How public is our library?
An Alternative Online Investigative Reporting Project
In response to substantial input from multiple sources inside and outside of the Monroe County Public Library (MCPL) over the past several weeks, The Bloomington Alternative is launching an online investigative reporting project called "How public is the library?"
Because transparency in government is among the issues we will be exploring, the reporting on this project will done largely in the public eye, beginning with a series of questions and records requests that will be posted online and sent to MCPL Board of Trustees President Stephen Moberly, who was appointed to the board by the Monroe County Commissioners.
Among the questions that the project is exploring:
• Is favoritism a factor in pay raises and stipends at the MCPL?
• With one of the nation's leading library schools located blocks away, is it a prudent use of public funds to pay out-of-state consultants for advice on running the MCPL?
• Have any employees received unauthorized loans from the MCPL?
• Have any improper, perhaps illegal, financial dealings transpired between MCPL administrators and their subordinates?
MCPL board meets Wednesday
The Monroe County Public Library Board of Trustees will meet at 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday, July 11, in the library Board Room for a budget work session. The meeting is open to the public. Citizens concerned about the future of their library could attend and/or e-mail the trustees.
Watch the Alternative Online for ongoing developments in this story.
Comments
Overall Dismay
I find it amusing that this group had to go to the Alternative to get this "big, breaking" story out when their attempts to use the H-T failed to give them the sympathy they want. Investigative reporting? I'm sure the "outside sources" were the spouses of these people. The same spouses who have spoken before the Board about their outrage as patrons. Yet I have never seen these people actually patronize the library. I don't believe the Alternative contacted anyone who didn't come to them, or whose names were not given to them by the library employees who all but wrote this story.
As for SLIS- while there are many respected scholars there, that's what they are- scholars. They have little real world experience, definitely not current experience in public libraries.
Since these people cannot get whatever it is they want- and at this point I'm not sure they know- they have chosen to attack the Director and Board. They weren't happy with the previous director or the interim directors. Nothing will make them happy until the lunatics are running the asylum.
It's time for the Board to stand up to these bullies and tell them to get to work, keep the best interests of the library and the public at heart or find a job elsewhere. This is ridiculous! The public needs to demand that these same people actually do their jobs and stop wasting taxpayer dollars running around trying to unionize and making up stories to destroy the library.
Cudos to the Alternative for providing space and coverage
The front page of the HT today has the BIG story as "Four-Legged Friends" about animals at the county fair. This is called soft news. Mike Leonard has a column on Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton. This is called absolutely no news. I think it is great that the Alternative covers the library and where money goes. I think this is called 'real news.' This is a story the HT has avoided like the plague.
I pay daily for the HT and the NY Times. With the Times I get news. With the HT I mostly get sports and the TV schedule. I like to read the newspaper with my breakfast. If I start with the HT I have to set out my breakfast, including tea and milk in the cereal before I unroll the HT because it is good for 10 minutes max. The HT has their paper divided into sections: local, international, sports and then the BIG section, ads. I think their section break down should be: real news, soft news, total puffery, and then the ads.
The Alternative does not have the budget or the staff of the HT. The Alternative does have open access. If you go to the http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/ and click to opinions, editorials, or instant messages to find out what is happening in Bloomington you come to the 'sign in page' aka give us money. This is not open access and it means the readership of the HT in Bloomington has an extremely skewed demographic, which means the HT actually is not covering Bloomington.
A couple of alternatives, the HT online could open up the same way the Indy Star and the NY Times does or the HT could buy the Alternative because the Alternative seems to understand the community better and how news really works in the 21st century.
--Thom
A 'spouse' who speaks ...
I'm a 'spouse' and I've spoken at a number of these meetings. I use the library on a very regular basis and my name is signed to this posting.
--thom
All religions are the same: religion is basically guilt, with different
holidays. -Cathy Ladman, comedian, writer, actress (1955- )
back to work?
Honestly, the folks who are working to give staff a voice and who are questioning the soundness of the renovation of the second floor are working--and they're some of the hardest working people in the library. These people are working for positive change on their own time; they're meeting after hours and they're organizing. If there's anyone who needs to get back to work, it's the anti-union employees who get together in manager and supervisor offices and in quiet corners to whisper and complain about those who are organized. Let's put an end to the hypocrisy.
Is the library paying a staff person to man the book sale?
Didn't this used to be free and run by The Friends? I'd imagine the cost of a staff person has significantly increased the cost of books and other media and probably resulted in fewer people buying at the sale along with the fact that you can't actually stumble into the book sale any more.
I thought Antonio Mathews (sp?) was quite eloquent when she compared the old Friend's Books sale to the local Farmer's market for the library, a true gathering place. Currently, the Book sale is anything but a gathering place.
--Thom
All religions are the same: religion is basically guilt, with different
holidays. -Cathy Ladman, comedian, writer, actress (1955- )
Booksale to Book Store
The booksale was never a quaint little farmer's market of books where people built their personal libraries on the cheap. Instead, professional booksellers lined up outside the Kirkwood entrance as early as 7 am on book sale days. They RAN in as soon as the doors opened, jockeying for position. They stuffed books into bags and boxes, then went into the children's department to look up books on the computer. They purchased only the books with the greatest resale value. Reportedly, one book purchased at the library for $0.50 was resold on amazon.com for $250.
Now, the library has one part-time staff person and a group of volunteers who are able to research the values of books. The library is no longer being ripped off by professional booksellers who were making their profits on the back of the Monroe County taxpayer.
I APPLAUD the new bookstore. THAT is good stewardship of public resources.
third option
The answer was to raise prices, not move the book sale into the AV department. Please. There is always a third option.
Media Security at the Library
Considering all the discussion of media security at the library, I have to ask if the security system for the library, particularly media such as in AV actually works? I was under the impression that the security system actually hasn't worked well for the past 2+ years? Has it been possible for patrons to walk out the doors with unchecked library media ( books, CD/dvds, etc ) without the alarms sounding?
--Adorn
SLIS
MCPL has consulted with SLIS in the past on some issues, mostly technological (website), and has also had assistance from other IU departments as well on projects. But as far as consulting on issues relating to public libraries, it's not realistic to think that there is really much expertise at SLIS on this topic. In fact, they have relied on adjuncts for some time (many who come from MCPL) to teach classes on public libraries.
The expertise at SLIS is highly regarded and I don't mean to say they are not a good program. As far as I can tell they are doing rather well while other Library and Info Science schools are not. But SLIS today (as opposed to when I went there) excels at research on topics that have little to do with management of public libraries. If I'm looking for a consultant I'd rather find one who has actual years of public library management experience under their belt, which I do not believe is the case locally.
SLIS has much to offer
stivab is correct in pointing out that SLIS currently lacks full-time faculty with a commitment to public libraries; however, SLIS does have experts on collection development, general management techniques, systems and processes analysis, and more. There is much that SLIS and the IU community has to offer the public library. One example: the current scheme for allocating funds for the various print and non-print collections at MCPL is based on a rubric created by students in the IU business school. In addition, MCPL has actively sought input from the Adaptive Technology Center at IU and has "employed" students/interns from SLIS in its Information Systems, Children's Services, and Adult Services departments. SLIS input cannot be dismissed right across the board simply because the public library-specific classes there are taught by adjuncts. I cannot understand why MCPL would be unwilling to seek input from the library school on processes and the development of more efficient workflows.
SLIS, SPEA, Kelly...
I am not saying public institutions in the county shouldn't look to the expertise available at IU. Rather, I am only taking issue with the Alternative's point that SLIS has the chops to consult on public management problems. In fact, SLIS relies on SPEA to provide courses for the Certificate in Executive Library Management. Without that partnership, which allows post-MLS students to take SPEA courses in public management, SLIS would have no bona fide program to develop management level skills. In other words, I'd endorse the idea of getting help from the right schools at IU. If that's SLIS, then fine, but let's not pretend they are something they are not.
stivab, where does the
stivab, where does the Bloomington Alternative state that MCPL should be seeking input on public library management? That is something you are reading into the statements laid out by the Alternative. What it does state is that MCPL is paying out-of-state consultants to do things that SLIS could potentially help out with. Within the past year, MCPL has brought in efficiency "experts" to examine workflows in the Circulation, Information Systems, and Collection Services departments. They were not examining management practices in those departments, they were examining workflows, i.e., how books are processed, redundancies, etc. You keep bringing up management as if that's all the Alternative is concerned with. It's not. This is about processes, so please stop trying to narrow the scope of this discussion.
Pardon me.
Sorry Juan,
I didn't mean to narrow the discussion to issues of management. At the same time, I am not reading anything into the statements by the Alternative. They were the ones who mentioned the library school exclusively. That's all; I was only trying to show that there are other very highly regarded schools on campus, too (and well, maybe my general feelings about SLIS came through, too. But as an alum I have strong ideas about the direction they've taken). My disagreement is simply with the notion that SLIS is the only place that should be considered. If they changed the statement to include that, I'd have no problem with it.
Interesting
stivab, your initial comment does not mention other schools at IU. It is simply a criticism of SLIS. As such, I'm not buying your argument that you only wanted the Alternative to mention other schools on campus. I wonder how someone like Pnina Shachaf, who teaches a management course at SLIS, would react to your comments. Why not engage her in a conversation? You might learn that the SLIS reality does not jive with your perceptions.