The Cover-Up

Time to finally take a look at the last posted Library Board minutes, those of April, 2012.


I missed the May meeting totally inadvertently getting the date wrong.  So I had planned on going to the June 26 meeting, wrote it on my calendar, double checked the date online.


Now I learn that the woman opposing Tim Scott for HR District 1 is having a planning meeting on, of course, June 26.  So I decided to take a look at the April minutes, prime time after my editorial appeared, to get an idea if I would really be missing anything.


Lies and deceits.  The Director telling the Board just what he thinks they want to hear, in public, so the public can hear that all is as it should be.  And they had my once upon a time friend, the head of collections, give a command performance.  That breaks my heart, hearing him echo management's positions.


Once again, they played that old song about only getting rid of books that don't circulate, or are too worn to repair.  Lies, lies and more lies.  I am still too fresh from the nightmare of getting rid of nearly new children's books that have just circulated, because there is no room for new books coming in.


Here's a new one, from our Orwellian Director.  He bragged that floating the collection saves it, because items end up where they are needed most.  Let me step out of character for a moment and just say, "What an idiot."


This is so much a misrepresentation of how the floating collection is working that a bolt of lightning should have just flown out of the sky and burnt the man to a crisp.


I will never forget having to weed adult biographies every three months to make space.  When you've exhausted the one-year criteria, and all the books are in more than readable condition, you then eliminate multiple copies.  Presuming that a library system that serves the numbers that are served by Charleston County needs fewer copies of a book.  Even though it is shown that the multiple copies have all circulated in less than a year.


Deep breath.  After esteemed board member Jonathan Greene, who has never weeded a library book in his life, tells the director (and the public) how much he loves the guidelines for weeding, someone asks if a last copy is discarded, can a patron still get a copy.  Rehearsed those questions well.


The answer is, yes, of course, because we have interlibrary loan.  And of course the Director neglected to mention that interlibrary loan costs $2, not that much unless you are on a limited budget, read a lot of books that are not recent and popular, or thought that libraries were free.  And entails staff time and an undetermined wait for the patron.  And, although Henderson claimed that "all weeded books can definitely still be gotten through ILL", that is not, in fact the case.  In fact, if other libraries are following these same terrific weeding guidelines, ILL's will no doubt become harder to fulfill.  And I just have to say again that the Director  failed to mention the cost of an ILL.


Another board member, an esteemed Mr. Clem, who should be working for Tim Scott's reelection campaign, summed up his happy thoughts by saying that "he doubts that anyone would object to the library rightsizing the collection".  (Honest, he said "rightsizing".)  He then adds that he thinks this whole project is "amazing".


I think it is amazing also.  I think it is an amazing example of how a system buys into a deception and then continues to defend it, refusing to even look at the reality of the situation.


Had I been at that meeting, of course I would have remained silent.  Would I have been infuriated?  Would I have felt helpless about the lies being told, about the fact that not a one of these board members have seen the books being thrown away, have talked to staff members at the branches where so many books have so little space.


Maybe it's a copout; it probably is.  But the fact is, reading those minutes has got to be a reality check for me.  I walked away from a job I once loved because I could not continue to bear witness to the destruction that was happening, much less lie about it.  I believe that going to the board meetings and listening to the lies is something I do not need to do.

Fini

Today is my last official day at the library.  It is actually a paid leave day; Friday was my last day at work.  On Friday, as I had for the two weeks since I gave notice, I walked around doing my job with a tremendous sense of relief.  I was relieved that I would no longer have to "live" in a pigsty with people who never cleaned up after themselves...

No more tripping over tiles in the staff room that have been up for years, or having to sit at a station that actually blocks my view of patrons as they walk up because the branch manager wants lots of "space" at the front desk.

Especially, no more throwing books away.  And now, I am free to speak out without fear of retaliation, or the new coolness of some of my fellow employees.

But now that I am home, I am also remembering all that my years at the library gave me, because I am not one to stay at a job that gives nothing back.

My first day at the reference desk, as a substitute in training, Michael, the reference manager, had made up a reference quiz, which was the starting point for real learning about the depth of a public library.  And this Charleston County Library was indeed a library with depth.

Sometime that same week, the assistant reference manager showed me how to do a search to find out what new videos had come into the system, which to me was a bit like Dorothy's first glimpse of the Emerald City.

I felt strongly, even when passed up for promotions at other branches because managers hire and promote those they know, that this library was where I belonged.  And it was, until two years ago, when the new director let everyone know he was there to "shake things up".

And he did shake things up, smashing much along the way.

So I will be always glad for the years I spent, overworked, underemployed, and underpaid, but able to work at a place that felt like my home.