[Publib] Where is YOUR administrators' office? --- was Seattle PL

[Michael Golrick]

Hi-

In both my current job and in my immediately prior job, the Library Director (or City Librarian) Office was located far away from the action. And I don't like it.

While the days of my being able to deal with circ problems on the fly, or of being able to do reference, what I don't like is the separation from the customer/patron. I think that it sends an inaccurate message to the public.

Michael

Michael A. Golrick
Library Director
L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library
400 Eau Claire Street
Eau Claire WI 54701
voice: 715/839.5001
fax: 715/839.3822
mailto:michaelg at eauclaire.lib.wi.us


>>> "John" <jrichmond at alphapark.org> 2/2/2007 11:49 AM >>>
I thought that in this Brave New World of Management by ... (fill in the blank yourself, depending on your favorite management self-help book or book-on-CD/Playaway/E-book of the quickly-passing second) ... we weren't supposed to even whisper the "H word," i.e., (very softly now) "hierarchy."  Or any variation thereon.  We are all *collaborators* now.  I mean, isn't that the Gospel?  Isn't that what Mr./Ms. Generation-Whatchamacalit expects in her/his workplace?  Or maybe I'm behind the times.

On the other hand, if you're a Jungian, I seem to recall that old Carl claimed that the human psyche was naturally hierarchical.  I'm not a true Jungian, but I've often thought about that.  What CGJ said, I mean.

As for me and my office, I am in the southwest corner on the first floor, with big, tall windows that let in lots of light, which can be helpful in a dull, gray central Illinois winter, and at other times, too.  There are deceptively brief or narrow or shallow woods to the west, out of which emerge deer and, sometimes, a wild (as opposed to civilized?) turkey.  Beyond the shallowness lies land belonging to the Peoria Airport Authority, I think.  I'm not sure if I'm king of all I survey, or not.  I own neither ermine nor crown, though I have a kingly-looking tea cozy, acquired by my parental units in Europe, which I sometimes wear on Halloween as if it *were* a crown, when the pre-school story-timers parade through the library, gathering treats of library personnel.

TGIF!

("King John was not a good man--he had his little ways...." -- A. A. Milne)

John D. Richmond, Director
Alpha Park Public Library District
3527 So. Airport Road
Bartonville, IL 61607-1799
Ph: (309) 697-3822, x. 12
Fax: (309) 697-9681
Email: jrichmond at alphapark.org 
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"Satyrs and Sylvan boys were seen Peeping from forth their alleys green." -- Quoted in SISTER BERNADETTE'S BARKING DOG: The Quirky History & Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences, by Kitty Burns Florey