[Publib] Sacramento, unhappiness, and who we are

[Joe Schallan]

The pain and frustration in Gerald F. Ward's
post are obvious, and it appears that at his
library the staff and administration relationship
has devolved to the level of us vs. them, as
some staff and patrons present a "no confidence"
petition while the administration's mouthpiece
accuses the complainers of being out-of-touch
obstructionists resisting the library's efforts to
modernize.  This is not an environment in which
useful conversation can easily occur, and Gerald
clearly feels aloof and dictatorial library
managers are to blame.

M. McGrorty tangentially notes that unions can
generally intervene in specific issues involving
wages and working conditions but have little
power to alter management styles or philosophies.
A union can help you get air conditioning if you
are spending long hours in a stuffy book storage
area, it seems, but it can't force your director to
stop acting like Gregory House, M.D.

Mr. Ward's posting was long on pain but short
on specifics, and I do not mean that pejoratively:
Publib is certainly a valid channel for cries of
anguish, and Mr. Ward may not be able to cite
specific cases of retaliation or other management
malfeasance for legal reasons or because . . .
he fears retaliation.

Perhaps it is time for the sides to avail themselves
of an outside mediator?

I am 57 years old and in my time have seen many
feuds -- among friends and relatives, in the
workplace, and in electronic forums.  As Americans
we love to say we focus only on the facts and leave
emotion out of it -- this is part of our national myth.
But I have found that in EVERY feud I have
observed, it is never disagreements over the
particulars -- differing philosophies and priorities --
that produces rancor, bitterness, and divides
that cannot be bridged, but the MANNER in which
the disagreements are stated.  It is never a matter
of substance; it is always a matter of tone and
style.  It never seems so much to be about
content as it is about means of delivery.

As Mr. McGrorty points out, insensitivity is not
actionable, though I would add that library
managers ignore sensitivity at their peril (as
do, no doubt, frontline workers).

I began this post simply to provide links to
resources that may shed a little more light on the
situation in Sacramento, but in exploring them
I found that the nature of the dispute has been
blurred by the national media (it is about much
more than 30 copies of "Jackass 2"), that some
2.0 librarians are not only unsympathetic to
Mr. Ward and his protesting colleagues but view
them as self-centered, out of touch, and
anti-customer, and that the issue is much more
nuanced (as issues almost always are) than one
might suspect at first glance.

At the core is this particular feud is the question
of who we are and what our mission is.

We need to talk a lot more about those things,
involve citizens in the conversation, and avoid the
name calling. Remember that although what you
say is important to you, how you say it will
determine whether your thinking falls on
receptive ears.

Among the questions Sacramento raises in my
mind are:

How much of our mission should be aimed at
educating and informing and how much at
satisfying the demand for entertainment?

If we emphasize entertainment, how essential will
citizens consider our services when the inevitable
hard times come?

An accomplishment of progressive librarianship
has been that we no longer try to peer into the
hearts of our patrons, but given our limited time
and resources, are all uses of the public library
equal?

What does "give them what they want" do to
patrons with niche or arcane interests?  What
recourse does the seeker of the hard-to-find or
the offbeat have? (And don't say "ILL," because
that isn't going to work if everyone else is going
the popularity route, too.)

Are we resisting popular culture or are we in
bed with it?

Is there a disconnect between what patrons tell us
they want us to be and how they actually use the
library?

If public libraries are not about "higher use,"
then what happens to tens of thousands of library
workers who entered the field to serve higher use?

What is "higher use"?

More questions will occur to me . . . and you.

I feel we don't discuss "who we are" enough and we
don't engage citizens in the conversation.  We have
a tendency in our profession to plod on as we have
before, or to plow ahead without asking.  We don't
think through our philosophy or our priorities, and
we especially don't pay attention to the unintended
consequences of either our inattention or our
unilateral decisions.

Additional reading on the situation in Sacramento:

"Sacramento Staffers Bewail Dumbing-Down of
Collections" (American Libraries Online)

http://tinyurl.com/2ownls

A succinct summary of the issues. (Mr. Ward
or others can comment on what was omitted or
over- or underemphasized.)

- - -

"Staffers fear library's too pop-fixated"
(Sacramento Bee)

http://tinyurl.com/2am2dh

You'll find several bloggers linking to this
article in Sacramento's major daily newspaper,
which, of course, starts with "Jackass 2" and
Paris Hilton because the writer feels she needs
a good "hook."  Who can blame her?  You
should read it anyway.

- - -

"Revolt in Sacramento, or Jackass 3"
(Library Journal)

http://tinyurl.com/3375c4

Comments by Michael Rogers, in LJ Insider,
who takes the newspaper article as his
launch point.

- - -

"Library Gossip" (Sacramento Executive)

http://tinyurl.com/ytnjvr

Gillian Parrillo quotes Rogers' remarks, and
reacts to them.  I found her second "nugget"
particularly arresting:  "What the library stocks
is a symptom of the dissolution of seriousness
and awareness in our society, not a cause of it."

Are we, then, merely reactive?  Would it be a
fallacy on my part to equate the educational
and informational mission with proactiveness
and the recreational mission with reactiveness?

- - -

"Sacramento Public Library Librarians say 'no'
to popular materials" (Librarian In Black)

http://tinyurl.com/2ytd6f

Librarian In Black had what seems to have been
a very unpleasant personal experience with
librarians in Sacramento, who did not make nice
and apparently got more than a little crabby about
the wonderfulness of Library 2.0. You should
read her remarks because they stand in stark
contrast to Mr. Ward's and his fellow protestors'
concerns.  There is no sympathy here . . .
none . . . for the Sacramento protestors.
Be sure to read the comments!

Happy reading!  I would hope you will think about
my little list of questions and form some of your
own.

We should be allowed to talk at the desk with
patrons about this stuff.

Cheers,

Joe Schallan
Phoenix