An Open Letter to the Fairfax County Public Library Board of
Trustees
Dear Members of the
Board,
Charles Fegan ended the
last meeting of the Board quietly saying, “It’s a beginning. It’s a
beginning.” This followed a long
presentation, recitation of a community survey, some conclusions and
recommendations. There were immediate
responses of protest. It is no secret that the meeting concluded a
long period of FCPL decline; although it may be convenient to say that budget
reductions were to blame, that is a facile and inaccurate answer, failing to
explain the disregard for the very purpose, nature and structure, fiscal,
administrative and political, of public libraries.
Like most people vitally
interested in the public library, I pored over the presentation; I had recorded
it and viewed it twice. I printed out
all the public documents and went through them point by point until I had a
thick document filled with highlights, Post-It notes, citations, and, most
often, refutations. I was
discouraged. I suspect that staff and
board members are poring over mountains of added comments. Suddenly I realized
that I was reacting like the long-time academic, IMLS review panel member,
proposal writer and judge, and that was not the answer for Mr. Fegan’s beginning. The survey and
its presentation represent remaining in the mire of the past, not looking to
the future. Refuting the presentation
and its recommendations point by point does show its failure to provide
guidance.
Chairman Fegan’s words
were the most important ones spoken that night: “It’s a beginning.” He spoke for the Board, Friends, staff,
Foundation, a newly-appointed director, and the community.
The real question and
answer that night was not found in the survey, the recommendations, the public
responses, or proposal. It simply is: “What makes a good, even great
urban public library, and how can FCPL become that?”
Although the question is
simple, the answer is complex. The answer
rests in the careful balance of influencers which have served public libraries
well and continue to do so in creating and maintaining the integrity and
responsiveness of the institution rooted in the American devotion to freedom of
speech and press. The citizen library
boards, whether elected or appointed, are charged with the overall
responsibility for policy and purpose of the library.
Looking at the challenges
facing the Board today in carrying FCPL forward then are:
·
Purpose and outcomes
The
Library’s purpose is clearly, if generally, set out in its mission statement:
educational, recreational, and informational.
Although those words have been recited so often that their implication
is often not heard, but it is apparent that those purposes are interest
driven—avid readers of popular authors, language learners, people seeking
family ancestry or preparing for any number of examinations or gaining
financial management skills, or people beginning new businesses, students of
all ages, . . . the list is as varied
as the population. The Library is a
trusted entrance into the realm of unbiased, accurate, and accessible
resources. When the Library is successful, it is marked by favorable outcomes: changes in skills, attitudes,
behaviors, knowledge, status or condition.
Outcomes
and outputs are entirely different measures.
Output measures are necessary to determine staffing, hour, location and
other workflow related adjustments.
However, it is possible to have very high outputs with negative
outcomes: a good example is a large retail organization, which enjoys very high
sales nationally. However, studies in
every community where that store exists has suffered negative economic,
employment, healthcare, and wage impacts. Excessive emphasis on outputs can be
very detrimental to libraries: short term popularity adding little to the
community becomes irrelevant to the community welfare.
Libraries are successful when they bring
about positive impacts: changes measured in skills, attitudes, behaviors,
knowledge, status, or life condition. These changes can be seen for individuals
and for organizations, including the community organizations and segments of
the population as well. Many urban libraries have documented their economic
value to their communities, raising literacy, educational levels, employment
qualifications, small business development, and so on. There is a history in
FCPL of programs supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and
other foundation grants to test and demonstrate measurable outcomes. For
example Changing Lives through
Literature, which significantly reduced the recidivism rate for teenagers; library
outreach to the elderly in congregate residences resulting in stronger
community connections and participation; cooperative programs for residents of
Ft. Belvoir which raised achievement levels at the base school so successfully
that it that was deemed a model for transient school populations nationally. For the past quarter century all
federal grants and many private grants required outcome measures for the
programs they supported. In other
library sectors as well, outcome measures are required. I can think of no
library of excellence where outcomes are not the measure of the library’s
success.
Instinctively
the respondents to the recent community survey understood the value when they
chose early literacy programs as a critical priority—the impact of those
efforts is easily measurable and understood. It would be shortsighted to think
that is the only, or even primary
value, of a vibrant public library. It is not a free Red Box with some
children’s resources! Project Outcome, a national program for field
–driven outcome measurement launched in 2015 by the Public Library Association
division of the American Library Association, identified seven core services to
address for all public libraries:
Civic /Community Engagement
Digital Inclusion
Early Childhood Literacy
Economic Development
Education and Life Long Learning
Job Skills
Summer Reading
·
The structure of public libraries:
A Partnership of Board, Friends,
Foundation, Director, Staff, County, Library Users
The
public library traces its roots to the subscription library: a community bound
together to support commonly shared resources.
Those roots are readily seen in many contemporary public libraries even
today: the New York Public Library, for example, is the merger of three private
subscription libraries, and though it receives substantial public funding, it
remains a non-governmental body. Because
of these roots, the library is a community collaborative effort to ensure that
both freedom of speech and freedom of the press are vibrant in our society. Every oppressive government in the world
crushes public libraries as one of its first priorities. The existence of the
public library is not a trivial aspect to our democracy; it is vital to
it. Though we may take public libraries
for granted, they share history with free press and speech – neither existed as rights before established in our
Constitution.
·
The Role of the Library
Board of Trustees
A citizen Library Board of Trustees (sometimes
elected, sometimes, as in FCPL, appointed) is the governing body, establishing priorities, policies and
selecting the chief administrator, the Library director. In this sense, library boards are similar to
school boards. Like school boards, library boards appoint
directors/superintendents who are responsible for administration.
The
strength and continuity of any public library rests on the strength and
authority of its Board – it alone
is directly responsible for establishing the policies and priorities of the
Library. To carry out its mission it
must be visible, empowered through access to both internal and external
information. Participation in regional,
state and national trustees organizations ensure that the Board can operate
with knowledge of best practices, trends, and awareness of strategies’
successes and failures by other libraries. Direct public accessibility is also
critical to its effectiveness. The Board
can set the ideal: the director, staff and Friends assist in achieving that
ideal so far as is possible. We have a
powerful example of another Board
acting in this way: the Fairfax County School Board. It is unflinching in its
role of setting policies, goals and empowering the agents to achieve those
goals, including strong private support, fiscal and material, at all levels
down to the individual classroom.
One
concrete actionable recommendation that I make to you as members of the Library
Board is to review the Web page of FCPS ( https://www.fcps.edu/school-board
) as a model of accessibility: each member can be directly contacted easily.
Although there is opportunity presently to post a message to the Library Board
as a whole, there is not that channel to directly address a member by either
district or committee. You are the
channel for concerns to all library users.
A second
recommendation is that the Board have its own research/evaluation officer, independent
from the Library Director. Originally
evaluations were carried out by library staff not reporting to the
Director to assure lack of bias. There
was heavy reliance upon national survey and measurement methods. However that office was moved to report to
the Director, and although much of its work is meritorious, it ceased being
anchored in national norms and focused increasingly in buttressing the
Director’s agenda. The recent community
survey consultancy was an effort to break that connection, but having an
on-going research arm directly reporting to the Board will assure not only
impartiality but also continuity across directorships. One research project
worth immediate consideration would be the impact of de-professionalization of
staff and the effectiveness of the library.
Virtually every professional library position was reclassified into the
management analyst series without such a study being undertaken and quite
recently putting FCPL in the position of no interim director within the
organization.
To be
perfectly clear: the Board’s effectiveness is enhanced by diverse membership,
not only representing districts, but interests and capabilities as well along
with its accessibility. It is a long practice in the Commonwealth to welcome
members of the profession to sit on library boards, from the State Library of
Virginia (which has some active librarians as well among its members). FCPL is especially fortunate to have active
and retired librarians on the Board, serving graciously after distinguished
careers.
·
Library users
The
users of the library were originally called either subscribers or patrons, recognizing
their financial support; to call them “customers” is demeaning. Customers pick and choose products, pay for
them, may or may not benefit, may or may not be impacted by these products, and
ultimately contribute to the profitability of the seller. Individuals and groups use the library to
make a change in their lives. They
are readers, students, historians, writers, entrepreneurs, investors, poetry
lovers, language learners ( not only English language learners, but many
preparing for trips, jobs or assignments to other countries), career changers,
genealogists --- seekers of information, the wisdom and enjoyment of the
recorded word in all its forms at every junction of their lives. The
“demographic market segmentation” strategy works for sales organizations, and
other business applications, where there is direct correlation between
age/gender/disposable income/age and buying patterns. Indeed that capability
already resides in the County. The
“market segmentation” for the library rests in identifying the unmet needs of
“neighborhoods of interest”,
not location – Fairfax County was identified decades ago as an “edge city”, an
urban county. Often originally serving geographical neighborhoods, churches,
parks, theaters, galleries, shops, ball fields, the list goes on to include
other entities, now expect participants based on interest as well.
FCPL’s Virginia Room is also a case in point.
·
Staff
The
professional librarian is a curious and wonderful part of this heady mix,
responding to daily requests, enabling assisting staff to smooth the operations
of organizing and moving resources.
After over 50 years of library service to libraries on three continents
I can vouch for the universally collaborative nature of the profession, within
their library and within the professional organizations. When John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid turned
their efforts to understanding how information is transferred in businesses,
they found that social networks are critical in the process. Librarians know that
–they listen, they share, they respond.
The first people to know community concerns are those on the front desk;
those behind the desk capture and organize information relevant to those
concerns so that they can be found and used; those in administration are the
enablers of the process. To break the
flow of that network is to cripple it.
FCPL did
become crippled. Not because of “budget
cuts”, but because the network was broken. There was a deliberate effort to
discourage networking, both within and outside the organization. De-professionalizing
staff, the infamous “Beta Plan” failed to take into consideration that
librarians not only provide operations and services, they are the eyes and ears
for community needs and concern. Participation
in professional library associations was made difficult and frowned upon,
making staff competency growth difficult.
Library licenses require only the degree without a continuing education
update to maintain that license. It is
alone in that respect, and librarians have compensated by having participation
in professional organizations, reading professional literature, and networking
within local common interest groups serve that purpose. Minimally, healthy
exchanges with the public libraries sharing reciprocity with FCPL would be
expected: for decades the public libraries in the entire metropolitan area have
shared their collections with each other’s
users. Exploring how that agreement can
be more richly used during this time of tight budgets for all can only be
beneficial.
·
Funding
Public
libraries share the promise and challenge of all educational, cultural, and
recreational bodies: huge missions and promise, and not enough resources. There is no large American public library of note existing on public
funds alone: indeed, strong development offices, Foundations, Friends,
public/private partnerships, and grants offices are critical to their success. The
non-governmental funding allows strength unbound by the annual budget
constraints of the tax-provided money. Indeed,
sometimes star successes are spurred by private funding coming with
designations reflecting a community-identified special resource, program, or
enhancement or a joint program with another educational or cultural
organization. The public funds at FCPL
are decided annually, except for the buildings and their maintenance. Although
this assures some level of day to day operations, it also makes multi-year
efforts difficult or impossible.
Most
public libraries are only beginning to realize that they are on the same
trajectory as other cultural, educational and arts organizations – but on that
trajectory they are. Examples abound
close to home: in the case of University of Virginia’s total budget, the state
contributes less than 6% of its total budget; approximately 5% of National
Public Radio comes from the federal, state, and local government funds; roughly
22% of George Mason University comes from the state. Both were founded as
publicly funded institutions. The trend is clear – reliance upon private
funding is increasing, and FCPL is no exception. However, FCPL has never developed a long term
vision and projected the resources for fulfilling that vision. Great visions
span many years and involve participation of the entire community, eventually
funding from many sources. This is not a
new unproven concept: examples abound –
among them is the San Diego Public Library, which worked 18 years to realize
its goal of a revitalized library, a new central library with a charter school
within its wall –yes, a school within a library rather than a library within a
school! – re-routed public transportation to its doorstep, a
magnet for neighborhood redevelopment,
enlarged services and resources largely through the vision of an
energetic board and council. There are examples closer to home: A sister Northern Virginia public library has space
adjoining a rep theater; another has a thriving MakerSpace; and yet a third has
a strong business library serving both private and non-profit organizations.
·
Advocacy
Who are
the library’s advocates? We all are:
readers, citizens, Friends, staff, Board, Director, elected officials,
newspapers, publishers, teachers. . . .
Of course we are. Advocacy, to
crib another line, takes a village. This
is such a universally accepted norm that there is even an advocacy section of
the American Library Association with rich and valuable resources to give to
us. No voice supporting FCPL should be
silenced –how utterly un-American is that notion? Think of schools and
universities, long giving voice to teachers/faculty, administrators, students,
parent and community groups, businesses, and how effective that is in leading
to the understanding that educational institutions are vital and integral to
the success of the whole society. Such
is also true for public libraries. Coordinated advocacy is the best, of course,
but every voice needs to be heard.
It may be worthwhile for the Board to sponsor a session of ALA’s Advocacy
University for all willing and interested.
FCPL is on the path to a
new beginning. It has some wonderful
assets to make that beginning a good one: And what does FCPL have to do that: a remarkable professional staff, a new
director filled with enthusiasm, an energized Board, steadfast Friends wanting to get the word out and contribute in so many
ways, volunteers every day keeping the library humming, a supportive County. There is the makings to build a very good
library.
I am a librarian, and so
I often start making a point with saying, “There is a book….” Thus I conclude with this thought from one of
my favorite author/thinkers on information, John Seely Brown. In The Power of Pull, he states: “Small
moves, smartly made can set big things in motion. Organizations can make large
scale transformations, the type typically associated with large investments, by
beginning to take action now through a series of smaller steps: Pragmatic
Pathways. These steps are designed to help organizations accomplish more with
less by circumventing political and financial obstacles, leverages disruptive
technologies and building strong relationships in the broader ecosystem to
share information and risk. The goal is
to help create transform the organization to be more fluid, constantly learning
and adapting.” Good words. Good advice.
Over to you with good
wishes and my support,
Vera Fessler
Vera Fessler
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