"A Tremendous Challenge" LJ Talks to Keith Michael Fiels

In April, the American Library Association (ALA) ended its search for a new executive director, selecting Keith Michael Fiels to succeed the retiring William Gordon. Fiels comes to this position July 1 from his ten-year post as the director of Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, which he says has "strong similarities in terms of the environment of ALA." In a recent interview, LJ asked Fiels how he sees his role and how he hopes to help shape the organization.

LJ With its 11 divisions and the new Allied Professional Association, ALA is an unwieldy organization.

Why would you want this job?

KMF ALA is a tremendously important organization for libraries, for people who use libraries, and for the nation as a whole. I also have a personal interest in ALA as an enormous force in my personal and professional development. People from ALA have been mentors, working on committees has helped develop my professional skills and my understanding of issues. I feel it's an opportunity to give back, by serving the organization to help build a stronger profession and stronger libraries for the future. ALA is a tremendous challenge; it's a wonderful, wonderful organization. It's doing great things, but needs somebody who can help foster what's good and help resolve some of the things that people would like to see changed.

LJ One of the questions recently raised by LJ was who speaks for ALA on the important issues: the executive director or the president?

KMF The job of the executive director is to be a resource to support the president in forwarding the organization's goals, so to me it's a collaborative process. There's no question that the presidents must be the primary spokespeople for the organization: they're practitioners, they're in the trenches, they're going to be able to speak with the kind of authority and immediacy that's important in getting our message across. Running ALA is a bigger job than any one person could ever do. Leadership is not an egotistical quality, it's a quality of supporting the best ideas that exist within the organization.

LJ You stated that communicating ALA's message to the public is job number one.

How will you do that?

KMF ALA's leadership needs to get out even more than they already are. We need to look at interactions with other groups. Things like the @ Your Library campaign are really taking off in a fashion that allows us, I think for the first time, to have a direct voice speaking to the American people. We need to be doing that in such a way that our message strengthens every library by increasing the public's awareness of how important their local library is—whether it's a public or a school library—the amazing things that libraries are able to do now. The people need to know about the challenges they face because of lack of resources as well as the effort to deal with rapid technological changes and keeping librarians trained in this new learning environment.

LJ Can you elaborate on your library victories in Massachusetts and how they would apply to a national model?

KMF The first situation was dealing with a very fragmented library community: the academic, public, and school librarians all have some significant problems, issues, and challenges. We tried to collaborate in order to strengthen services provided by all libraries. People were in a conflict situation in that they were approaching the legislature with different priorities. The effect was that nothing moved. There was gridlock. People were fighting over resources when they needed to work together to create a bigger pie. I think we were successful in doing that.

LJ Newer ALA members seem uninterested in the organization's politics and elections, with only a small percentage actually voting. Do you have a plan to get them more involved?

KMF The election issue is fascinating. Most ALA members that I talk to indicate that they vote for people they know. One of the questions is how do we build opportunities for newcomers to interact with veterans. I'd like to see more ways, whether it's through focus groups or new technologies such as web-based surveys, to build a better feedback loop in terms of learning from the less active members what the issues are that we need to be addressing. There is a lot of interest in ALA becoming a more active provider of continuing education. That would bring us into practical, useful contact with less active members who don't see the benefits of organizational participation as concretely in their day-to-day life.

LJ What's your stance on the filtering issue? How can ALA help librarians face this challenge?

KMF We're subject to the law, and the law at this point says filtering is unconstitutional. On the other hand, we have a law that says if you want to receive certain kinds of federal funding you have to provide filtering. That particular law is about to undergo a review that will determine if it's legal. I think that librarians are doing a great job of providing children with a safe environment. I challenge any other organization that is providing as much service as libraries to have such a low incidence of problems.

LJ There is a public misconception that the Internet can do the job of a library. What will you do to combat this notion?

KMF I believe that if people have the facts they can make good decisions. As more people have experienced the Internet, the value of those who can navigate through this environment—you don't need 7000 hits on a simple search—is in fact something that is going to increase over time. In Massachusetts, we're starting to see a big jump in the use of libraries, and the reason for it is that people are not just coming in to use the Internet because they don't have access to it, but because they know the library is a place where they're not going to be wasting their time trying to muddle through commercial web sites in order to find information.

LJ You've mentioned strengthening ALA's outreach within the field.

What's your plan for that?

KMF One of the things I would love to see is a stronger ALA presence at chapter conferences in order to be a resource for them. In Massachusetts when we were able to get speakers from ALA it helped make for a stronger conference, it attracted more interest, and attendees were more interested in hearing about issues at the national level. The chapters are a great place to develop the next generation of ALA members, and ALA could help the chapters develop the next generation of their members.

LJ The graying of the profession has been well noted. What can ALA do to attract new people to the field?

KMF ALA President Mitch Freedman has suggested that salaries are an issue, but that is not the only one. I think the other issue is the 'on ramp' to the profession. How, for instance, do we reach into undergraduate higher education to develop more of an interest in students in becoming librarians? From a recruitment standpoint we could perhaps strengthen that.

There are going to have to be a number of strategies brought to bear, ranging from trying to increase compensation, trying to push public awareness of the importance of librarians as information professionals in our society, and attracting a larger, more diverse group of individuals so we can develop the kinds of librarians who are going to be able to serve America as it's going to exist in five, ten, or 20 years.

LJ You initially turned down this position. Why reject it in 1997 and accept it now?

KMF I had some personal issues that were not evident as I entered into the process. They became critical later on and I had to pass for some family reasons. It has been suggested that ALA and I couldn't negotiate. That was not the case. I was very sorry to have to turn it down at that point.

I hope I can do half of what Bill Gordon's done for the organization. I bring some other strengths, and what I would like to do is not mess up anything that's working well and focus on some of the things people would like to see as the next steps.