Saturday, July 2, 2011

Ebooks, Netflix, and Library Building Projects (Part 67, Emerson Public Library)

Possible LIS 712 case study for chapter 5, Library Boards.


Confusion clouds Emerson council meeting on library renovation. (NorthJersey.com, 6/30/2011)

Excerpt: The Borough Council met Thursday with members of the library’s board of trustees, looking for answers. What they got was more confusion.

Frustrated by a lack of disclosure about the library’s ongoing $465,000 renovation project, the council summoned the library director and trustees to Thursday’s meeting.

“We’re just trying to find out some information on the project,” Mayor Carlos Colina said at the start of the meeting, which library director Jodi Fulgione and Board President Bill Bierman were unable to attend.

During the meeting, Colina and the council received conflicting information from the five non-salaried board members who attended the meeting. Some told the council that Fulgione did not have a formal, signed contract with the board, while others contended she did. Some refused to answer the council at all.

When asked what hours the director kept and whether she was charged with the daily oversight of the renovation, some of the trustees on hand told the council that Fulgione’s schedule was never set in stone. Others thought the director — who is paid $81,000 annually out of the library’s $453,272 operating budget, according to Emerson’s chief financial officer — did much of her work from home.

There was also some confusion as to whether Fulgione was supervising the renovation and whether she works a full 40-hour week
.

No comments: