[Publib] Back in the Black

[Backwage at aol.com]

I am informed by the papers that the recession is ending.  I told my  wife 
(laid off from her job some weeks ago) this and advised her that she had  
three days to find a job that paid what the old one did.  Actually I said  
this to myself in the shower so as to avoid injury.
 
On another note, many libraries have found their funding (and as a result,  
their staffing, programs and hours) greatly reduced during this recession.  
 I have a question for their directors:  what have you planned for the  
better times to come?  
 
It has always amazed me that libraries, being public institutions, do not  
often share their plans with their putative owners, the citizenry.  This is  
either because a.) They don't have plans, or b.) They don't want you to 
know  'em.  I would give a dollar to know what a library in a financial fix  
intends to do as it comes back into solvency.  Mind you, private businesses  
have to sketch this out for their investors.  Usually with public libraries  
what you see is a sort of groping along--deciding to hire again when it is 
found  that enough money is available for positions; increasing materials 
budgets when  money is there for this.  
 
Interestingly, during the pre-recession boom times, many larger libraries  
went on interview binges; some of them had hiring ads posted for years on  
end.  The reason for this was because the applicant/new hire flow couldn't  
keep up with the outflow of folks who left for other positions.
 
[LAPL, County of Los Angeles, King County, NYPL, Chicago--these and similar 
 systems are the ones who hung out at ALA Annual like dogs at a butcher 
shop,  trying to snare candidates.  They are the "who" in this.]
 
Let me show you what I mean by lack of planning.  Back a few  months, our 
local monster library systems would interview candidates every  week.  This 
obviously eats up administrative time, librarian time, HR  time.  And money.  
You would think that alternatives would be  sought.  I would bet you any 
amount of money that when they start  hiring again, they will go back into 
lock-step with the  old unproductive ways.  Here's why:
 
1.   Nobody knows about this.  If anybody compared the  number of 
interviewed candidates to those hired, it would raise questions of  efficiency.  But 
this doesn't happen and the band plays on.
 
2.  The libraries' starting pay is so low (for their region) that they  
can't expect to keep people when all the new hires want is to gain experience  
before departing for more profitable work.  So the merry-go-round of  
eternal interviewing whirls on.  And costs plenty.  But these are  hidden costs, 
whereas increased pay would be visible and excite all sorts of  upset.  Not 
to mention pushing up pay further along the line.  Even  so, it would be an 
exchange of money for labor rather than throwing cash out for  no return.  
Better to use senior librarians to interview candidates two  days a week, 
forever, with all that means in terms of lost work.  This is  what happens when 
you let a library run its own hiring without scrutiny.
 
3.  What do you want to bet that no public library in our land has  ever 
revealed what happens to those who are hired?  Meaning, how long they  stay, 
how they advance--that sort of thing.  Know why they don't?  It  would make 
the larger systems look bad to show how they hire and shed  librarians.  The 
unit costs for hiring would be too high to defend, and  people might ask 
why.  Better to keep all that "internal."  They do  this by pretending not to 
know, not compiling figures, or by hiding under  privacy rules.  So tell us, 
large library systems, what's your turnover  rate?
 
M. McGrorty
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