have impressed me about Szabo:

• He seems to genuinely love libraries and, even more important, is able to explain accurately to others - including clueless trustees and inquisitive politicians - how public libraries operate.
  
  
• I like what I’ve heard him say about the need for a more obvious link between excellent library service and adequate funding for it. Far too many of Szabo's predecessors wanted to make themselves look good by hastily expanding services or thoughtlessly continuing to offer services the library system is simply not staffed or funded to provide.
  
  
• I like the fact that, although Szabo seems to possess a remarkable memory, he doesn't invent answers to questions whose answers he doesn't happen to have. Szabo's willingness to say "I don't know, but I will find out" - and then actually doing just that - is extremely refreshing and sensible, as are his avoidance of flip answers and his refusal to give simplistic answers to complex questions.
  
  
• Unlike Hooker and her erratic, make-it-all-up-as-you-go-along approach to everything, Szabo not only does his homework but seems fairly methodical in navigating the murky, shark-infested waters swirling around him. He goes to the trouble of obtaining the relevant facts and has sought out differing opinions about various issues. He seems to want to set and stick to priorities instead of going off in a million different unrelated or contradictory directions (a la Hooker). Szabo's down-to-earth posture and approachability has drastically reduced the melodrama and chaos at AFPL, and has already created such a better environment to make some actual progress in.
  
  
• Szabo's public statements are straightforward, jargon-free, and consistent from one forum to the next. (For example, reading the transcripts of the board meetings since Szabo started attending them doesn't leave me feeling confused or outraged like I often felt when I read what Hooker was telling the trustees.)
  
  
• In a marked contrast with many of his predecessors (and with Hooker in particular), Szabo seems like somebody who knows and cares about follow-through. The mere fact that Szabo remembers the commitments he has made from one day to the next (or one meeting to the next) is teaching people to trust him.
  
  
• Szabo hasn't made any grandiose claims or promises. He isn't needy, delusional, and doesn't annoy the staff with messianic pretensions. He frankly acknowledges the obvious fact that significant improvements in library service require the ongoing, genuine participation and support of the library's employees.
  
  
• Szabo's got a sense of humor but he doesn't rely on sarcasm to get cheap laughs or to make his points.
  
  
• Szabo doesn't bash other people in an attempt to make himself look better or (like Hooker did habitually) to make himself seem blameless or the feckless victim of inept colleagues. He seems interested in taking some degree of personal responsibility for what goes on at the library, and someone who prefers clear (rather than muddled) lines of authority and accountability. He doesn't seem interested in scapegoating or seem to relish dishing out blame for the various messes he uncovers. Szabo strikes me as a person mature enough to realize that even well-intentioned employees sometimes make honest mistakes.
  
  
• Szabo's seems to seek out information from all quarters--even though assimilating that information must make his job as director more complex and difficult. His inquisitiveness is healthy for the library, because unfortunately the immediate subordinates he inherited are not all equally competent. My guess is that, by this point, Szabo realizes that some of the "information" some of those subordinates provided him during the past six months proved woefully incomplete or incorrect, and that some of the advice he's gotten from some of those individuals has been more self-serving and status quo-seeking than it has been wise counsel.
  
  
• Along with asking a lots of questions, Szabo listens to the different answers he sometimes gets without getting overly defensive and without signaling that he wants to hear a particular (or a particularly flattering or relentlessly upbeat) answer. I’ve heard Szabo's even changed his mind a couple of times in response to staff comments or to a colleague's counterargument to his initial inclinations about how to address a certain issue.
  
  
• As far as I know, Szabo hasn't told anybody, "Quit talking about AFPL's horrid past!" Not only is he not into denying that AFPL has a horrid (recent) past, he seems moderately interested in eventually grokking How Things Got as Bad as They Are. His curiosity about the genesis of some of the library's chronic problems could be useful in helping him correct some of those problems.
  
  
• Szabo has delegated responsibility for examining or resolving certain issues to employees or to employee committees, and he's wisely empowered those individuals or committees to run with the assignments he's entrusted to them instead of undercutting or ignoring their efforts. And Szabo hasn’t demanded, from individuals or from committees, instant remedies for complicated problems and doesn't seem likely to pursue faux solutions to problems instead of actual solutions.
  
  
• Szabo doesn't seem obsessed with any particular management fad. He certainly hasn't decreed that the entire library staff read Who Moved My Cheese or The One-Minute Manager or any of those other hobbyhorse-driven management tomes du jour.
  
  
• Szabo seems to have the energy and the stamina for The Long Haul - a good thing, as he's going to need both.

Still, as someone among the ranks of those who survived the ordeals of the past six years or so, I was hoping for a few radical changes by now, or at least for a swifter momentum of incremental reforms. For example:

• Why has there been no observable progress at rebuilding the library system’s technical services division, whose reckless decimation under Hooker and McClure accounts for so much of the confusion and dysfunction now rampant in the library’s attempts to link patrons to the library materials they need?
  
  
• Why haven't staffing allocations at Central and at the branches been overhauled so they reflect empirically-validated current workloads instead of the decisions made by know-nothing, politically-minded ex-trustees, some of whom are now dead?
  
  
• Why haven't the hours AFPL's libraries are open - especially weekend hours - been adjusted to reflect cuts in staff over the past few years and our communities' actual use of those facilities?
  
  
• What happened to the promised restructuring of the courier service?
  
  
• Where is the library system's revised collection development policy?

Sometimes I worry that the lack of major, observable changes in the organization (other than the infinitely healthier atmosphere and much better communication) in the first six months of Szabo's tenure isn't a sign that he's still casting about for the best--rather than the quickest or flashiest--solutions for the library's problems. What if, instead, Szabo's caution is merely an omen that he's just a nice guy who plans to rock no boats - ever? Well, that's still better than watching a vindictive lunatic beholden to a destructive, ignorant bunch of trustees wreak havoc on a once-functional institution.

No matter how talented, skilful, courageous, or industrious John Szabo turns out to be (or not to be), it’s going to take more than six months for any director to lead AFPL out of the demoralizing mediocrity it’s been mired in for so long now. I just hope the guy leaves the library system in better shape than he found it in. In the meantime, it's good to know that, at the very least, AFPL's new director is not Part Of The Problem.

• Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library  399
• Clayton County Public Library  399
• Cobb County Public Library  405
• DeKalb County PL  451
• Gwinnett County Public Library  639

• Read Hurd's news article, "Ocee Library Funds Withheld."
  
  
• Read Hurd's editorial, "Fulton Commission Hits Lowest Point Yet."

• AFPLWATCH news items and editorials are archived approximately one month after they are posted. You can scan a complete list of previously-posted news articles and editorials here.
  
  
• Click on the links below to read the text of previously-published AFPLWATCH news articles and editorials:
  
  

  2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005

  2004 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004

  2003 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 April 2003 March 2003

  
  
• Local and national publications were documenting AFPL's deterioration long before AFPLWATCH was begun in November 2000, and they have continued to do so. Read the news stories and editorials about AFPL published in other media in:
  
  2005     2004     2003     2002     2001     2000     1999     1998     1997     1996

• What One Library Does to Minimize DVD Thefts   Posted November 16, 2005
  
  Read this report from Library Journal.
  
  
• Beefing Up Security at a Central Library   Posted November 16, 2005
  A method one Arizona public library is trying: installing a police precinct office in the building. Details.
  
  
• Library School Courses We Could've Used   Posted November 16, 2005
  Read these course descriptions, courtesy the Tiny Little Librarian, of "The Homeless Invasion" and "Public Internet Terminals: The Dark Side."
  
  
• Museums: Natural "Partners" for Libraries?   Posted November 16, 2005
  As we learned to our dismay from The Hooker Era, "partnering" the library with some other institution is often a completely superficial public relations stunt that doesn't "leverage" either organization's "strengths" or create "synergies" or do anything else that really benefits anybody and in fact ends up draining staff energies instead of inaugurating some alleged "new initiative."
  
  On the other hand, some partnerships make a lot more sense to attempt than others, and AFPLWATCH has mentioned before that partnerships between public libraries and local museums seem to us to have a lot of potential.
  
  Now there's a blog devoted to exploring the affinities between museums and libraries. Take a look. (And our thanks to another blog, Library Stuff, for alerting the library community to this resource.)
  
  
• Gwinnett Library Trustees Cancels Sale of Video Collection   Posted November 15, 2005
  Somehow we just knew the eventual upshot of the Gwinnett board's initial reaction to the theft of library videos would be to investigate ways to better secure them. Read the latest development in this story, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. (Warning: The AJC requires tedious registration to read its online edition.)
  
  Let's hope AFPL will abandon once and for all the thief-friendly video-security policies of Mary Kaye Hooker and do some "investigating" of its own, before another thousand or so videos Fulton County taxpayers purchased for AFPL's users disappear like the thousands of others that have been stolen since Hooker handed down her ill-advised decree.
  
  We're all sensitive to the understandable preference of our customers for convenient access to library materials, but a stolen video means Zero Access, not convenient access. There is such a thing as prudent stewardship of public property, and that's A Good Thing, too. These two Good Things should be in better balance than they are at AFPL, especially with regard to its still-hemorrhaging nonbook collections.
  
  
• Dept. of Astonishingly Generous Bequests to Public Libraries   Posted November 10, 2005
  A life-long library user in Pennsylvania who died last Spring left $1 million to his local public library. Read the happy news.
  
  Maybe along with the annual fundraising appeal that's being mailed out later this month, AFPL's Foundation should include a prominent insert reminding Atlanta's library users of the fact that they can name AFPL as a beneficiary in their wills?
  
  We keep trying to imagine that there are a few local library-lovers out there who might bequest a million bucks to AFPL (perhaps even while they are still alive), but we must admit that such a prospect is a bit difficult to imagine.
  
  Perhaps the day is not too far off when the way the library system is operated doesn't make it so difficult for people to think of AFPL with consistent affection and the occasional decision to make the kind of generous gesture this Pennsylvania resident was moved to make toward his favorite library.
  
  
• "What Do You Like Best about Your Local Library?"   Posted November 10, 2005
  This past September, Bookreporter.com asked its readers this question, and here's how 87 library users responded.
  
  These comments should be required reading for all AFPL administrators and managers...and for any library worker who's ever wondered if promptly processing his/her branch's Daily Holds Pickup List might not be worth all the effort.
  
  To us, the most intriguing thing about these comments is how few of them contain the words computer, Internet, or email. Quick, could someone please figure out the logical implications of that astonishing fact for those who think they know how to improve library service at AFPL?
  
  
• Former Fulton County Commissioner Disbarred   Posted November 9, 2005
  Having pleaded guilty in December 2003 of committing a felony (lying to an FBI agent during a corruption investigation), former chair of the Fulton County Commission (and former Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor), Mitch Skandalakis, was earlier this week disbarred from practicing law in Georgia. The story was reported in yesterday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution. (Warning: The AJC requires tedious registration to read its online edition.
  
  Skandalakis was the second county commissioner in recent years whose criminal activities while in office landed him in prison. Another commissioner, Democrat Michael Hightower pleaded guilty in June 2000 to taking a $25,000 bribe - although most AFPL staffers remember Hightower as the guy who appointed William McClure to the library board.
  
  
• County's 2006 Budget to Include Layoffs?   Posted November 8, 2005
  Various county officials have repeatedly stated that the loss of county revenue caused by the incorporation of Sandy Springs next month will not affect the amount of funding for county library services. Funding for police and firefighting personnel, however, will be affected, as those funds are part of the revenue stream previously emanating from Sandy Springs taxes.
  
  The details of any budget cuts will not be apparent until November 15th, when the County Commission Chair Karen Handel proposes her 2006 budget and the other commissioners begin wrangling over where cuts will be made, and how deep they will be.
  
  Meanwhile, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has published an article about the expected layoffs among county police and fire department employees. (Warning: The AJC requires annoying registration to read its online edition.)
  
  AFPLWATCH notes that the AJC article includes a gratuitous (and callous) remark by Commissioner Darnell, who, of course, is not about to take any responsibility for the chain of events that led up to the county's current financial circumstances.
  
  
• Amazon.com to Begin Selling Pages of Books   Posted November 8, 2005
  Most people have heard by now that:
  
  
  • Google plans to digitalize and post to the Internet virtually All the Books in the Universe
  • MSN plans to digitalize and post to the Intenet virtually All the Books in the Universe Not Covered by Copyright
  • Amazon.com plans to digitalize and post to the Internet excerpts from public-domain books, and sell them by the page.
  
  Ever since these initiatives first surfaced, a substantial portion of the ether has been devoted to fevered commentary about the prospects of these developments, ranging from rosy predictions to dire warnings--and, of course, the initial lawsuits have been filed.
  
  Some commentators, however, are not at all worried that The Book may be going the way of the dinosaurs. An example is this Newsday essay entitled "You Just Can't Judge a Book by Its Download." The essay features comments by famed bibliophile Nicholas Brisbanes, whose Every Book Its Reader: The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World, will be published later this month. (Amazon.com is selling this book in its entirety, and in the familiar codex format....)
  
  
• Selector Alert: Author John Fowles Dead at 79   Posted November 8, 2005
  Selectors who might want to fill any gaps in their collections by this world famous author, or librarians interested in creating a book display marking his death, will find information about his literary career at the website devoted to Fowles.
  
  

  News about U.S. Gulf Coast Libraries Devastated by This Year's Hurricanes Read the latest bulletins compiled by American Libraries. "Free Range Librarian" Karen Schneider alerted the library community to this sobering map of the public libraries substantially damaged by Katrina and/or Rita, and credited the individuals who had a hand in creating the map.

• LibraryLand items are archived approximately one week after they are posted;
  read previously-posted bulletins
  
  
• Sources of LibraryLand Postings:
  
  The most frequently-used source for "LibraryLand" is LISNews.com.
  
  Descriptions of (and links to) other frequently-used sources of "LibraryLand" postings are listed here.
  
  
• Contribute an item to "LibraryLand Listening Post"

• an article in last week's John's Creek Herald that mentions Commissioner Emma Darnell's so-called "explanation" of her opposition to Ocee funding.
  
  
• a letter to the editor of the Alpharetta-Roswell News & Revue

Ocee Politics Mean-Spirited
What fuels a person's desire to be in county politics, an opportunity to improve county services? I think not! Wisdom, tolerance, and teamwork are in short supply these days. Case in point: the Ocee Library.

Politics regarding the Ocee Library have become absurd.

The library is a 25,000 square-foot building. It's currently zoned as 18,000. Paper inaccuracies aside, size matters because the Library Board of Trustees can only spend money based on the zoning of the library. That extra 7,000 square feet amounts to $600,000 already allotted for Ocee, waiting to be spent on books and shelves.

The Library Trustees (who were appointed by these same Commissioners) were UNANIMOUS in their letter of support of rezoning, and the subsequent release of funds for this library.

The Commissioners debated rezoning the Ocee Library to its actual size on October 5. Surprisingly, the motion did not pass; three for, three against, and one who wouldn't cast his vote. If you've been following county politics lately, you know how each Commissioner voted.

The debate was ugly and mean-spirited. All the Commissioners needed to do was correct an oversight in zoning. Wisdom, tolerance, and teamwork to improve county services? Sorry, we're all sold out.

[Signed] Michele May, Alpharetta

* * *
Commissioner [Boxhill] a Disgrace
Dear Ms. Boxhill,

Your behavior as an elected county official is a disgrace. My family uses the Ocee Library daily and we reent the fact that your personal vendetta is preventing our children from reading new books. It is no wonder the popularity of a separate north Fulton government is growing. You are obviously not representing my best interests, and I do not want my tax dollars to be wasted on your salary and agenda.

Get out of the business of being a racist and look at what is the greater good for all!

[Signed] Alan Dubrinsky, Alpharetta

• Missing Links in Administrative Management
  Updated August 1, 2005
  
  
• Missing Links in Branch Services Management
  Updated August 1, 2005

“Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. Those who remember the past are condemned to watch other people repeat it.”   --George Needham

• I hope the revolution doesn't come too soon. I have to sort out the priorities of all the people on my list who are currently down to be "first against the wall".
  
  
• Many of the world's greatest minds have been labeled as unpleasant, undesirable, obnoxious, or objectionable due to their uncompromising refusal to blithely wander about, prattling inanely about how wonderful and perfect everything is.
  
  
• Library administration is often neither an art nor a science - too often it is a case of the blind leading the intimidated.
  
  
• Communication is a dying form of expression. It's just so much simpler for the people higher up the ladder to bark down the orders, rather than come down their ladder.
  
  
• Courage is going to work every day, knowing that those in charge have absolutely no idea what's really happening.
  
  
• Anything is possible, given enough time, money, support staff, motivation, climate control, and a small infusion of intelligence in the current moronic state of affairs.
  
  
• Considering the increasingly rapid obsolescence of technology, computer theft is a community service.
  
  
• Dignity is highly overrated. Experience has shown that you can achieve just so much more by crying, screaming and laying on the floor kicking than by rationale argument and presentation of documented evidence.
  
  
• The vast majority of worksites would rather employ a cheerful cretin than a surly genius.
  
  
• I met an expert once. I knew they were an expert, because they told me. A number of times. I guess they thought I had a short memory.
  
  
• Genius is its own punishment. It's resented by the dull-witted, challenged by the jealous inept, and manipulated by organizations for their own evil plans.
  
  
• Show me a genius and I'll show you a manic-depressive. Of course, they may not be the same person.
  
  
• Librarians have not been so much "seared in the flames of withering injustice", as lightly parboiled in the melting pot of bureaucratic ignorance.
  
  
• A smiling librarian is an awesome sight; it challenges the stereotypes, creates an atmosphere of change, and frightens the heck out of 95% of the borrowers.
  
  
• If the library is quiet enough, you can actually hear the bookstock ageing.
  
  
• Is anyone running an in-utero reading program? Or should literacy foundations be laid during conception?
  
  
• One day, a library patron will come up to the desk and say "I don't suppose you could sing me the first two lines of ..." They should really be teaching this in library school. It's a greatly neglected area of Reference Services.
  
  
• Disraeli has been quoted as saying "to be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge." So how do we get stupid people to take that first step?
  
  
• I've finally figured out what's wrong here. There aren't enough days in the week, or hours in the day. Therefore we're on the wrong planet.
  
  
• Truth is a matter of perspective, personality, and sheer determination.

• Brian Smith’s The Laughing Librarian
  
  
• Libraries for Dummies
  
  
• IFLANET’s Library Humor
  
  
• Tales from the "Liberry"
  
  
• Bill Barnes’ and Gene Ambaum’s Unshelved
  
  
• Amanda Credaro’s Warrior Librarian

Wasted Taxpayers' Dollars

---

Wasted $$$ That Didn't Make the Headlines
No recent postings.

"When I learned we had two of the plaintiffs in the original lawsuit before us again in EEOC grievances, I was incredulous. Then I was furious. Nobody could be that stupid, I thought."

-Stephen Dorvee, Vice Chairman, AFPL Board of Trustees,
Alpharetta Revue & News, October 15, 2003

All library personnel transactions, including recommendations for hire (like the one for the position Starck interviewed for) and transfers (like Kelly’s) go through the library's administrative chain of command before they reach the full board of trustees. That chain includes libary human resource manager Sylvia Culver, library director Hooker, and the library trustees' Personnel Committee. Every single person along that chain of command who signed off on these transactions had to have known the names of the two individuals involved in those transactions, and that those individuals were plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the library. If the "system worked", how did both these actions get past Culver? Past Hooker? Past the members of the [trustees'] Personnel Committee?

Despite Hooker's attempts to spin to the trustees and to the county's Equal Employment Opportunity Office how these incidents occurred, Hooker's fingerprints are all over these personnel actions, right next to those of former Deputy Director Carolyn Garnes.

• Anyone not familiar with the facts of the original lawsuit may want to read
  a summary of the circumstances leading up it.
  
  
• Summaries of the testimony given each day during the original trial, compiled from notes taken by AFPL employees who attended, are posted here.

• Excerpts from the Lawyer's Brief for a Preliminary Injunction
  in the Federal Lawsuit
  Filed August 11, 2000
  
  
• Excerpts from the Court Rulings on the Library’s Request
  to Dismiss the Federal Lawsuit
  Rulings announced December 1, 2000
  
  
• Text of the U.S. Appeals Court's Ruling [in PDF Format]
  Ruling issued June 6, 2003

---

Hurricane Hooker
(August 19, 1999 - May 19, 2004)

---

Attention Library Boards of Trustees and City and County Managers Throughout North America! If you have already received--or if ever in your life you do receive--an application for your city's or county's vacant library director position from this individual--Mary Kaye Hooker, aka Mary Kaye Donahue-Hooker aka Mary Kay Donahue--instruct your interview team to request and review a free copy of The Hooker Dossier before offering a job to this applicant. The Hooker Dossier, provided courtesy AFPLWATCH, is a conveniently-packaged set of materials that includes: DAMNING DOCUMENTS The $112,000 report commissioned by her employers that describes Hooker's failure as a leader, Hooker's abysmally inadequate knowledge of employment law, and the loathing felt for Hooker by hundreds of employees due to her inept, erratic, and insensitive management style. Copies of documents bearing Hooker's signature that authorized illegal personnel transactions months after taxpayers had forked over $18 million in damages resulting from a lawsuit against Hooker and her employers, the library board--and that cost taxpayers an additional $250,000 in damages from a second lawsuit. Transcripts of library board committee meetings where Hooker and the board planned the race-based "reorganization" of the Central Library that resulted in the discrimination lawsuit against Hooker and others. ALARMING MEDIA REPORTS The full text of every news article and editorial published between 1999 and 2004 in Atlanta newspapers and national librarianship journals that documents or condemns Hooker's poor administrative skills and performance as a library director. SCARIFYING PREDICTIONS A list of dire warnings about Hooker's probable behavior in Atlanta that an employee of the El Paso Public Library--mortified to hear that Atlanta's board had hired Hooker--emailed to an employee of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library in 1999 before Hooker decamped to Atlanta. Without exception, these unbelievable-at-the-time predictions turned out to be horribly accurate. A CHRONICLE OF RUINED LIBRARY CAREERS A soberingly long list of the AFPL administrators, managers, and subject specialists who resigned or retired early because they couldn't bear to work with Hooker any longer. A SMORGASBORD OF VICTIMS An equally long list of AFPL Central Library administrators, managers, and subject specialists who Hooker exiled to branch libraries because she couldn't tolerate their competence or their objections to Hooker's nonsensical and/or contradictory directives and/or Hooker's destructive and breathtakingly impulsive, ill-informed, and ill-fated schemes--or because the clique controlling the board (Hooker's employer) decided the skins of these administrators, managers, and subject specialists were the "wrong" color. A LITANY OF LIES Samples of distortions, evasions, and outright lies Hooker told to one or more of the following groups of people: library employees, library trustees, journalists, county commissioners, employee grievance committee members, federal judges, and a federal jury. CREEPY NARCISSISM What Hooker wrote to her colleagues about the murder of a library manager by one of the manager's employees--after Hooker had ignored a four-year accumulation of evidence of the growing animosity between the murderer and his victim. A "HOOKERSPEAK" DE-CODER A handy glossary of annoying cliches, self-serving excuses, and globs of rhetorical flotsam and jetsam that prospective job interviewers, inquiring local journalists, and/or doomed employees are likely to hear mouthed ad nauseam by Hooker wherever she lands next. AMAZING TESTIMONY UNDER OATH The complete transcript from the hearing of a group grievance filed against Hooker by almost two dozen library employees. WASTED TAX DOLLARS A tally of how much money--including Hooker's $116,520 per year salary and over $18,250,000 in lawsuit settlements--it cost the government of Fulton County, Georgia, to keep Hooker on its payroll for over four years. INVENTORY OF A LIBRARY SYSTEM'S DESTRUCTION A list of the library services Hooker dismantled or irreparably damaged during her tenure at AFPL, plus a list of library services already in place that Hooker presumptuously took undeserved credit for creating. BONUS: A DOZEN REASONS WHY... ...you do NOT want to hire this person as your next library director, no matter how impressive you might think her resume looks or how sane she might seem in a job interview. That's twelve reasons we're offering you, folks. Not one reason, not two or three reasons, but twelve of them. Libraries of North America! Do yourselves, your library's managers, your library's front-line employees, and your library's users a favor and send for your free copy of The Hooker Dossier today--before it's too late and you've doomed yourselves and everyone you know and care about to years of unmitigated, expensive misery.

---

"Hooker's Howlers"
Grab yourself a barf bag and read a sampling of the lies and distortions from the mouth or word processor of Mary Kaye Hooker before the County Manager finally fired her on May 19, 2004.

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"Daily Affirmations" for Mary Kaye Hooker?
Posted February 21, 2004

---

"Still Strategizing..."
Posted August 17, 2003

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The Ideal Library Director...

...is the opposite of what AFPL had from 1999 to 2004.
Updated May 9, 2003

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Library Staff Morale:
In the Proverbial Toilet
Posted May 5, 2003
By the time former library director Mary Kaye Hooker was finally fired in May 2004 and the former library board was abolished in June 2004, morale among library workers had sunk to its lowest level in over a decade. To find out why, read "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves!"

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The Amateur Hour:
AFPL's Trustees at Work

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Peacocks on Parade:
Embarrassing Antics of AFPL's Clueless Trustees
Updated May 16, 2005

Examples of the cluelessness and/or ego tripping of AFPL's board of trustees.

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"Scoundrel Time"
Final Update: January 21, 2004
William McClure once chaired AFPL's library board and--despite the successful $18 million lawsuit brought against him and others for race discrimination against library employees--McClure remained a board member and committee chair until the former board was abolished by Georgia law on June 30, 2004.

Shortly after leaving AFPL and until he died on October 25, 2005 at age 57, McClure "served" the citizens of East Point as a city council member. For comments from East Point citizens outraged about McClure's antics on the council, read "Reports about One of Our Former Illustrious Board Members".

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Damning Documents

• Findings from a study commissioned by AFPL's Trustees to investigate evidence of illegal personnel transactions authorized by AFPL Director Mary Kaye Hooker:
  
  

  Excerpts from the "AFPL Workplace Audit" Submitted December 31, 2003

  
  
  
• From the Group Grievance Filed by Library Employees:
  
  

  	Library Board Approves Mass Transfers of Central Library Employees May 24, 2000
  	Text of the Group Grievance Protesting Mass Transfers Grievance filed June 18, 2000
  	Transcript of Hearing of the Group Grievance [in PDF Format] Hearing conducted August 17, 2000
  	Ruling of the Grievance Board Ruling approved October 30, 2000

  
  
• Calls for Restructuring the Library Board:
  
  

  	Letter from Library Director Julie Hunter to Library Board Chair Roy Yancy Letter dated October 22, 1997
  	Library Staff Petition Calling for the Library Board of Trustees to Resign Submitted July 6, 1998
  	Excerpt from DMG Associates’ Library Management Audit Report dated October 1999
  	Comments from an Online Petition Urging Legislators to Pass Board Reform Legislation Petition Circulated in 2002 (regarding a board reform bill introduced for the second consecutive year)
  	Text of Georgia Senate Bill 231 Introduced March 5, 2003
  	Text of the Library Reform Bill Approved by the Legislature Signed by the Governor May 19, 2004; effective July 1, 2004

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Down the Rabbit-Hole:
Dispatches from The Surreal Library

• Metaphors Gone Wild!   Posted July 29, 2004
  
  
• Hurricane Hooker Heads for Florida   Posted April 1, 2004
  
  
• "Urinetown" - It's Not Just Off-Broadway Anymore!   Posted March 30, 2004
  
  
• Questions They Left Off the Customer Survey   Posted August 4, 2003
  
  
• Reaching Out to the Underserved   Posted May 14, 2003

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Sobering Thoughts in a Troubled Time

Teamwork--and, at AFPL, Its Opposite   Posted May 6, 2004

Even the briefest glance at virtually any book on sound management practices--or unsound ones--that's coming off the presses these days can make an AFPL employee cringe with recognition of AFPL's sorry state, managment-wise. Here's an excerpt from one of those books.


Read these previously-posted Sobering Thoughts:

• “Brutal Bosses and Their Prey”
• “Those Who Can, Do; Those Who Can’t, Bully”
• Does this sound like any library director you know?
• Does this sound like any board of trustees you know?
• The Secret Wellspring of "Hookerspeak" Revealed!
• “Does Your Boss Put the ‘I’ in Idiot?”
• "When Dopey's in charge, it's you who's always out of your mind..."
• "Being a Library Director Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry
  --No Matter How Sorry You Are"
• Workplace sociopathy + sadism + narcissism + paranoia = the Business Psychopath
• "Clouds of excuses and disclaimers..."
• "The 10 Deadly Sins of Leadership"
• "Deception of others is closely linked with self-deception...."

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A Library System in Shambles

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The Bad Drives Away The Good:
The AFPL Brain Drain, 1999-2004
Updated August 17, 2004
For the breathtakingly long list of the many administrative employees, subject specialists, and computer technicians who were involuntarily transferred, prematurely retired, or resigned from the Central Library during (or shortly after) the five-year tenure of recently-dismissed Library Director Mary Kaye Hooker, check "Would the Last One Out Please Turn Out the Lights?"

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AFPL's "Disappeared Ones," 1999-2004 Here one day, gone the next. No official explanations--but plenty of speculation around lots of water coolers and copy machines... George Tuttle - former Ivan Allen Dept. Manager Rodney Poitier - former Library Board Chair Brian Williams - Library Development Officer Reappeared 10/27/03; Re-Disappeared 10/28/03 Carolyn Garnes - former Deputy Director Willie Kellings - former Building Maintenance Manager Reappeared early April, 2004 Annette Steed - former Library Board Chair The Strip-Mining of AFPL's Tech Services Department Posted November 18, 2003 "Not So Long Ago and Not Nearly Far Away Enough..."   Chronicles of Mediocrity Some library systems meander into mediocrity; others are dragged, kicking and screaming, into mediocrity by lousy administrators. Why can't AFPL supply bestsellers?  Updated March 23, 2004 Performance Summary Period of NYT Bestseller Lists Covered: March 9, 2003 - February 29, 2004* Performance Indicator Ideal Actual Highest % of bestseller purchases by AFPL 100% 100% (the Feb. 8, 15, 22, & 29, 2004 lists)* Highest % of purchased bestsellers with no waiting lists* 100% 71% (the January 4, 2004 list)* Lowest average waiting period for purchased bestsellers* None 1 WEEK (the February 1, 2004 list)* Lowest maximum waiting period for purchased bestsellers* 1 wk? 2˝ MONTHS (the August 10, 2003 list)* *Due to its migration to a new automated system for displaying its holdings and recording its cirulation data, the library system disabled its automated Holds system February 1, 2004 and stopped updating its catalog on February 29, 2004. Data on the number of bestsellers purchased by AFPL, the numbers and percentages of titles with no waiting lists, average waiting periods, and longest waiting periods will not be available until mid-April 2004. Weekly postings to AFPLWATCH of the library's performance in terms of these output measures will be resumed at that time. Late-April 2004 Update: The new software's Holds functions is full of bugs and patrons are not able to tell (accurately) how many copies of a given bestseller AFPL owns or how many others are waiting in line for that title. We will resume monitoring the bestseller situation at AFPL as soon as the bugs in the software have been resolved. March 2005 Update: We're still waiting for SIRSI software to display accurate information about Hold queues and the position of a borrower in those queues. Why can't AFPL provide reliable online databases?  Updated October 3, 2003 Why is AFPL's catalog so user-unfriendly?  Posted October 15, 2003 !!! READER CONTEST !!! What Was the Darkest Day in the Library System's Recent History? The library system's staff and patrons have endured a lot of Dark Days during the past ten years. Undoubtedly the lowest point was reached the day in 2002 when a library employee whose troubled relationship with his manager was known to library administrators for at least four years murdered the manager and then killed himself. Apart from that senseless tragedy, what do you think was the incident in recent years that has had the most far-reaching negative consequences for the library system? Was it: The day Commissioner Hightower (later imprisoned for malfeasance in office) first appointed William McClureto the library system's board of trustees? The day the AFPLS Friends of the Library group was disbanded because the group's president (who happened to be the wife of the library board chair at the time) had run afoul of federal tax laws? The day Julie Hunter, exasperated by the trustees' relentless micromanagement of the library system, announced her resignation as Library Director? The day the library board of trustees, ignoring the legal proceedings she was mired in at the El Paso Public Library, hired Mary Kaye Hooker as Julie Hunter's replacement? The day the library board, after its "exhaustive, nation-wide search," decided Carolyn Garnes was the most qualified applicant on the planet for the job as the library system's Deputy Director? The day when director Hooker, with a mass involuntary transfer of employees--and for that most worthless of reasons, the race prejudice of certain trustees--eliminated from the Central Library the majority of its most seasoned managers and subject specialists? The day Mary Kaye Hooker ordered the Central Library's Film Department to be dismantled, its staff to be transferred to branch libraries, and its highly-regarded collection of videos to be disbursed to multiple sites--without security cases? The day Mary Kaye Hooker ordered the dismantling of the library system's nationally-renowned telephone reference department, sending its founder and virtually all of its excellently-trained specialists to work in branch libraries, allowing its well-honed collection to be decimated, and crippling the public's use of telephone reference by reducing the number of reference phone lines from four to one? The day Susan Earl was installed as Central Library Administrator? The day the library board, instead of firing Mary Kaye Hooker for authorizing multiple illegal personnel transactions, announced that it would require her to attend "sensitivity training"? So many "Dark Days" to choose from! Send your vote to the webmaster--or suggest your own candidate for The Darkest Day in the Library's Recent History. As soon as a substantial number of readers have voted, we will announce the, umm, "winner." This web site is operated by Atlantans For Progressive Libraries, a group of concerned citizens interested in fostering an ongoing, public discussion of the current dysfunctional state of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library system. "Hidden agendas are just as important to expose as hidden bank accounts." --Ron Rosenbaum, The Secret Parts of Fortune (Random House, 2000)

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