How Do You Manage? Case Study: Is the MLS DOA?

"Thank you, Jack. We appreciate your taking the time to meet with us," said Augustus Wilkes, veteran chair of the Essex Public Library System's board. "You staying in the city overnight?"

"I wish I could," Jack Scavullo answered, smiling pleasantly, "but I've got an 8 p.m. flight home."

"We won't hold you then," Wilkes said, shaking hands with Scavullo. "Thanks again. We'll be in touch."

"Well, ladies and gents," said an exasperated Wilkes after Scavullo had gathered his belongings and departed. "That's another one down. I think it's time to face the facts: we're not going to find what we're looking for by running classifieds in trade journals. We have to start looking outside the profession if we're going to get someone with the right skills for this job."

"Do you really think that's a good idea?" board member Bernie Jenks asked. "It's taking a hell of a risk."

"What's so risky about it?" Wilkes replied. "Why isn't it like hiring anyone else?"

"Come on, Gus. It's not like hiring anyone else, and you know it."

"I don't know it; explain it to me."

"Because it looks bad," said an exasperated Jenks. "One, the staff will wonder why one of their own didn't get the job and why someone with an MLS didn't get it. They'll resent the guy we hire for not having an MLS, and they'll resent having to work for someone without one. They'll see it as demeaning. They persevered through library school, and now someone who didn't is their boss. That'll go over real big."

Wilkes harrumphed in his chair.

"And two," Jenks continued, "the public will wonder why their library isn't run by a librarian. We've always had one."

"I understand your point, Bernie," Wilkes said, "but times change. Other big-city systems are looking outside the field. Some have already hired nonlibrarians. It's not like the director is going to check out books or work the reference desk. Are those skills really required to run this facility?"

"That depends on your point of view." Jenks shifted in his seat. "From a purely library-as-a-business angle, perhaps not. But for really understanding how things work, what staffers really do, how hard certain jobs are, then, yes, having earned an MLS, coming up through the ranks, and compiling all those experiences firsthand definitely give you a perspective that you can't learn in business."

"All good points, Bernie, and normally I would completely agree with you, but there's no one on staff right now possessing the qualifications we want, and we've already seen at least half a dozen if not more of the best library directors in the country," stated Wilkes. "A lot of them were great, but none has exactly the hardcore management skills the board and the mayor's office want for the next director. I know everyone loved Director Milton, but he's retired now. In truth, he was a veteran librarian and a big wheel in the associations, but you can't deny that his management skills were weak and he left the system with a lot of problems that wouldn't exist if someone with more business savvy had been in charge. He just did not know how to deal with union negotiations and those aspects of the job. He'd tell you the same thing if he were here, Bernie. You know he would."

"I'm sure you're right, Gus, but that still leaves us with the problem at hand."

Wilkes summed it up: "Should we continue to keep looking just within librarianship, or do we start interviewing people from outside the field? Does it really take an MLS and related work experience to run a library system, or is someone with better management experience what is needed these days?"

The question of whether or not to hire MLS candidates for managerial positions is not new. Case in point, several of our country's Librarians of Congress have not held MLS degrees, and many keynote speakers outside of the library field have graced the podium at numerous library conferences, purporting to tell us what we all should know about librarianship.

Jenks may be right about staff resentment over the hiring of a non-MLS director, but just because one "persevered through library school" doesn't mean that one has the necessary knowledge and practical skills to be a manager. It's possible to garner an MLS with only marginal coursework in management—or none at all. Additionally, one or two management courses—or even ten—does not a good manager make.

The crux of the problem is twofold. First, we do not have enough educational time in our degree programs as they currently exist to impart successfully essential job knowledge and skills and allow us to concentrate on particular areas of librarianship, such as management. Second, in our haste to be seen as professionals, we discount hands-on experience and innate interpersonal skills in favor of the "piece of paper"—the MLS degree.

Today, our profession is not successfully making a distinction between essential job skills—e.g., reference, collection development, and technical services—and upper management skills. Once upon a time, essential library skills were taught at the undergraduate or associate's degree level. Many state and community colleges offered such programs until they were disbanded in the late 1970s. At that time, the master's degree was reserved for the relative few who desired to concentrate on a particular aspect of librarianship, including upper management.

Today, we expect a two-year program, the equivalent of an associate's degree in course hours, to enable us to become all things to all people. We'll take anyone into our field, regardless of how irrelevant their prior degree and experience may be. We smugly assert that this brings a richness and diversity to our ranks, heedless of our production of graduates who have only the most rudimentary knowledge of library operations and limited interpersonal skills.

Then we wonder, like Jenks and Wilkes, why we don't have a plethora of solid MLS candidates to choose from when hiring top management positions and why libraries often flounder under the direction of people who have no business sitting in a manager's chair. This is as true of big-city libraries as it is of rural ones. Incompetence knows no population distinction.

Good managers are born, not made. Management classes are extremely valuable—make no mistake. But those who aspire to management positions must come to the table with certain intangibles that cannot be taught in the classroom, e.g., loyalty, honesty, humility, and a sense of humor. They need genuinely to like and care about people. They need to be able to see things from many different perspectives and still make valid decisions. Master's-level courses can polish a diamond in the rough, but they can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Wilkes and Jenks should hire an MLS professional. If we want to fill positions like that of the Essex Public Library System, bring back library undergraduate education. Let people learn the nuts and bolts of librarianship in the classroom, then gain practical experience in the working world before entering a master's program. Require psychological testing for all master's-level managerial candidates to screen out the people who don't have the right stuff from the start. Only then will we see an improvement in our candidate pool.

There's one fundamental question, but it's not the MLS question. Wilkes has made his stance perfectly clear: he's met with at least six candidates and none fits his preconceived notion of the next Essex Library director, so move on. He's exasperated—but too bad, that's the job. At least one committee member sees a bigger picture, but what about all the others? As veteran chair, does Wilkes make the decision, or must a process be followed to arrive at a group consensus?

A director/board relationship is a marriage; a brief initial interview and a bully chair only exacerbate the difficulties in the selection process. Once the entire selection committee accepts this, further valuable deliberations can occur.

Essex's previous director Milton was not born with management skills; few librarians are. He required training, the type that is beyond most MLS programs. It's widely available, and the board should have insisted on (and paid for) such training. MLS knowledge will be fundamental to the process any new library director will use in staff selection. The MLS is an entry-level degree, but this is not an entry-level position.

The committee has met with some of the "best library directors in the country" but has not found a suitable candidate. The classified ad reached the right people; how can so many great candidates be so unacceptable? Has each committee member reached the same conclusion? This should be a strong signal that something is very wrong with the evaluation process. The committee needs to step back and review each candidate's knowledge, skills, and abilities. The members must evaluate each candidate's current abilities and forecast future potential.

Jenks offers insight. He recognizes many important issues, not the least of which is ensuring sufficient upward mobility for the staff. Much more important, Jenks accepts his role as a member of a committee working toward a decision. Selecting a new director is the single most important, most difficult, and most critical issue that any committee will make. Wilkes reluctantly concedes to Jenks's points but is unwilling to relinquish his perceived authority. It's time for some group-think. Lines of communication among all the committee members must be reopened. Silence from them is unacceptable.

Librarians need to recognize the need for leadership training. Such knowledge will make the best candidates for future director positions, rendering the MLS question obsolete. Library schools and library associations must ensure such training is easily obtainable. There was no future planning by Milton or the library board. There is no candidate from within because the director himself did not recognize his own needs.

The committee needs to take a break, examine its charge, and find the best available candidate. Jenks is on the right track, and he must uphold his convictions. He summed it up quite effectively: "It's not like hiring anyone else…." The selection process is frequently a long, arduous one. The entry-level degree is required, but a great deal more is necessary.