[Publib] Back in the Black

[Dusty Gres]

Wow.  And here I was told yesterday that I shouldn't look for any good news
until at least 2012.now I need to start deciding what I am going to do with
all that money is going to start flowing in within the new few days?

The recession being over does not mean that we will have money to spend or
that governmental agencies will have money to give us.  It will be several
years before those agencies can reach level again after using reserves,
contingency funds and borrowing against the tax digest.and several years
before I can reach level after using our contingency funds and borrowing
against the equipment replacement funds.

The shortest time any of my professional staff has ever worked here is 3
years.although now that I am looking at having to do unpaid furloughs that
may change; and unpaid furloughs affect retirement benefits, so - no
retirement for a while for the long-timers - oh, and interviews?  Oops --
hiring freeze.

What am I planning when I get all my money back? Ha!

 

Dusty Gres

Director

Ohoopee Regional Library System

610 Jackson Street

Vidalia, GA 30474

http://www.ohoopeelibrary.org

"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different
speeds.
A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing."
William James

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From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org]
On Behalf Of Backwage at aol.com
Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 12:55 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] Back in the Black

 

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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