dws@mit-eddie.UUCP (Don Saklad) (04/12/84)
"Time to take politics out of Boston Public Library Sam Bass Warner The Boston Public Library is an incomparable resource of the city of Boston and the state of Massachusetts. It desperately needs modernizing. At the very moment when that essential process had begun, Mayor Flynn, by summarily removing three trustees, has destroyed the library's first step towards a more useful future--an ambitious national search for a new director. More important still, by abolishing the independence of the Board of Trustees, he has removed an important institutional barrier which existed to protect the library from political meddling with its purchases and management of books. In a seemingly careless fashion, Mayor Flynn, for the first time in the library's 132 year history, has thrown open the doors to censorship. I have spent the past eight months serving as chairman of the advisory committee to the trustees, assisting the committee members in their search for a new director. In the course of this volunteered work I have learned a lot about the situation of the library. First, I have learned that the needs of the branches and the central library are not in conflict; they are complementary. Both can be realized. In the next decade the Boston Public Library could become a place that offers a wide range of services to the different neighborhoods of the city. It could expand its hours to allow the branches to become effective neighborhood study halls and meeting places. It could install computers so that children of poor families could get access to the new technology. It could multiply its literacy, reading and story programs. It could develop its Spanish collections so that they matched those of other libraries in the nation. It could offer a weekly, up to date calendar and consumer service to report on food, clothing, loans, automobiles, travel, entertainment and community activities. The main library in Copley Square could be modernized so that it offered fast, up to date reference service for lawyers, businessmen and scholars who require a national and international information base. A series of user committees could be formed for its special collections so that its prints, music and old books become readily available to artists, scholars and the media. A first rate photographic and reproduction service could be installed, and throughout the library a mix of automated and librarian directed reference services could make access to this vast store of knowledge quick and effective. The old building in Copley Square could even be remodeled to include a bookstore and a restaurant so the the library would become a more pleasant place to work in and visit. A new form of management could be instituted to liberate the talents and skills and energy which now exist within the staff. And with much patience and negotiation the Boston Public Library could become more integrated into the network of other libraries in the state. Ultimately the public libraries of the commonwealth could grow to be one of the best information systems in the world. In sum, the Boston Public Library during the next decade could join the exciting process of information system modernization going on all over the nation. During the past eight months the trustees had begun to develop such a program. The branches were ordered to replenish their stocks of books. Library hours were lengthened and negotiations with the school department instituted. A loan order for $14 million was negotiated to complete the West Roxbury branch library, to repair and air condition the other branches, and to rebuild the heating and wiring of the old McKim building in Copley Square. Most important of all, the trustees ordered the most ambitious possible search for a new director. As chairman of the advisory committee, I was requested to search for candidates of outstanding skill, stature and experience, from among whom could be chosen a director who could restore the library to its position of leadership. Progress has been made toward that goal and the trustees had hoped to name a new director in June. In interviewing possible candidates for director we suffered the handicap of Boston's reputation. Boston is known to the rest of the country as a place where nothing is immune from selfish politics, a city where administrations are unreliable and a place where demands for patronage are a curse upon everyone who tries to manage a decent program. Former Mayor White's appointment practices contributed to Boston's self destructive reputation. He appointed trustees to the library board and when their terms lapsed he continued them in office so that, in effect, they served at his pleasure. Mayor Flynn's removal of these trustees whose terms were formally renewed last year, is an even more damaging practice and digs our pit even deeper. Never since the trustees first met to plan the library in 1852 has a trustee been removed by a mayor before the completion of a trustee's term. Mayor Flynn has done incalculable damage by his firings and it will take years of hard work to restore confidence in the library's administration. Employees are already fearful of continuing political manipulation. Grant officers will be reluctant to let the Boston Public Library join in their project: private donors will rightfully worry for the safety of their gifts. Mayor Flynn must draw back before he inflicts more damage. He has made his mistake; let him reappoint the three people he ousted and make his own appointments when the regular terms expire. Now it is time for him to lend his support to making the Boston Public Library an outstanding institution once more, capable of rendering outstanding service to its many constituencies." "Reading room at the main library in Copley Square (GLOBE FILE PHOTO)" "Sam Bass Warner is professor of history at Boston University." --Boston Globe, daily newspaper, Tues, April 10, 1984