Public Receptions for Executive Director Candidates

The following dates and times have been set aside for receptions and remarks from three candidates for the Executive Director position.

Celeste Choate, Monday, February 3, 4:30-5:30 (remarks at 5:00)
Associate Director, Ann Arbor (MI) District Library (AADL)
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/celeste-choate/5/97/b83
Video presentation: Unusual Stuff at AADL
Article on AADL Board and updates from July 2013

Sarah Rosenblum, Friday, February 7, 4:30-5:30 (remarks at 5:00)

Director, Marshalltown (IA) Public Library 

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sarah-rosenblum/21/ba8/44

Video: Rosenblum talks about Marshalltown receiving IMLS National Medal for Library Service

Article on her hiring at Marshalltown from October 2011

Debra Stombres, Monday, February 10, 4:30-5:30 (remarks at 5:00)

Branch Manager, Aurora (IL) Public Library

LinkedIN: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/debra-stombres/20/b25/1a5

Article on her hiring as branch manager from February 2012

Article about her as candidate for Decatur (IL) Public Library Director from January 2014

According to a News-Gazette article: 

"Library Board President Chris Scherer said the decision to hold public sessions with the three finalists was made to add transparency to the process. This will be residents' opportunity to give their input, he said."

There seems to be limited time for Q&A at the 'receptions,' but get out there and ask them anyway! For instance, how will the candidates

• address staff concerns that existed before #bookgate but have persisted (and in some instances, been amplified)?
• regain and enhance public trust?
• improve transparency in administration?
• include staff and community meaningfully in strategic planning?
• bridge the digital / app / device / access divide in the community?

There's also a newly scheduled 'special' meeting of the Board of Trustees on Monday, February 3, at 3:15 pm in the Satterthwaite Conference Room (UFL basement) with two items on the agenda: public comment and a closed session for personnel matters. [Nb. We've since learned that the closed session is for the Board to interview the director candidate.] Perhaps use the public comment time to remind the Board what the community values / wants in an executive director.

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The text of the official press release from Urbana Free Library follows.

Public Receptions for Urbana Free Library Director Candidates

The Urbana Free Library Board of Trustees and the Search Committee for the Executive Director have announced that three candidates are selected as finalists in the national search and will be visiting The Urbana Free Library for on-site interviews in February.  The public is invited to meet each candidate at a scheduled reception.  All three public receptions will take place from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm in the MacFarlane-Hood Reading Room on the library’s main floor, and each candidate will make brief remarks at 5:00 pm.

The reception on Monday, February 3 will introduce finalist Celeste Choate, currently the Associate Director of Ann Arbor District Library in Michigan. The public may meet finalist Sarah Rosenblum, who is currently employed as Library Director for Marshalltown Public Library in Iowa, at the reception scheduled for Friday, February 7. The reception on Monday, February 10 will introduce finalist Debra Stombres, currently employed as the Branch Coordinator for the Aurora Public Library Eola Road Branch in Illinois.

More information may be found on the library’s website at urbanafreelibrary.org

A Prelude to Tonight's Board of Trustees Meeting

Tonight's meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Lewis Auditorium, and as we have for the past four months, we'll be sharing the meeting via a video livestream and through Twitter (you can view the feed on this blog's front page).

The agenda and documents are available online, but in short, the Trustees will be voting on collection policy documents and discussing more about the search for a new executive director (you'll find a draft of the job description at that last link).

In the Department Reports, we learned from Interim Head of Adult Services Mary Towner that the Library sent approximately 8,566 books to Better World Books early this summer. Of these, 2810 were added back to the collection and a nearly equivalent number were officially weeded. Although the bulk of the art and religion collections are now intact, Towner notes that approximately 3,000 volumes were not returned or are otherwise unaccounted for.

The community is still watching what goes on at the Library vigilantly. For instance, on a neighborhood association e-mail list last week, a resident posted about what seemed to be another weeding project. Towner posted a thoughtful blog entry discussing what was really happening - students from GSLIS were undertaking a preliminary evaluation of a portion of the collection - and that librarians from adult services were supervising.

Stay tuned for updates, but we here at Reclaiming Our Library hope to see many local residents come to tonight's meeting (and next month's meeting and the one after that...)

As a parting note, may we all have as much desire to be involved in our communities as this 12-year old Dallas boy, profiled recently in the Washington Post blog. Take a watch!

The Hunt for a New Director

At the September 10 meeting, the Trustees announced that Bob Burger - a retired University of Illinois librarian - would helm the search committee for the Urbana Free Library's new executive director and that the process would proceed, as President Scherer noted, with "all due haste."

Following that announcement, a lively and chaotic discussion ensued in which the Trustees wrangled with logistics: who would appoint the other members of the committee? to whom is the search committee accountable? what will the committee use as criteria for evaluating candidates? The answers to most of those questions seemed to reside in the person of Bob Burger. It is he, the Trustees concluded, who will appoint the committee, determine its direction, and develop evaluative criteria.

What seemed most clear from this discussion is that the Trustees don't understand the search process.

In looking back at the Board minutes from the last director search in 2006, the process worked much differently.

For instance, here's what the minutes from May 2006 state,

Kate McDowell passed out for review a new time line for hiring a new Executive Director. She also passed out the job description and the job advertisement and revised them on her laptop computer as Board members and staff made suggestions. The Board discussed a number of points, including the best way to present the salary range, whether specific details should be in the job description or a job contract, and whether specific job expectations and experiences should be required or preferred.  

The Board also discussed where and when to advertise, who should be on the search committee and advisory committee, and who should meet the top candidates. 

It was moved by Charlie Smyth, seconded by William Golden, and passed unanimously that Jane Williams and Kate McDowell co-chair the search committee. The Board will discuss at the next meeting who else should be a part of the search committee. Kate mentioned that the search committee will have two main tasks, the initial screening of candidates, followed by selecting and interviewing candidates to be interviewed in Urbana.

In this scenario - even before a committee was appointed - there was a sense of process and a concrete job description.

Here's a little more from August 2006.

Kate McDowell presented several items to the Board for their consideration.

It was moved by Jane Williams, seconded by Charlie Smyth, and passed unanimously that the Director Interview Template be approved as presented.  

It was moved by Charlie Smyth, seconded by Barbara Gillespie, and passed unanimously that the Director Hiring Process Timeline be approved as modified.

It was moved by Charlie Smyth, seconded by Jane Williams, and passed unanimously that the Search Committee should consist of Kate McDowell, James Quisenberry, Jane Williams, one other Board member, a member of the staff, and a member from the Foundation. The Search Committee will screen applications and conduct the phone interviews. The whole Board will take part in the interviews which involve bringing in candidates. It is anticipated that six to seven people will be interviewed by phone, and the top two or three candidates will be interviewed in person.  

It was moved by Charlie Smyth, seconded by Chris Scherer, and passed unanimously that the letter asking for staff input be sent out to staff as modified. 

We learn, thus, that the composition of the search committee - determined by the Board - and that there was an interview template.

Several of the current Trustees (Mel Farrell, Jane Williams, Chris Scherer) were also Trustees in 2006, so surely there is some institutional memory that can serve as a starting point. For whatever reason, it was Farrell who seemed insistent on giving power to Burger.

I'm certain more will be revealed in the next few weeks, but at the moment I am concerned that the Trustees are abdicating their responsibilities by investing an individual external to the Board with so much authority. Certainly I hope that there will be opportunities for people outside of the Library's administration who can provide input on hiring, but it would be unfortunate if in their haste to hire a new director, the Trustees don't proceed with purpose and direction.