Remarks by Centreville Regional Library Manager Christine Jones given at the July meeting of the Library Board of Trustees: My name is Christine Jones. I’m the branch manager of the Centreville Regional Library and have worked for FCPL for 14 years. I am a reluctant speaker this evening. I have immense respect for those designing this reorganization, who I know to be doing their very best under impossible circumstances, but I must respectfully disagree with the assumptions presented to the Library Board in June. Assumption #1: Library staff no longer receive complex reference questions. This is simply not true. Information services have certainly changed during the digital age, but they are in no way self-service. Having worked in both the print and digital eras, I assure you that information professionals are as necessary today as we were in the print era. Assumption #2: Customers can now answer their business questions online. Many business questions can be answered online if people know where to look and can figure out how to use the resources. But they can’t. They need our help navigating the wealth of accurate information and avoiding the larger collection of misinformation. That said, FCPL can, and must, become more efficient. I fully support the single service desk model, floating the collection, and the Comprise financial system. I also support making an MLS degree a preferred, rather than mandatory, qualification for information positions. FCPL has historically trained employees without MLS degrees to successfully perform all information functions and those employees deserve the same pay and promotional opportunities that their colleagues with MLSs earn. However, opening these positions should not result in downgrading them. If the new position requires employees to perform the duties of current information and circulation staff, logic dictates that the salary be at least equal to the higher of those two positions. I would argue that it should be even higher, as the new position requires more of each employee. If County HR heard the same information that you heard last month, I am not surprised at their decision to downgrade the position. The presentation did not accurately reflect the expertise, knowledge, skills, and abilities required of a successful information professional; I did not recognize my job as described in that presentation. I share the Library Board’s concern over the “Customer Services Specialist” job title. Why not keep the universally recognized job title of “librarian?” I love this institution and believe in the civic value of public libraries. I fear that FCPL’s services will decline under the proposed plan as current staff retire or resign. Candidates interested in careers as information professionals will apply to the many neighboring jurisdictions instead of Fairfax County. The proposed positions will attract people interested in jobs, rather than people committed to the mission of public libraries. We will get what we pay for. It is my professional opinion that basing FCPL’s future on the assumptions above is a mistake with severe consequences and I urge thoughtful reconsideration of them.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 10:03:44 +0000
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