Prince George County Library Director Put on Leave After Racial Statement

Staff -- Library Journal, 2/7/2000

Bart Kane, director of the Prince George's County Library System, MD, was put on 30-day paid leave while library officials investigate allegations he used a racial epithet during a January 7 luncheon attended by several other library directors. According to the February 3 Washington Post, "use of the word offended others at the luncheon, including three who wrote letters to him complaining about his conduct." A copy of one of the letters apparently made its way to the library's board, which took action. Anne Arundel County PL's Ron Kozlowski told the press that it was a "very difficult meeting for me, and I left early because of the topic and what was being said." Darrell Batson, director of the Frederick County Library System, however, said that Kane used the word in a quote from a teacher who years earlier had questioned his father about associating with blacks and that "it was not said in a vindictive way," adding that it was more a matter "of bad taste." Kane has been in hot water before, having essentially been forced from his top post in Hawaii's library system over management troubles.