Update - 4/10/2011
This is National Library Week, so let's celebrate the elephants that in their mad rush to the top trample underfoot the little critters.
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I really admire the selection process of the Seattle Public Library.
In its infinite wisdom, the Library in 2009 choose as Chief Librarian Susan Hildreth, who demonstrated her inspired leadership and genuine commitment by, in less than 12 months on the job, landing a plumier job, as an Obama appointee, in D.C. Super job-tripping. Did I hear the words "shameless careerism here?:*
And she's a great believer in recycling.**
Question: How many hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money (and time) were spent on doing a nationwide search for Chief Librarian and then on her salary for those few months?
(I'm assuming Ms. Hildredth, during the interview process did not stay at the American Hostel and/or take the Greyhound bus round-trip).
With the city budget being slashed right and left and programs eliminated, has anyone noticed or been bothered by this sleight-of-hand?
What about some badly needed chairs for the Queen Anne Library, for instance? I could swear--but I'm not supposed to--that sooner or later someone--not so petite--is going to come crashing down on his/her behind when one of those creaky wooden chairs finally gives.
* http://www.libraryjour...
** In her new appointment six weeks ago, she recycled the heartfelt and highly inspirational remarks she made when she got her Seattle job: "I am so pleased and honored to have this appointment. I want to make sure we use the power of libraries and museums to enrich the lives of our citizens. We must ensure that libraries and museums continue to re-invent themselves to be powerful forces for the civic life in our communities."
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In any case, how convenient it is for Library operations to be indefinitely without a Chief Librarian.
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The last time I spent time looking for another job while employed I was actually fired for it!
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Maybe it's not only the Seattle Public Schools that need to do a spring clean-up...
Something for The Stranger to do an in-depth investigation of.
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Speaking of a waste of $$ and time, a suggestion for the Neanderthals who manage to scratch, smudge, nick, or otherwise destroy DVD's (and CD's) of the Seattle Public Library, making them unwatchable by other patrons:
What about taking a SPL class on "how to handle CD's/DVD's [that don't belong to you] without destroying them [for others]"?
The number of times I have checked out DVD's and have only been able to watch part of the DVD? About 25% of the time. So I often just have to buy the DVD.
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11/3/2010
"The Seattle Public Library does not permit the use of slug repellent on its premises."
Yes, hatred springs from being verbally and emotionally abused as much as it does from being physical mishandled. Forgiveness is not easy.
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After five decades of having a borrower's card here, I am sad to report that I have less respect for the Seattle Public Library, even as it has grown and improved in many ways. It has become a vast bureaucracy with limited personal accountability on the part of staff.
Eight out of ten do a good or outstanding job.
But all public libraries get a few seriously messed up individuals on their staff. Why does the Seattle Public Library Administration have to turn a blind eye and shield its own, no matter how egregious the behavior or compelling the evidence is?
Libraries used to be quiet places to read, browse, do research, which is important, as not all of us live with considerate neighbors or house-mates. Unfortunately, that is no longer always the case for a surprising reason: Library staff!
Take for example the case of the Queen Anne branch, where a new librarian--a tall, silver-haired man with a eunuchly--woops, I meant, uniquely--inspired vision of humanity (virulent pent-up racism) consistently infringes on the rights of library patrons to concentrate in peace and quiet on reading and research. The other staff, though, are gracious and soft-spoken.
After months of hearing him raise his unpleasant (loud, adenoidal) voice as if he were sitting in a lounge chaise on his porch and talking to the next door neighbor, I finally asked him a few days ago, "Would you mind keeping the level of this conversation down? There are people trying to concentrate..."
I was embarrassed to have to actually remind a librarian about something s/he should know.
Before I had a chance to finish, he exploded in rage " N O ! " as if he were beating a dog.
I was an easy target--his 6'2" staring down my 5'7"--for this frustrated individual--and as you know, all librarians are frustrated spinsters. Or, as in this case, bachelors.
His outburst left me speechless. Before I had a chance to recover my bearings, he yelled in my face, " YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO LEAVE THE LIBRARY. NOW." He gave no explanation.
Wow! A librarian when asked a civil question snaps and goes "off the deep end," creating a disturbance.
For my part, I had made the faulty assumption that I was dealing with a reasonable, unprejudiced individual. Or that the public servants in our Emerald City rarely misuse their authority and get away with it.
(I guess I am just too honest: I told him he was a boor).
Some may, for that matter, struggle with chemical dependence, compulsive lying, multiple personalities, bad career counseling, astrological accidents, sartorial mishaps, whatever.
This guy I is just trying to save his own hide--whatever the cost to his moral conscience--when he told Marilynne Gardner, Acting Head, that he had asked me to wait until he had finished talking with a patron.
This man is lying.
Furthermore, as one who was mercilessly bullied as a child, I recognize a bully when I see one.
Pity those who have to work with--or under--people like this man. I do get a sense that library workers, with union-like discipline cover for each other.
In the meantime, what about (his) returning to work at the Washington Department of Corrections--as a model crypto-Nazi prison librarian?
How the Library lets people like this keep their jobs is a real mystery (nepotism?). Only the Byzantine inner workings of the Administration would provide a clue--and no one's telling.
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If by chance you are harassed or mistreated by staff like this guy, be aware that the administration will only do a perfunctory investigation, if you complain. In the end, they may not get the facts straight and their own adjudication of the matter may even be inconsistent and patently unfair.
If Seattle is the new Rome, The Library--with its noble mission of literacy and dissemination of information in the Digital Age, is not the Holy See.
Ever move a piece of library furniture or leave a backpack unattended? You're violating the Rules of Conduct. As are chewing tobacco, gambling, camping, tapping loudly on keyboards, and appearing to be sleeping.
But if a librarian is loud to the point of being embarrassingly obnoxious, s/he is not doing anything wrong!
I doubt if the City of Seattle exercises much oversight authority over this fiefdom/uber machine which, before enforcing its rules, presumes guilt before innocence and that innocence has to be proven).
(There is no library committee formed of members of the City Council).
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Thank you Susan Hildreth, City Librarian, for helping me realize that high-level bureaucratic position and power is not the same as being guided by moral principle.
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6/21/2009
Possibly three-and-a-half-sta rs.
Despite my initial skepticism, the downtown library "grows" on one.
The huge fourth floor "reading room" with its soaring 10-story atrium, sharply raked glass-skeletal walls, and open lay-out is the highlight of this library, somewhat of a throw-back to the medieval Gothic cathedral.
The reading public, for the overwhelming part, behaves as if it were a consecrated public space--with respect.
The number of Internet terminals on different floors has increased as well.
As for the shortcomings, I only will relate an anecdote. Saturday, I was within earshot of the children's literature desk--on the fourth floor as well). A librarian and a security guard were sitting shooting the breeze.
All the reading public in the row of tables on the other side were silently and intently reading or studying.
After 15 minutes or so, distracted, I went up and asked them if "they could the level of their conversation a bit lower." The librarian stared at me stony-faced without saying a word and went on talking with the security guard, in a somewhat lower tone of voice.
Sometime later, I went up to the friendly volunteer at the Fifth Avenue entrance (on the same floor) and asked him if I could direct my remarks to anyone higher up. He gave me their general comments form, explaining at the same time that "the librarians are usually really, really busy."
My rejoinder: Don't they have any work to do? In this economy, does the Seattle Public Library have the resources to pay people who have the time to sit and chat with each other?
I would have added: Why doesn't Deborah Jacobs hire YOU to sit there? You are performing a public service gratis, they are getting paid.
Also, on another note, why hire a Big Brother security guard wandering around on the 10th floor in order to catch people who have closed their eyelids to get a minute of R & R--and then sternly admonish them?
Should we, the taxpayers, in this economy, have to put up with this?
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5/21/2007
Compared to its predecessor built ca. 1959, this is definitely a huge "practical" improvement.
And it certainly has garnered world attention for itself and architect Rem Koolhaas. In a city with a penchant for the new--and where "history" in the minds of many of its citizens conjures up the '50's, the Monorail, early grunge-rock*, and sometimes Pioneer Square with its turn-of-the-century neo-Romanesque buildings--, this building seems to have assured a special place already in the minds of most Seattleites..
That said, it is not exactly my cup of tea, especially when compared to main branch of the San Francisco Public Library (and was approximately 3-4 times the cost per square meter), which is in a far more classical style, though contemporaneous. (Let's not even mention the Boston Public Library in Copley Square with its Italian Renaissance-palazzo- inspired architecture and inner courtyard, John Sargent Singer and Puvis de Chavannes murals).
The asymmetrical glass-and-steel exterior, though nice to look at at night when it is lit up, is aesthetically disappointing--angul ar, lop-sided, box-like.
It also is a definite architectural break with the Carnegie libraries, whose local branches are still scattered throughout the city (Greenlake, Yesler, Queen Anne, Fremont).
Nonetheless, it is an important part of civic life in Seattle now and redresses the lack of space and the general creakiness of the "old" library.
The purely functional Microsoft auditorium is host to a rather astonishing array of speakers and previews of opera and the like. Some of the luminaries one would expect to be on the circuit of the Seattle Arts and Lectures series (at the Nordstrom Hall at Benaroya) or at Town Hall--Joan Didion (The Year of Magical Thinking, Slouching towards Bethlehem), for instance, presidential historian Michael Beschloss, and so on.
Of course, there was a long line two hours even before Joan Didion even spoke, so it's definitely not as if you'll get in...but it's indication of the high civic/cultural/liter ary aspirations of the Seattle Public Library.
Elevators rather slow. The nature of the plan of the spiral stacks makes it difficult to cut across from one level to the next without following in spiral-fashion. The reading room on the 10th floor is nice and airy. And generally folks adhere to quiet conversation and concentrate on their reading. They seem to respect the library and other patrons.
The soaring, vast lobby on the 5th Avenue side, which is open, atrium-style, to the very top (10th) floor is a marvel. One gets pleasantly accustomed to the electric lime-green of the escalators and some of the walls.
The fifth floor has a phalanx of public computer terminals) as well as a group of very patient, dedicated reference librarians who address patrons' questions. For now, at least, the computers-hooked-to- the-Internet have not replaced the traditional book.
Crowds of people all the time, which shows how popular it has become, moving in all directions.
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