Public library directors: hierarchical roles and proximity to power - The Library Director

Library Trends, Summer, 1994 by David Henington

ACCESS TO POWER AND RECOGNITION of the drifts and currents of political life represent the greatest challenge to positioning for the library and its leader. Clear vision is vital to successfully navigate a multitude of constituencies and their conflicting desires. The director's hierarchical position may or may not be of value in his/her quest for that for which he is ultimately held responsible: the success or failure of the goals of the public library.

                   "Men of power have no time to read;
            yet the men who do not read are unfit for power."
                 --Michael Foot, Debts of Honour, 1981, p. 22.

A long-held assumption about the effectiveness of a library director has been that the individual is effective in relation to how high in the organization the job places him or her. This is an assumption that has never been verified. To test the hypothesis, several public library directors were asked to share their experiences and observations (see Appendix), either in writing or during an interview, concerning placement in the organizational structure and the real or perceived strength of the library. Because the sample size was small, the data's validity may not be broadly applicable.

APPENDIX

Interviews were held with the following individuals:

Albert Haines, President, Houston Partnership, June 16, 1993.

Marilyn Gell Mason, Director, Cleveland Public Library, June 29, 1993.

Correspondence was received from the following individuals:

Rick J. Aston, City Librarian, Denver Public Library, May 12, 1993.

Lee B. Brawner, Executive Director, Metropolitan Library System, Oklahoma City, OK, May 27, 1993.

Ralph M. Edwards, City Librarian, City of Phoenix, September 20, 1993.

Susan Goldberg Kent, Director, Minneapolis Public Library, July 21, 1993.

William B. Sonnwald, City Librarian, City of San Diego, May 19, 1993.

It must be noted that public libraries operate within a wide variety of governmental structures. Organizational configurations include municipal, county, multijurisdictional, school district, state, and independent taxing districts (Scheppke, 1991, pp. 288-89). Even with so many kinds of organizations, there are still only a limited number of variations in the reporting hierarchy for public library directors. Although there are profound differences in working in any of these organizational structures, there is no empirical or research-based evidence that the organizational framework affects the performance of the library within it.

The most desirable position for a public library director is to report to the individual with the most power. In a municipal library, that translates as reporting to the mayor. The City of Houston, for example, operates under a strong-mayor form of government; it is so strong that one veteran city councilman recently likened it to "King Kong and the 14 chimps" (Ryan, 1993, p. 1A). In this writer's experience, which includes twenty-seven years as library director and dealing with the administrations of five of these strong mayors, the mayor controls the library's fortunes, for good or bad, but in ways that have almost nothing to do with the library director's degree of access to the chief executive. Houston Public Library got its most generous funding from the one mayor of the five who was probably least familiar with library issues. Under another mayor, who served ten years in office (and with whom the library director enjoyed a collegial relationship), library conditions seriously worsened. An "open door" policy under a mayor does not guarantee opened purse strings anymore than holding certain political convictions in common with a mayor leads to a bigger budgetary commitment to the library.

A library director in Minnesota said:

I believe you can do more and be more visible if there is less

of a hierarchy to move through. The fewer people who have

to give you permission to go ahead the easier it should be to

take the reins and gallop on. However, the more you can do

on your own, the more responsibility you have to do the "right

thing" or at least not the wrong thing. (Susan Goldberg Kent,

personal communication, July 21, 1993)

In the traditional municipal structure with a city manager, the library director will usually report to an assistant city manager. At this distance from the top of the hierarchy, position within the organization can diminish the director's own view of the power or impact he or she has. This perception was understood by one public library director:

The Phoenix Public Library stands as a good (or rather should

I say bad) example of the problem of a poor position in the

city organization combined with poor city support. But I have

never been able to determine for sure what is cause and what

is effect. Are we low in the city hierarchy because the city doesn't

care much about libraries, or is the city supporting us poorly

because we are so low in the hierarchy? I do know that my position

in the hierarchy makes it very difficult for me to get better support.

(Ralph M. Edwards, personal communication, September