This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
By Julie Bartel
As a former librarian at the City Library, I continue to be stunned at the lack of a thorough investigation of Beth Elder's tenure as director. Results of the "Staff Engagement Survey" describe an increasingly toxic environment.
A near-unanimous vote of no confidence from the library's management team and the outspoken dismay over staff reshuffling should have been taken seriously. The results of the staff survey should be taken even more seriously now that Elder and her "inner circle" have had almost a year to improve the situation. Clearly there has been no improvement.
The main charge against unhappy staff members still appears to be resistance to change, but the library has seen numerous organizational and practical changes over the years, all weathered with grace.
Nancy Tessman, Elder's highly influential predecessor, was director for 11 years, not forever. Many current employees worked for previous director Dennis Day, as well as a succession of assistant directors, and they seem to have managed those changes just fine.
The annual job shuffle (called Name in the Hat) encouraged employees to swap jobs across every department, effectively institutionalizing change. Format changes, from books to audio books to ebooks, are also the norm, and the staff takes them in stride, even embracing a format so new to libraries (zines) that the City Library was the first among the nation's public libraries to adopt it.
The library moved from card catalogs to online catalogs, and the staff also moved from one building to another, triggering comprehensive changes in departments, job descriptions and personnel.
Claiming that "change" could provoke the current tension and unprecedented public display of dismay and confusion is demeaning and ridiculous.
This passionate, hard-working, award-winning group clearly weathers change on a daily basis and contributes to the profession in numerous ways, including presenting at conferences, teaching in library science programs, writing books and articles, and serving on prestigious state, regional, and national library committees. To maintain that these devoted civil servants do what they do for any reason other than passionate dedication is misguided at best, malicious at worst.
The staff isn't simply concerned with how they're treated. While the hostile workplace is certainly unpleasant, more worrisome is the effect that destroying the collaborative environment has on the health of the library system.
A critical part of the librarian's job is philosophical discussion and practical planning, but Elder only encourages submission. Staff have no freedom to successfully participate in the dialogue.
Instead, Elder has dictated a shift in the way both materials and services are provided that may not be immediately apparent to the public, but that will stunt the library for years to come if left unchecked.
Her fringe policies are not innovative and they're not supported by staff, research, or by the best practices of the profession.
She is shifting the City Library in a radical direction designed more to make a statement or a name for herself than to serve the public. Perhaps when the library is just an empty "meeting place" with no materials. the employees will be invited back to the table to try and clean up the mess and repair the damage.
As long as staff are unable to voice their concerns, offer ideas, or participate in meaningful decisions, Elder will continue to destroy this award-winning system one "change" at a time.
Julie Bartel is a former librarian at the City Library from 1993-1994 and from 1996-2006. She was library director at Judge Memorial Catholic High School from 2006-2009 and now lives in Sandy.