PRIDE (In the Name of Love)

There was some hesitance on the part of the staff to put up a Pride display this June. Last year, there was some vandalism of the display: lewd pictures and anti-LGBTQ+ slogans on slips of paper from the kids' coloring area across the room, images removed from the display, books thrown on the floor. This …

Experiments in Library Directorship: What’s still up in the air

It's not that I'm not trying. Here are two experiments I'm currently running: Getting out in front of the book ban trend: In addition to revising and getting approval for all the usual policies (Collection Development, Patron Behavior, Community Room Use, Internet Use, etc.), I have instituted a few things that fly in the face …

The little I’ve learned as Library Director

After a year-and-a-half of directing a small public library, I have learned very little, except that I really didn't learn much about directing a library in library school. Library & Information Science education is all about becoming philosophically, intellectually, and emotionally a member of the profession. That means that I have come to understand, support, …

“Paranoid” Librarian Fight Song

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.Joseph Heller Gotta find a way, a better wayKurt Cobain In what kind of bizarre world are public and school librarians targeted with social media lists and hunted down by large roving gangs of so-called patriots who speak defense of the Constitution out of one side …

Time, Manner, & Place: The Case of the Nazi Book Club

I had some very enlightening conversations with the library attorney, and I have accepted that making a safe space for vulnerable people is not as easy as I thought. My original (though, I'm sure, not very original) idea was to outlaw certain symbols in the library if they crossed a more-or-less objective boundary regarding factual …

Sympathy for the Devil

... just call me Lucifer,'Cause I'm in need of some restraint ...Rolling Stones, "Sympathy for the Devil" I am learning about earning staff buy-in the hard way. Well, not too hard. It hasn't been a disaster or anything. But I have faced the consequences of my unchecked passion in the form of staff dissatisfaction, and …

Exhausted, Early-Morning Reflections on the First 3 Weeks

Omg, y'all. There is so much to learn, so much they just can't teach you in library school. I have 2 long lists of things I want to accomplish, one largely created before I started (check out "New Director" resources, learn the particulars, meet the community, etc.) and the other one I create on the …

On Accepting a Directorship

I have recently mailed in my signed letter of agreement accepting the position of director at a public library in a small but potentially fast-growing community just south of Michigan's second-largest city, Grand Rapids. The final decision belongs to the full Board of Trustees on Monday, but I have good reason to expect them to …

The Interview

Yesterday, I met with the Board of Trustees of Dorr Township Library, interviewing for the position of director. I felt and feel good about the way I represented myself. The more I talked with the trustees, the more I became excited about the possibilities in this job: growing community, near a fairly large city, at …

Library Leadership and Marginalized Communities: The Case of the Indianapolis Public Library

Are you familiar with this story (Contreras, 2021)? Indianapolis Public Library (IndyPL) CEO Jackie Nytes and IndyPL Library Board President Jose Salinas are accused of presiding over a culture of systemic racism. Nytes, at least, is accused of being racist personally. Their defense is basically that library employees of color are lying and that IndyPL is …