Ron, here we have our public typing room where patrons of the library, students, can come in, and after they have done their research and they wish to type it up, they can operate our typewriters here and finish up their thesis in fine shape. Salt Lake Modern
Excerpt: You can tell a lot about what’s wrong with any organization by reading the want ad for a new boss. Whatever qualifications are stressed in that posting are likely the characteristics that were found to be the most wanting in the previous incumbent. \
The search for a new director for the Salt Lake City Library system should include a plea for someone who can lead, rather than command, and earn, rather than demand, the respect and the necessary buy-in from the library’s staff, volunteers and supporters.
A lack of such abilities was, from all accounts, the downfall of the library’s last director, Beth Elder. She resigned Friday, effective immediately, after months of friction with staff members, some members of the Library Board and, most troubling, the Friends of the Library.
Excerpt:The Salt Lake City Library Board of Directors on Friday unanimously accepted Elder's resignation after receiving multiple complaints on her management style and policy changes. Elder said stepping aside would help the library move forward.
"Being a lightning rod of controversy has detracted from the library's numerous accomplishments during the three-and-a-half years I have headed it," she said. "As a result, I can no longer effectively do my job of promoting and administering the Salt Lake City Public Library System."
Elder restructured library management and staffing roles, saying she had to make tough, but much-needed changes over the years.
However, most recently, one of the library's loyal fund-raising groups, Friends of the Library, threatened to withdraw future support unless changes were made. The group was pleased with the board's action on Friday.
Board members, however, praised Elder for the accomplishments made during her tenure.
Excerpt: Besieged Salt Lake City Library Director Beth Elder may learn her fate Friday.
The Library Board has scheduled a special 1:30 p.m. meeting to "discuss options and possible actions regarding [the] library director," the brief agenda reads.
Nobody from the board or library administration would say whether Elder would be dismissed, reprimanded or retained.
"I invite you to stay tuned," Board President Kevin Werner said Thursday.
Excerpt: 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.
Excerpt: Chaotic conditions and cratering morale at the Salt Lake City Library may next take their toll on patron services and public programs.
The influential Friends of the Library — an all-volunteer nonprofit that has raised $1 million for the library during the past decade — is threatening to pull its funding over continuing library controversies.
This “unprecedented” step may be necessary, the community group warned the Library Board on Thursday, because “for the first time in our [51-year] history, we are in crisis.”
“Today, the library is not the same as the one we agreed to support,” reads a letter from the Friends board and distributed to embattled Library Director Beth Elder along with the board.
“We are uneasy and leery of turning over our money earned from volunteer time to whoever happens to be in the finance department that day,” the letter says. “The Friends are spending as much time training and explaining our procedures to new staff as we are at raising the money. Our faith and trust are shattered.”
Excerpt: Watson, the past Library Employees Organization president, who represented about 250 workers, says he quit in July after losing all faith in Elder’s leadership. He also fingers Library Board members for “covering their eyes and plugging their ears” over the mismanagement.
“Every time any type of incongruity comes up between Beth’s decisions and policies and library procedures, they’ve had meetings quietly with her to figure out how they can change the rules,” Watson says. “And then they reveal it publicly later. I have no idea why the mayor and City Council are so adamantly behind her.”
The Mayor’s Office says it was surprised by the gag allegation and latest library unrest and first heard about it from a news report.
Excerpt: Commissioned by Salt Lake City Library officials to gauge employee morale and trust in management, a new survey reveals high levels of job satisfaction but little faith in Director Beth Elder.
On a scale of 1 to 7, overall pride in working for the library scored a 5.7. Nearly three-quarters of employee respondents said they know and understand the library’s strategy and mission. Satisfaction with benefits notched a 5.9. And staffers, weighing in with a 5, deem the library a good place to work.
The "employee engagement" poll, conducted by Riverton-based Lighthouse Research, queried 87 percent of library employees and carried a 3.4 percent margin of error.
"The results tell a story about the Salt Lake City Library of today," Elder said in a statement. "We want to build on the positive attributes of our organization, and this survey has helped us identify where we can improve as we become the library our community will need tomorrow."
On average, librarians gave a 5.7 rating to their overall satisfaction with their supervisors. And employees gave a 5.8 to whether their immediate supervisor encourages open and honest communication.
The results on Elder and her "Executive Leadership Team" paint a darker portrait. Employees gave them a 2.6 on open and honest communication, along with a 3 on caring about staff and volunteers. [Bold added.]
Excerpt: A just-launched crackdown on any opinionated email — and on criticism of management expressed via social media — has some veteran librarians fearing for their jobs and a chorus of others crying censorship.
Now, for the first time since controversy enveloped Director Beth Elder last year, the library’s nonprofit fundraising arm, Friends of the Library [ditto with the access thing], is openly questioning the library’s direction and its “chronic problems.”
In recent days, the past president of the Utah Library Association was placed on administrative leave for challenging new restrictions placed on all-staff email. Another librarian was forced to delete a Facebook post critical of Elder. Others were scolded in private meetings called by Elder’s administrative team.
And, according to several sources at the award-winning library, supervisors have told staffers they will sift through individual email accounts to look for any proof of insubordination and any criticism of library leadership or its policies.
Excerpt:Libraries serve as community gathering spots — sanctuaries from stress and society’s cutthroat culture. Yet well before the first shovels hit the dirt, just picking where Salt Lake City’s two newest branches will go has proved contentious, divisive and, perhaps, politicized.
For years, new libraries have been planned in the Glendale and Marmalade neighborhoods. Much of the funding is in place or planned as a future tax increase, and multiple forums have been staged to harness public input. The Library Board has even picked its preferred spots.
But the messy — some insiders say “flawed” — selection process has created as many questions as answers.
Board members heading each site search recently quit those committees in protest. Some Marmalade businessmen maintain their site was ignored in “scandalous” fashion. And critics inside and out of City Hall insist the Mayor’s Office itself tried to sink the Glendale location overwhelmingly favored by residents.
Excerpt:Wobbled by months of management controversy — including calls for the director’s resignation and a board member departure — the Salt Lake City Public Library has teed up an ambitious transparency initiative that includes the quick release of draft minutes and perhaps televised board meetings. [Transparency? I can't access the Board of Directors page.]
The certain-to-pass measure, unveiled Thursday and slated for a formal vote in one month, is intended to mend the award-winning library’s wounded reputation.
But it did little to quell the still-raging tempest. During the testy three-hour meeting, one employee chastened the board for recently renewing the library boss’ contract, accusing Director Beth Elder of putting a “happy, disingenuous” face on the unrest. A decade-long volunteer scolded the board for not being accessible to the public, then called for the board president’s ouster. A group of residents advocating an alternative location for a new Marmalade branch stormed out, declaring “the fix is in.”
And after, board member Luana Chilelli — in the role less than three months — told The Tribune she is quitting. “I’m very uncomfortable with them,” Chilelli said, riding the elevator down from the fifth floor boardroom. “There’s some real issues that need to be addressed, and they’re dismissive. I’m very disappointed, and I’m very sad.”
Excerpt: Three employees plus a volunteer unloaded at the meeting, saying they were nervous but determined to get the message out. The unusual move follows Elder’s January overhaul of management. After all supervisors were forced to reapply for their positions, 18 people kept their jobs, four retired and five were removed from management into “special assignments.” Several veterans were shifted to different branches.
Elder defends the move as a means to upgrade library services, remain nimble and to adapt to changing needs and technologies. She told the board in January the change was remarkably smooth. Until now, criticism from the ranks has remained mostly anonymous.
Excerpt:Director Beth Elder’s “chilling” management shake-up has wobbled Salt Lake City’s stalwart library system, rattled award-winning staffers who privately fear for their jobs, and, in a boomeranging twist, soon may place the director herself in jeopardy.
Employees, who canceled the annual Christmas party due to cratered morale, are fretting that confusion will rule Monday when the sweeping changes take effect. Yet beyond the structure at all six branches and service to the public, weighty questions suddenly hover over the library’s top leadership itself.
Three board members have resigned in recent months, including one veteran who bolted at year’s end with no explanation. That follows a nearly unanimous “vote of no confidence” in Elder that was cast by library managers in the spring. Insiders say the reorganization, which prompted a mini-exodus and at least five demotions, was return fire from the director. She denies it.
Link to December 30 Salt Lake City Tribune article.
Excerpt:A sweeping management shake-up at the Salt Lake City Public Library — quietly in the works for months — has led to a series of demotions and retirements among veteran staffers in a move the director insists will improve efficiency.
But the overhaul, made official Wednesday, has led longtime employees to question Director Beth Elder’s leadership, while others remain afraid to speak out over fear of “retaliation.”
The reorganization follows the recommendations of a consultant, contracted by Elder and the Library Board earlier this year, whose report outlines a need for administrative changes.
The report was presented to the library’s board of directors this fall and has been a source of consternation both in the ranks of employees and in the library community ever since. The shuffle forced the 31 members of library management to reapply for their positions.
