Blatant Berry: I'm Glad I'm Not a Director
Those jobs just don't seem to be much fun!
John N. Berry III, Editor-at-Large -- Library Journal, 6/1/2006
I used to think I'd like to be the director of a public library. Not any more. From coast to coast and border to border, library directors are under the gun. It has been that way for a decade now. If they aren't under attack from some anti-immigrant nut in Congress for having materials in the Spanish language, they're fighting with their unions because they beat up on some staff member who told a library user that she hated the new RFID system.
Don't mistake my feelings for pity or even empathy for administrators. I think they often screw up. It's just that I don't envy them the jobs they hold, even with all the perquisites and big bucks. Many handle it all very well and survive happily for years. Others, many of whom I hold in high regard, get clobbered.
When a library director tries to please the mayor or city manager and agrees to cut hours or “cluster” branches to save money, ten other “leaders,” including a couple of local politicians, a neighborhood “Friends” group, or some member of the library board whose local branch got hit in the reorganization, are ready to attack and do battle to “save the day.” The staff and union attack, too, to protect jobs.
In a Western city, a director has opted to retire rather than knuckle under to the constant demagoguery of a local politician who opposes service to those who speak a language other than English. Local gadflies in several cities make open library board meetings into a circus, with endless public comment on every action taken by the director and board. In one locale, gadflies have attacked every library director for some 50 years. It drove one into retirement, but others have handled it with grace and skill. The board has grown increasingly defensive and arrogant.
Directors are frequently blindsided by local political maneuvering. In one major U.S. city, a board member constantly leaks internal details of negotiations between the director and board to a local tabloid. The leaks always reflect badly on the director, and, of course, the newspaper is delighted to publish the details, which are usually about such stuff as vacations and conference travel.
Library unions in such situations become increasingly militant—and for good reason. Directors try to please the public, their governing boards, and local pols. And while they want to please their staff, the employees usually come after everyone else who targets the administration. It is no surprise that unions are restive.
Until American attitudes toward government change more than I think they soon will, such jobs can only be performed well for relatively short spans. Directors get stale and burn out much faster than other staff. The relationship between board and director is often dicey and changes with each change on the board.
Fundamental to all of this is possibly the strongest tradition in these United States of America: the founding idea that taxes and government are evil. Otherwise normal people go nuts when you mention government.
Public libraries are part of that mix, too, and that general dislike usually spills over onto the people who work for them. These employees are often not loved and are fair game, variously labeled lazy, on the dole, or suspect because they usually get their jobs through political influence.
You and I know that isn't true of 99 percent of American librarians, and it isn't true of 95 percent of the nation's public library directors, but the public doesn't believe that. Today, I feel fortunate that I don't direct a public library.
