Dining with the Director

When I ran into other recent graduates at the American Library Association (ALA) annual conference in New Orleans in 2006, several told me they weren't happy with their jobs. After months of searching, they settled for positions in isolated rural libraries, have jobs with little responsibility, or are expected to manage their staff without training and support. After talking to them, I realized how lucky I am, as the first Louise Parker Berry Fellow, to land where I get to propose and implement projects and observe firsthand how library management makes decisions. The fellowship combines training in each department with shadowing management so I can see how all the pieces fit together, from customer service to policy creation, budgeting, and human relations.

The Darien Library's Board of Trustees created the fellowship in 2004 in honor of Louise Berry's 25-year anniversary as library director. The fellowship is a two-year, full-time position at the Darien Library in Darien, CT, an affluent town outside New York City. The fellowship is designed to give new graduates the chance to carry out various high-stakes projects while also participating in daily activities.

After graduating from UMass with a degree in women's studies, I worked for three years as a legislative aide in the Massachusetts legislature before enrolling in the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. A couple of months before graduation, I received an email on the students' electronic discussion list soliciting applications for the Berry fellowship [see “Be the Second Berry Fellow,” p. 34]. After an intense application process, including two essays and a nerve-wracking dinner with the selection committee at the Wee Burn Country Club, I was chosen only a few months after receiving my MLS to be the first Fellow.

From what I can tell, fellowships are rare in public libraries, so I feel like a trailblazer. My position is unique: I'm not a regular library staff member, but I'm not management either, even though I have more direct access to management, especially on Tuesday's. Every other Tuesday, I leave the circulation desk to go to lunch with Louise, Melissa Yurechko (assistant director and head of children's services), and Alan Gray (technology director).

The fellowship guidelines stipulate that “Louise Berry will be the Fellow's mentor.” Soon after I arrived, Louise realized that we needed to carve out time for mentoring because she is very busy with fundraising and planning for a new building. She decided that every other Tuesday I would join her, Alan, and Melissa for their weekly brainstorming lunch at the Black Goose, a local restaurant.

It's unusual for a young staffer to be at these high-level meetings. I was intimidated at first but quickly got more comfortable offering my opinions. I observe and take part in planning and big-picture thinking. I also report from the front lines, update them on my projects, and offer feedback.

These lunches provide a glimpse into how the library runs, as well as insights into the bigger issues that affect the library's health such as whether the leadership should change the way books are ordered, how best to recruit staff, and how to brand and market the library.

Instead of handing down directives, Louise uses a conversational decision-making process. She benefits from the back-and-forth with Melissa and Alan. Often, Melissa, who works the desk and has the ear of the staff, is the reality check, asking how Alan's outside the box ideas can be effectively implemented given staff and budget constraints. After discussion, Louise chooses a course of action and throws all her support behind it.

Lunch is especially interesting because Melissa and Alan have such different leadership styles. Melissa has years of experience in Connecticut libraries. Alan comes from the corporate world and has an MBA instead of an MLS. Melissa is very focused on service to the community and staff needs, while Alan is focused on technology.

Louise balances between these two perspectives. Dedicated to “extreme customer service,” she is an early adopter of new technologies and innovations. At the same time, she has her finger on the community's politics and effectively works with town officials to secure funding. She attends local government meetings and events and builds long-term relationships with community leaders, always reminding them how valuable the library is to Darien.

When I'm at the table, Louise will often lean over and say, “Emily, you should be part of this.” As a result, I've served on task forces and committees and provided input into library decisions.

A few times, though, I wasn't invited to lunch because an especially sensitive topic was on the agenda. As such, I don't have a complete understanding of the library's inner workings. It is also a reminder that my presence at these lunches changes the dynamic. Although frank, the discussion, I'm sure, is more circumspect when I'm there. I'm glad that I'm not privy to everything because it would be tough for me to know sensitive information my coworkers don't know since I'm not in a management position. Sensitive topics, such as personnel issues, do come up, which I cannot and would not disclose. I've had to feign surprise at several announcements that I knew about in advance. This can be especially hard when working the desks.

While I now feel completely integrated into the library, the beginning was rocky. Because I'm the first Fellow, they did not know what to do with me initially. I began working at a table in the assistant director's office while a new office was being built for me. During the first month I worked in the circulation, children's, and information departments. This was somewhat of a relief because I was concerned that I would be thrown right into significant projects.

After the first month, I began to settle into a routine—I divide my time between circulation and information while using Thursdays and a few hours during the week to work on special projects. I enjoy my desk time, but I have not had as much time as I (or Louise) would like to work on projects. This is partially because a full-time circulation staffer left two months after I arrived, and I took on some of her duties.

I have an easygoing personality and am willing to help out, so I've been able to get along with everyone in the library. Sometimes I do this by downplaying the “Fellow” aspect of my job. As one of the only people to work each desk, I have a unique perspective on how each department functions and the relationships among departments. I've been able to act as a go-between to illuminate some of the mysteries of why a department does things a certain way. I even occasionally carry messages between departments. This can be uncomfortable, because staff from one department will complain about how workers in another department do something, but I can usually see both sides.

Relationships among departments are likely to change drastically when the library moves into its new building in fall 2008. Circulation staff, freed from routine tasks by an automated checkout circulation system, will transform into a readers' advisory department. This new department will staff the fiction collection on the first floor, while the information department will oversee the nonfiction collection and provide reference services on the second floor. I think the physical separation between departments will make it more difficult for them to work together unless they have shared projects to bring them together.

One of my initiatives, an adult summer reading program, succeeded in bringing the departments together and helped circulation staff prepare for the transition to readers' advisory.

For years, staff had talked about creating such a program. As the Fellow, I had the time and support to create “Humor Me!” Working both desks part-time led me to realize that both departments should coordinate the effort. I assembled a committee of circulation and information services staff. They decided that the circulation department would handle the program logistics, while the information department would help prepare the annotated reading list.

Through staff promotion and the offer of great prizes, over 200 participants read more than 600 books. Patrons squeezed more reading into their busy schedules—one told us it encouraged her to read novels instead of completing a major project.

Humor Me! was the first time I led a team. Delegating to busy committee members was difficult, and I found myself taking on many tasks, to the point where some referred to the project as “Emily's program.” This year, I am giving staff more ownership of the project so that it will continue after I leave the library.

In addition to creating a new program and building relationships among departments, the fellowship gives me a chance to take risks. One led to a great success, the other hasn't succeeded yet, though I'm still trying.

My sense of social justice inspired one of my first ideas—that the library hold a drive in which we waived fines in return for food donations. This idea took shape when I read in the local paper that the Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County was having difficulty filling its shelves as the holiday season approached. I found this especially troubling because Lower Fairfield County is very affluent, known locally as the “Gold Coast.”

When I first asked Louise, Melissa, and Alan if the library could hold such a drive, I got three blank stares. But Louise told me to go ahead with it.

After a tin of leaky, expired sardines arrived in the book drop, I began to wonder if the food drive was such a good idea. But donations started pouring in, and after two weeks we had collected close to two tons of food. It felt so fulfilling to make such an impact soon after arriving in Darien.

At other libraries, a new librarian might not have received approval to spearhead a food drive and almost certainly would not have received the benefit of a major commitment by the administrative staff.

Not all my projects have gone so well, such as a community blog I started at Louise's behest as an online forum about local issues. I eagerly attacked it, but it premiered at the same time as a controversial, anonymous town politics blog that receives many comments from several participants. With few people using my blog's “comment” feature to join the discussion, I soon realized that I was putting more into my relatively noncombative blog than the community was getting out of it. Although this experience has been discouraging, we're still reaching out to community leaders to build interest in the blog.

As the fellowship draws to an end, I've been thinking about what I will do next. Ideally, I'd like a similar position, where I could create and implement new initiatives and take part in multiple aspects of a library. I'm still very interested in readers' advisory, programming, and community information. In spite of my ambivalence about blogs, I enjoy figuring out how technology can best meet patrons' needs. I would like to work at a forward-thinking, fast-paced library that strives to be the best possible resource for its community.

As I prepare to move on, the library is beginning the process of choosing a new library school graduate to be the next Fellow. Because of my experiences and input, the next one should find a more defined position. He or she must be very self-directed and able to work with little supervision. Assertiveness is essential—it's easy to get lost in the shuffle in such a busy library. The next Fellow should be ready to adapt quickly to change and willing to pitch in when needed. Collaborating with all staff and learning how the library works before proposing changes are as crucial to success as being ready to question how things work and suggest how procedures might be improved.

The next Fellow must also be ready to prioritize. I've involved myself in many projects. It might be better to pick only a few at a time.

While I'm sometimes confused with an intern, the fellowship has been much more intense than any internship. I've been able to strengthen my leadership skills, offer input into library policies, and create programs. I've worked with a truly dedicated staff in a fast-paced, innovative library.

The library got three new enterprises, which will continue after I am gone, along with a staff person to act as a liaison among departments and between staff and administration. As a result, misunderstandings have been cleared up, and the administration has learned more about what happens on the front lines while staff better understand the administration's motivations.

Because of the fellowship, I have had more opportunities and responsibility than other new librarians. I learned how the library works as a whole by dining with the director and creating collaborations among departments.

Other public libraries would do well to establish similar fellowships. The profession would benefit from having a cadre of librarians with a holistic view of how libraries work. NextGen librarians would have the chance to apply library science training more broadly than most entry-level positions afford, while observing how management makes and implements decisions. Fellowships are an opportunity to close the gap between what we learn in library science programs and what happens in the real world. Academic libraries have fellowships. Why shouldn't public libraries?