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

Library Trends, Summer, 1994 by David Henington

In the larger framework, the power of a public library to set

and carry out its agenda depends most heavily on its ability to

identify and mobilize a popular constituency. One of the many

things that mayors, county commissioners, and other elected

leaders can do is count votes. If it is clear that voters care about

the library, elected leaders will care. The flip side of this is that

the library and the library director cannot be seen to mobilize

or motivate this constituency. It must seem to spring up of its

own accord. (Rick J. Aston, personal communication, May 12,

1993)

Power or influence that can serve the library well can come from support groups such as Friends organizations, as Sonnwald (1993) pointed out:

Since I have been Director, the Friends of the Library has grown

from an organization of less than twenty people to over 4,000

paid members and a group at all of our 32 branch libraries. They

are an effective group for drawing attention to the needs of the

library and the City Council listens to them, as well as a strong

lobbying group. When the Mayor and City Manager needed

community support to extend a spending authorization in the

City, the Friends and their telephone tree got out the vote. The

Mayor gave the Friends credit for passage of the waiver in a

very close election. My role is to send a representative to their

meetings to act as a resource person. We do not try to control

the Friends because I think they are stronger if they are viewed

as independent of library administration influence.

Power also comes from a different orientation than organization structure. Sonnwald went on to say that his power evolved from directing a service that is valued and appreciated by the citizens of the community (William B. Sonnwald, personal communication, May 19, 1993). For example, when Houston's mayor ordered a reduction in library hours to stem a city budget shortfall in March 1988, it was not administrative appeals but library users picketing outside locked doors and public protests reported by the media that quickly got longer hours reinstated.

There is another slightly different view of power and politics offered by Brawner:

Recognizing the power of information and the access to it is,

of course, no news for libraries. But, the political shift described

by Gates and others makes library administrators more cognizant

of the library's catalytic role as information brokers, especially

with regard to accessing electronic publishing information loads.

The shift at once places heightened emphasis on the role of

information and politics for libraries in the community. Are

libraries now poised to make their own paradigm shift as the

infostructure of the infrastructure in their communities? (Lee

B. Brawner, personal communication, May 27, 1993) Dealing with multiple and sometimes conflicting constituencies requires tact, understanding, discretion, flexibility, and knowing when to apply pressure and when to let the group act independently. The effective director must also be able to articulate the relationship of external pressures to internal pressures (Lee B. Brawner, personal communication, May 27, 1993). When a director cannot coalesce various groups on specific issues, there may be many reassons, but in the end, the responsibility is that of the director, and it will often be viewed as a weakness (Albert Haines, personal communication, June 16, 1993).