Job loss cliches

What goes around comes around.

I hate to think that such a cliche could possibly be true. But take a look:

I fired or convinced to resign five people in my checkered career. Then I myself was "laid off."

And now Kit Hadley, who was ultimately responsible for my layoff, has herself been reorganized out of a job.

Comforting for maybe two seconds. But, since it's a cliche, pretty meaningless.

And only slightly better than "Some things were meant to be" or "You'd be really good at...."

Gratia Countryman and the Minneapolis Public Library

There was an op-ed piece in the Strib a few days ago by John Gonyou, singing the praises of Depression-era librarian Gratia Countryman. Gratia, the director of the Minneapolis Public Library (MPL) for many years, was unhampered by bureaucrats, unions, and, it seems, city government. She saw a need and she met it. The pull-back from Gratia's expansionist activities began as early as the 1950's, when MPL no longer provided deposit collections for public schools.

Although it would be wonderful to operate public libraries, and MPL in particular, in the spirit of Gratia, John Gonyou's piece is one more bit of romantic thinking about the state of public libraries in 2007. To put it bluntly, librarians missed the boat at least a decade ago, resisting the free, uncontrolled, and unevaluated information provided by the Internet. Because we abdicated management of the information explosion to the technies, the opportunity passed us by. At MPL, we insisted on purchasing obscure print business directories of foreign countries, such as Argentina, that were never used, perpetuating the just-in-case mentality that pervaded collecting at MPL. This is one example of the kind of thinking that contributed to the downfall of a great institution that was stuck in the past.

While being able to point to the existence of a comprehensive business collection, or the activities of an activist librarian like Gratia Countryman, is wonderful, it doesn't pay the bills. The librarians at Minneapolis Public Library committed the great sin of many public servants--we thought we knew better. We didn't.

Minneapolis Public Library merger

The Governor

Let's see if I understand this correctly: RT Ryback, Minnapple's photogenic mayor, has been pushing the merger between Hennepin County Library and the Minneapolis Public Library systems, not because it will lead to an improvement in service for the citizens of Minneapolis, but because it will get the entire issue of MPL off his back. RT has demonstrated, in a variety of areas, that pushing the problem onto someone else is preferable to dealing with it. The current merger talks are just another bit of proof.

The Mayor

Anyway, the merger will cost $4 million. Does RT step up to the plate, offering any material support for the merger that he has been pushing? Nope. The gov., Mr. I-Might-be-Vice President-Some-Day Pawlenty, vetoed this, apparently because it gave no tax breaks to any of his friends in big business. So it's back to the drawing board, with RT put in the spotlight anyway. He only likes that spotlight when he turns it on himself. But let's give the guy credit. He has put himself in a good position to be the savior of the deal, the mayor on the white horse. And if he can pull this off, more power to him. This could be a legacy building effort, and RT would do well to pay attention and make this happen.

Farwell to MPL

It will probably happen. The Minneapolis Public Library (MPL) will be swallowed up by Hennepin County Public Library. In some ways this is a very good thing, and probably inevitable. In fact, there are members of the MPL staff who believe that the hiring of the current director was engineered to accomplish what has now come to pass. I've always believed that people aren't really smart enough to institute conspiracies at this level. I'm also willing to admit that I may be wrong.

However, whether or not this is the case is fairly irrelevant. MPL is a dinosaur. It has had a collecting policiy for many, many, years that was out of the mainstream of public library practice. The beautiful new building, and the satellite at the caverns at the U of M, house thousands of volumes of books that have never been read, and will never be read. In some cases, there are even two copies of these books. This represents the "just in case" thinking that once prevailed in libraries and in businesses. This is a really expensive way to run a railroad, or library, and has contributed in some measure to the financial disaster that is MPL. It is horribly out of fashion, and very expensive.

Hennepin County Library, in contrast, is a "just in time" organization. The money goes to where it is demonstrably needed, rather than where it might be needed based on annecdotal evidence. Hennepin County is a rational library. Minneapolis Public Library runs on impressions, past practice, and guesswork. HCL is a modern library, and has won many awards and kudos. MPL, in contrast, has a low per volume and per capita circulation right up there with other dinosaurs such as Cleveland and St. Louis library systems.

However, the dinosaur library somehow represents the best in our city. It has an old fashioned, endearing quality. It caters to the kooks, the cranks, the artists, and the weird. It has collections that no one west of New York possesses on the slim chance that someone might want to use them. It does not discriminate based on the popularity of a book title, as HCL does. The tyrannical majority has not ruled at MPL until recently.

And so, even though it will almost certainly happen despite the serious practical obstacles to a merger, I feel a little wistful. MPL represents an effort to hold back the onslaught of cookie-cutter culture that the wildly successful libraries in Hennepin County promote. If the merger results in MPL abandoning its idiosyncratic collections, we will be a much less rich community.

We will be, in fact, a cold Omaha. While I'm sure Omaha is a perfectly fine place, it does not have a reputation as a fine, interesting, place. We need diversity to retain our competitive edge, and the death of MPL will be one more attack on diversity and one more step toward boring mediocrity.

Minneapolis Public Library leadership problems

There is a lot of breast-beating going on about the financial straits of the Minneapolis Public Library. The library has been playing chicken with the citizens of Minneapolis, planning to close three marginal branches in order to keep the rest of the system functioning. This strategy has worked pretty well; the library now has the attention of the community, the mayor, and of city hall. There will be a bail-out vote on Monday.

The blame for the financial situation that caused this sorry state of affairs has been assigned to the city council, the Republican governor and his cuts in local government aid, and the mayor, who believes, without much basis, that Minneapolis has too many libraries. There are some who blame the Library Board for being ineffective. There is plenty of blame to go around, and there is justification for all the assignments.

However, no one has talked about the responsibility of the library staff over the years for the current problems of the library. Before I say more, here's a bit of truth in advertising: I used to be one of those staff members before being "laid off" in January of 2005. And when I say staff, I am talking about the leadership of the library. The rank and file staff are, by and large, devoted to the library and hard working.

The selection of administrators and directors for the library has been characterized by mishandled searches, unclear goals, and hidden agendas among library Board members that obscure the need for strong leadership. As a result, there has been no director in many years who has been a strong advocate for public libraries. Recent directors, including the current one, have been bureaucrats, exemplars of the Peter Principle, and ambitious folks who used MPL as a stepping stone for bigger, better, things. None of them has been able to articulate effectively why we need public libraries and why we as a community should support them. Instead, the library has relied for support on lots of heart-warming stories that are doubtless true, but are really only anecdotal, rather than systemic, descriptions of the role libraries should play in a civil society.

Without leadership that is able to get the message out in a compelling way, any effort put into keeping Southeast, Roosevelt, and Webber Park branches open is only a stop gap measure. Such efforts do not address the leadership problem at the Minneapolis Public Library. This problem is one of the root causes of its financial difficulties. But it's also the elephant in the living room.

Unemployment blues

I've clearly passed the point where I think I'm going to get another job at the same level as before. Almost 11 months since I was "laid off" (dumped) for reasons best known to the folks in charge at the Minneapolis Public Library, I do think that there has been some underground lobbying against me. In short, not only am I depressed, I'm also paranoid. I've even begun to question the wisdom of my claim against the library--now that I've accused them of contract violations, I can't use any of them as references to get another position. I'm assured by everyone that these feelings are completely normal for people in my position. What "everyone" doesn't say is whether anything is ever going to change.

But, what they did to me, and a number of other people, was illegal. That certain knowledge keeps me going. Watch this space for more updates.

Claim activity this week:Minnesota Department of Human Rights assigned an investigator to my case, who appears to be honing in on some important issues. Of course, his questions this week require me to do a little work. Horrors!!!