Have you ever found yourself wishing there was one easy place to go with all of your questions about how to be a public library director? Many people come to positions of leadership in libraries with no formal training or a library degree.
So, where do you start? Whether you’re a current, new, or aspiring director there is a practical guide. On this show, I speak with Kate Hall, a library director since 2010, and Kathy Parker, with 16 years serving as a public library director. Together, they have given us the answers in their book, The Public Library Director’s Toolkit. This valuable resource provides one-stop-shopping for all of our questions about running a public library – from human resources to working with boards to overseeing a budget – it’s all here.
Transcript
This podcast is brought to you by the School of Library and Information Management from Emporia State University, where library leaders are created, with program sites in Las Vegas, Nevada; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Denver, Colorado; Salt Lake City, Utah; Portland, Oregon; Boise, Idaho; and Emporia and Overland Park, Kansas.
Adriane:
This is Adriane Herrick Juarez. You’re listening to Library Leadership Podcast, where we talk about libraries, and leadership, and speak with guests who share their ideas, innovations, and strategic insights into the profession.
Have you ever found yourself wishing there was one easy place to go with all of your questions about how to be a public library director? Many people come to positions of leadership in libraries with no formal training or a library degree. So, where do you start? Whether you’re a current, new, or aspiring director there is a practical guide.
On this show I speak with Kate Hall, a library director since 2010, and Kathy Parker, with sixteen years serving as a public library director. Together they have given us the answers in their book, The Public Library Director’s Toolkit. This valuable resource provides one-stop-shopping for all of our questions about running a public library, from human resources, to working with boards, to overseeing a budget—it’s all here. This truly is a useful episode. Enjoy the show!
Welcome to the show Kathy, and Kate. Your book is called, The Public Library Director’s Toolkit. Let’s start with the fact that many directors have no formal library training, or even a library degree, and can often find themselves leading organizations—but not knowing where to start. In addition, there’s a decline in funding for continuing education, specifically for library directors. So your book is important for all of us.
Question #1: First of all, if you’re someone finding yourself in this position, where should you start? 01:55
Kate Hall:
Well, Adriane, I would have to say that obviously reading our book is a really great first step. [laughter] But, even before that we do go into this in depth in the book in our first chapter. Getting background information on your library and your community is really critically important, because it isn’t so much about what the whole world of librarianship is doing but what your library had been doing prior to you coming.
You really want to get invested at that really local level. Talk to your board. Find out what projects your library’s working on. Reading previous board minutes is also helpful. Read newspaper articles about the library. Read online reviews. All of that will help set you up for success.
Kathy Parker:
And this is Kathy. Again I’d like to reiterate, please read our book because it’s a good guide. Also your staff, if you are lucky enough to have staf. A lot of staff, they’re going to have some background information that you might not be aware of. And your colleagues in the area—there may be something regionally going on, or at your library system that they can tell you about that you may not be aware of as you’re walking in, or may not be in your minutes, or other notes but that will help give you a larger background of what’s going on, and in the grand scheme.
Kate Hall:
Like crazy board members that you might not realize from the board minutes but that your neighboring library directors might be like, Oh, FYI.
Kathy Parker:
…because this goes on in all the library director meetings. They talk about their crazy staff and crazy board, yeah.
Adriane:
Question #2: So, get yourself oriented. You’re tossed into the position. You want to gather all the information you can and know a lot going in. 03:29
Kate Hall:
Yeah, but I also think it’s about being patient with yourself. When I first started at the Northbrook Public Library, I would come home in the evening and my brain would be processing so much information that I would just sit there. My husband would walk up to me and he’d be like, Hi. I’d just nod. Do you need a glass of wine? I would just nod. I would just sit there and process information, because it can be overwhelming. So be patient with yourself, because you’re not going to learn all of this in a day. You don’t have to be perfect. It is a really good idea to ask for help, not only from other library directors, but from your staff and board, yeah.
Kathy Parker:
And your to-do list will be pages, and pages, and pages.
Kate Hall:
And that’s okay.
Kathy Parker:
Just put them away for later, because that’s what happens. You’re going to make tons of lists. That’s what I did.
Kate Hall:
I love lists.
Kathy Parker:
Get some orientation. Be patient, and then just slowly start working through it.
Adriane:
Question #3: And give yourself some download time, it sounds like, and someone really nice at the end of the day who can help you with something to drink, and relax, so it can all process. 4:36
Kate Hall:
With or without alcohol, that’s your choice. I also approve—I strongly recommend chocolate, helps a lot. [laughter]
Adriane:
Chocolate always helps.
Kate Hall:
Yeah. [laughter]
Adriane:
Question #4: As we get started. A lot can come at us as leaders. You go through all the steps in your book of things to guide us, and what library directors should know whether you’re current, new, or aspiring—it’s a really practical guide. So let’s start in with, maybe employees. This is a big question. Can you give us an idea about the life cycle of the employee, and what people will learn in your book about human resources? 05:11
Kathy Parker:
This is Kathy. This is one of the biggest chapters in our book when we started. We had to cut it, obviously. But, this is a big part of the questions that we get from people all the time. We do talk about—we call it the life cycle of the employee. It’s going to the beginning of your job description and putting your job ad out.
Kate Hall:
Which are two very different things.
Kathy Parker:
They are. They are two very different things, so know that. We do discuss it in the book.
Kate Hall:
But to give them a little preview…
Kathy Parker:
The description is what the duties of the job are. The job ad is how you entice people to apply for that job, talking about a little background of the library and the position itself.
Kate Hall:
And talking about the culture, and maybe, trying to bring them like, Why should they want to come and work with us?
Kathy Parker:
We talk about the job ad, the job description. We talk about going through the interview process, definitely the hiring, the on-boarding of your employee, which is very important to get them on-boarded into your library. Then the evaluation process throughout the time that they are at your organization.
Continuing education is an important factor for your employees. Then when they exit your employ, whether it’s through their own volition, or not, it happens either way, we do have a discussion about when it’s not their own choice, but that process of them leaving your organization, as well.
Again, this is the question that we get, probably the most popular questions that we get from people.
Kate Hall:
I think with the employee stuff, there are a lot of excellent resources out in the world but the Society for Human Resource Management, SHRM is an excellent resource for people. When I became a director I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
Kathy Parker:
And we didn’t know a lot.
Kate Hall:
And I started going to HR roundtables, and taking classes…I don’t know about the rest of the listeners, but when I started and became a manager I was given no formal training.
Kathy Parker:
No.
Kate Hall:
I was just told, Lead these people, and I had to figure it out. I didn’t know about things like the Fair Labor Standards Act, or Family Medical Leave Act, American with Disabilities…
Kathy Parker:
…OSHA, any of that.
Kate Hall:
Right? I had no clue. So we do go into some of the more common acronyms. But I also strongly encourage you, our book is a teaser. It’s going to give you some basic knowledge. But if you can, take some training on this stuff, because…
Kathy Parker:
Most of the jobs are HR related. If you are fortunate enough to have an HR department in your library, which I know many, many, libraries do not, I never did—everything that was HR, I had to do.
And it’s learning it, because that’s a huge part of the job. Probably sixty, or seventy percent is dealing with your staff, and you can make some serious errors if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Kate Hall:
And you can face some serious fines. I always—joking, not joking with my staff, say, Well, we have to do this because I don’t want to go to jail.
Kathy Parker:
Right.
Kate Hall:
So… [laughter]
Kathy Parker:
That’s an important aspect of the work.
Kate Hall:
Our goal with the book isn’t so much to give you every single answer about employees, but to hopefully help you craft the questions that you need to answer, and give you the resources to learn more
Kathy Parker:
Which we do have in the back end of each chapter, we do have resources as well.
Kate Hall:
…because we’re librarians.
Kathy Parker:
That’s right.
Adriane:
Question #5: We are librarians after all, and working with people is a huge part of the job. So, speaking of working with people in an organization, as a director, it’s an important part of your job to work with your board. What information do you provide on this? 08:55
Kate Hall:
Well, oddly enough we have an entire chapter on this.
Kathy Parker:
…devoted to this.
Kate Hall:
It is very challenging going from having one supervisor to going to an entire board of supervisors. Now the most important thing that I think we cover is that you, as the library director, do answer to the board. However, the board and the director have very specific responsibilities.
The director is responsible for the operational aspects of the organization. That includes programming, collection development, staffing. The board only has one direct employee, and that is the library director. Now the board should absolutely be setting policy, and budgeting, strategic planning, they should be evaluating the library director. But that is something that I think, Kathy does a fair amount of consulting now that she’s retired on boards behaving badly, and…
Kathy Parker:
…and what the lines are.
Kate Hall:
Yeah.
Kathy Parker:
How often they get crossed over and how to not cross over set lines.
Kate Hall:
And wouldn’t you say, Kath, that most of the time it’s because boards don’t know what their role is? That’s why things have turned sour?
Kathy Parker:
I do. I think a large thing is for the most part, people get on library boards because they care about how the library is serving the community. Sometimes, some board members seem to get a little overzealous. So it’s just about stepping them back a little bit, showing where those lines are, making it very clear what the director actually does, and having a better view of that. Hopefully they will take that to heart, and the board and the director can work collaboratively, and independently in their spaces.
Kate Hall:
I think it starts with the director, also knowing what they’re role is. If you’re new to this role, and you don’t know that the board shouldn’t be making hiring decisions—at our most recent Director’s University, had a director tell us that her board members, her entire board sat in on all the interviews for her staff.
Kathy Parker:
Right.
Kate Hall:
And we said, Well, gosh that’s a lot of open meetings you have to keep minutes for. And she was like, It’s what? But that is not something that the board should be doing.
Kathy Parker:
Right.
Kate Hall:
The board only should hire—hire, evaluate, and discipline, and if necessary terminate the library director. Full stop. That’s a really hard thing, because if it’s been a practice for many years, it’s sometimes hard to break them of those bad habits. So, we talk a little bit about how to set yourself up for success, from day one, with the board. You also want to get to know the board. You want to know why they’re on the board, what their motivation is.
Kathy Parker:
…what their experiences are.
Kate Hall:
Yeah, because for instance, I have a new board member that started in May that’s an architect. I’m over the moon. That’s going to be so helpful, because when we’re doing our building projects, you know, we’re doing little projects every year, she can really dive into that in a way that my staff member, an attorney, maybe can’t. So it’s very exciting.
Adriane:
Question #6: They bring a lot of expertise. You happened to mention buildings, which I know a lot of us have never had to deal with when we get into a leadership role. All of a sudden we’re in charge of all kinds of facilities—things we’ve never had to think about. Do you want to talk a little bit about the buildings chapter in your book? 12:24
Kathy Parker:
We do. Buildings are near, and dear to my heart. I built a library about ten years ago—eleven years ago. It was the best experience of my life, other than writing the book, obviously. But…
Kate Hall:
[laughter] obviously.
Kathy Parker:
The thing is, many library directors don’t have facility managers, I did not when I started my library. It was a very small library, physically a small building. The maintenance person died of cancer three weeks after I started. So, I had to learn everything about that crazy building, and it was a bad, crazy building, from the ground up. Fortunately I have experience in my background of construction, because my family’s in construction. So, I understood a lot, however I know that’s not the average person going into this building.
We talk a lot about that, about getting to know your building. Even if you’re not responsible day-to-day, like in Kate’s case, she has multiple facilities people. But you still need to know the ins and outs of your building, because ultimately you’re responsible. You have to present that information to the board if there’s a major issue. You have to understand what you’re presenting. You have to make decisions on contracts, and payments, and appropriate allocation of funds, and your construction costs down the road if you have any construction coming up.
We do talk about that in the buildings chapter. It is as simple as getting to know your building, and then your contracts and stuff. Ideally, I would have loved to have written a whole book on how to build a library, but that’s a huge book. That wasn’t something we could do. Buildings are, yeah—that’s our largest physical asset.
Kate Hall:
Again, I’m a big fan—I hear from a lot of people when I’m out talking with non-librarians like, Oh, you’re a librarian. You must know everything. Well, we all know that is not the case.
Kathy Parker:
We just know how to find it.
Kate Hall:
We know how to find it. When you become a director, one of the best skills that you can use is finding information. I had a maintenance manager at my last library who was not a big fan of mine. He left one day. I had been trying to get him to take me on a walk-through of the building for like three months, to show me where everything was. He just kept telling me, Oh, kiddo, you don’t need to worry about that. I politely explained that I did, and that he needed to stop calling me kiddo. It was a good time.
But what I did was, I called all of our vendors that provided service, or I called the manufacturer for the equipment. I asked them if they would come out and sit down with me and explain how this equipment works, and how it was set up in my building.
I had an architect that happened to be in Rotary with me who came and sat down, and went through all of the architectural drawings, and showed me how to read them, because I had no clue.
Kathy Parker:
Right.
Kate Hall:
I’d never done that before. You’re not going to know everything and buildings tend to be the area where people feel most uncomfortable…
Kathy Parker:
No, it’s just scary, it’s scary.
Kate Hall:
It is scary.
Kathy Parker:
…because something will go wrong. Two o’clock in the morning a pipe’s going to burst. You need to know how to shut that water off. So like Kate said, utilizing your resources, your vendors, they will tell you what you need to know, they’re great.
Kate Hall:
Because they want to be on your good side…
Kathy Parker:
They want you to renew their contract.
Kate Hall:
Yes, exactly. So, they’re not going to be idiots, they’re going to come. They’re going to show you stuff.
Adriane:
Question #7: I’m so glad you shared this because being in charge of a building, out of the blue, all of a sudden can be overwhelming. But as a director, that’s only one piece of the puzzle. Not only are you in charge of the building, but the budget for the building, the budget for your organization. How can directors get an understanding of working with finances, day-to-day? 15:57
Kate Hall:
Well, I went and got my MBA, which I don’t recommend doing, that’s an expensive proposition to figure out how to do budgeting. And it turns out, I didn’t need to do that.
Kathy Parker:
…because you already knew how to use spreadsheets.
Kate Hall:
Hindsight is 20/20, yeah. What I recommend—much like with the building, I find that a lot of library directors are like, I didn’t get into this because I was good with numbers. Well, everyone can add and subtract, and hopefully balance a checkbook. This is just like a really, really, really big checkbook.
Kathy Parker:
Just like your home budget, just with other people’s money.
Kate Hall:
Yes. So you do want to be careful, because it isn’t your money. I recommend first, most libraries do an annual audit. Have your auditor come in and sit down with you. If you don’t understand what they’re saying, have them go over it again, and again until you do understand.
You might have someone internally who does your bookkeeping, or your accounts payable. If you don’t, maybe you have a staff accountant, maybe you have a finance manager, maybe you hire that service out, and you have someone else who cuts the checks. They should be able to sit down and explain that to you. If it’s not, then you have all of these other library directors that are with you.
I also highly recommend the financial manual from the library book from ALA. It lays out the different types of budgeting, how to set things up, how to set yourself up for success with budgeting, what you need to consider. It does not go into every single law in all the states, which I think is something that can—that’s where things get tricky.
Kathy Parker:
Right, because you need to know the specifics of where you’re located, because there may be some nuance there that’s not covered in a general book.
Kate Hall:
For instance in Illinois, we have our special reserve funds. We have working cash funds. I would also recommend going to your state library, or if you have library systems and asking them, Can you explain to me what are the laws impacting how I budget? We receive most of our funding through property taxes. But, we know that is not true across the country. So, how you solicit the money is often scarier than what you do with it once you get it.
Kathy Parker:
Really, the budgeting process is just like your home budget. Everyone has bills they have to pay. They have so much coming in, so much going out. Hopefully the one number is not larger than the other, meaning expenses. It’s just learning the nuances, going back and looking at prior budgets of the library is helpful, if you’re lucky enough to have those. I came into a situation where I did not have prior budgets.
Kate Hall:
Surprise! Figure it out.
Kathy Parker:
So, having to recreate—it was good in one way because I got to do it in my own way, but it was also difficult because I had to literally recreate it. So just having that ability to go back and do that is helpful, if you have that option.
Kate Hall:
And if it does really scare you we have a wonderful budget template in our toolkit.
Kathy Parker:
…a very simple budget template.
Kate Hall:
You can download it on our website at librarydirectorstoolkit.com. It has all the formulas in it. You just need to plug the money in for each category of what you’re getting, and what you’re spending. We also have a sample budget for a library that you can use as well. To show you how it works.
Adriane:
What I’m impressed about with this book is that it’s so many fundamentals. Not only do you talk about employees, and boards, and finances, and buildings—you give all kinds of resources on creating policies, and procedures, insurance, emergency planning, technology, strategic planning. So really, I would recommend that anybody who has questions about any of these would benefit from having a copy, and reading it, and digging in, and then going deeper into the resources.
Question #8: One of the things in the book is templates. You give those. Can you tell us a little bit about what’s there? You’ve mentioned a couple. But what’s there? And, what can people use in your template section? 20:04
Kathy Parker:
One of my favorites is, well, Kate’s database. She loves databases—is the contract database. And actually, I stole this from her before we even wrote the book, because I messed up when I did a contract and did a six year contract, which I’ll never do again.
But it’s a contract database, and it lays out who your vendors are, what the terms of the contract are, your end dates, your amount. It’s great. It’s a great resource. That’s like the best in my opinion. I know Kate agrees.
Kate Hall:
I love that one. I also really love—something that I’m very proud of that I created at my library was the unattended children and vulnerable adults policy. We’ve all heard of unattended children policies, but we completely scrapped that and started from scratch. I created this new policy, which also talks about what to do with vulnerable adults.
So if you have an adult that maybe has a mental health disorder or dementia…we’ve had a number of instances of that in my library currently. What do you do, and how do you handle it? It doesn’t get into the procedural aspects, but it does lay out a really strong policy for staff to know what is and is not acceptable, and what they can tell patrons.
Kathy Parker:
Another thing we have is like a director’s report template. Every director has a different report style—the things you want to include and a basic…
Kate Hall:
…report for your board.
Kathy Parker:
Right. So, when you do your report for your board.
Kate Hall:
A lot of employee stuff as well, because we know that’s something people want, so we have a new hire checklist, a termination checklist…
Kathy Parker:
…disciplinary policy.
Kate Hall:
We should mention that terminations refer to anyone leaving the organization for any reason, whether it’s a retirement, a firing, a relocation, going to school…
Kathy Parker:
…any reason.
Kate Hall:
They got a full-time job.
Kathy Parker:
We also have, which is helpful—a mission, and a vision statement worksheet. So, when you’re doing your mission, and your vision statement we have that, in addition to many other policies.
Kate Hall:
And that’s a really quick, and dirty version, because I used those when I was at the New Lenox Public Library, because we did not have funding to hire a strategic planning consultant. I just walked the board through crafting a mission statement, and a vision statement, which they did not have a vision statement. Then we used that then, to build the strategic plan.
Adriane:
This is so fantastic.
Kate Hall:
Obviously, we’re biased. [Laughter] But we’ll agree.
Kathy Parker:
Yeah, we’ll take it. We just want to say they’re all available on our website, librarydirectorstoolkit.com, as well.
Adriane:
Question #9: This is so fantastic because it’s really plug-and-play library leadership. You’ve done the hard work, and the heavy lifting. I wish I had this resource when I was starting out in library leadership. So, I’m so glad that you wrote this book. 22:59
Kathy Parker:
That’s why we wrote it.
Kate Hall:
Literally, because it’s the book we both wished that we had when we started. You know, you don’t even know the questions you don’t know.
Adriane:
Question #10: It’s so true. Is there anything else you would like to add? 23:22
Kathy Parker:
I think one of the things that both Kate and I would agree passionately about is continuing education, not only for ourselves as directors, but for our boards, our staff. But it’s important to continue on your learning journey. It’s very important.
Kate Hall:
Something that I think my staff gets tired of hearing me say is that I believe very strongly that if we are institutions of lifelong learning then we ourselves need to be lifelong learners. We hope that this book gives you a framework to become a lifelong learner. We don’t think like I said, that this has every answer to every question about being a public library director, but we hope that it has at least the framework to give you the right questions, and enough other resources to help you feel equipped to do the job.
Kathy Parker:
Definitely.
Adriane:
Question #11: Well, being a lifelong learner is so important and I know you have some favorite books that you’d like to share about leadership. 24:13
Kate Hall:
Adriane, you’re so kind. You’re like, Pick one, and we’re like, How about three?
Kathy Parker:
Yes, can’t pick just one.
Kate Hall:
So, I would say the first one isn’t a book, although she does have a book. It is our favorite blog…
Kathy Parker:
…Ask a Manager…
Kate Hall:
…by Alison Green. She did write a book called, Ask a Manager: How to Navigate Clueless Colleagues, Lunch-Stealing Bosses, and the Rest of Your Life at Work.
Kathy Parker:
She’s just great.
Kate Hall:
It’s an advice column, but what I love about it is that she talks about tone. She’ll say, Say these things in this tone. And that, I think, really helps.
Kathy Parker:
Yeah, because you can say something very simple, but if you say it in a bad tone it’s going to be completely different. So what I liked about Ask a Manager is, it is an advice column if you will, but there’s so much library stuff in there, it’s crazy. There is a lot of library stuff in there.
Kate Hall:
And there’s a lot of crazy in there, not necessarily crazy library stuff, but it always makes me feel better. For instance a couple of weeks ago there was a woman who wrote in about her boss. They have an office of like ten people. That is so that—I don’t mean to do this Kath, but he was peeing into a cup in his office and then taking it into the staff lounge and dumping it into the sink.
Kathy Parker:
While they were eating and washing their dishes, yeah.
Kate Hall:
So, she talks about that.
Kathy Parker:
And what do you do about that? That was a real interesting one.
Kate Hall:
That was, and I was like, I feel so much better about my organization right now. [laughter]
I also highly recommend David Allen’s Book, Getting Things Done, which is not technically a leadership book, but I think in order to be effective as a leader you need to figure out how to organize your time, and your brain, and your space. He does that so beautifully. I discovered him over a decade ago and have been a devotee ever since.
But being a director is overwhelming and I think being able to have a strong organizational system in place is key. He can do a really great framework and there are so many resources in addition to what is in his book that you can also access.
Kathy Parker:
And I like The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencionci. One thing I like is that it’s not written by a traditional non-fiction book. I like that it has a fable in it. But we all know and work with dysfunctional people and this book talks about that. I enjoyed the read.
Kate Hall:
Kathy, why are you looking at me?
Kathy Parker:
I’m not looking at you in any way that may portray that you’re dysfunctional at all, Kate, not at all.
Kate Hall:
[laughter] We have a lot more resources in our book as well that we think you’ll find helpful. Spoiler Alert, Ask A Manager is in there.
Kathy Parker:
…more than once.
Adriane:
Question #12: Great. They sound like great resources. I just want to know in closing, both of you, Kathy and Kate, what does being a librarian mean to you, personally? 27:09
Kathy Parker:
For me, it’s something that I’ve always done. I started working in libraries when I was like, literally in grade school, like third grade, but getting paid for it when I turned fourteen. It’s just something that I’ve always done. What I’ve enjoyed about it is part of who I am. I like helping people where they need the help. That’s my personal life as well. I’ve been that same way, but I just really enjoy helping people. When I was working at reference, and then becoming a director, and now I’m doing mentoring now that I’m retired. It’s just sharing the knowledge I have that may be beneficial to other people in helping those people move on, whether it’s in their personal life or in their professional journey.
Kate Hall:
For me, if you have read Eric Klinenberg’s, Palaces for the People yet, it’s really great, if you have not. I highly recommend it. Sorry, I just squeezed in a fourth one there, I think. [laughter] You will basically have a much longer version of what I feel. I think we as libraries are here to bring people together and talk about hard things, and develop people, and give them opportunities. Whether it is in toddler storytime, or a current events discussion, or a craft program, we’re the glue that holds our communities together. I take that very seriously and feel very honored that I get to work in a profession that means so much to their communities and the world at large.
Adriane:
Question #13: Thank you for those. Again, your book is The Public Library Director’s Toolkit. It’s an amazing resource for all of us. Thank you so much for being on the show today. 28:41
Kate Hall:
Well, thank you so much for having us. This was a delight.
Kathy Parker:
Thank you, we enjoyed this.
You’ve been listening to Library Leadership Podcast. I’m your host, Adriane Herrick Juarez. Our producer is Nate Vineyard. More episodes can be found at https://libraryleadershippodcast.com, where you can now subscribe to have new shows delivered right into your email inbox. You can also find the show on Apple iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for listening. We’ll see you next time.