Library to Seek Full-Time Director to Replace Kennedy

More than a dozen employees of the Maplewood Memorial Library showed up at the Library Board's monthly meeting on Wednesday night to make their voices heard regarding potential changes in library management.

But it seemed as if the Library Board had already heard them.

The employees expressed their strong belief that a full-time director was needed for the library to succeed in "a time of rapid technological, social and economic change." In a letter read by Barbara J. Laub, Head of Technical and Adult Services for the Maplewood Memorial Library, the staff also argued that shared leadership with another library and merging with another library system were cost-cutting solutions that were problematic and complicated.

Last month, Mayor Vic DeLuca — who also serves on the Library Board — said that the Board in the wake of the announced retirement of Jane Kennedy who has served as the Maplewood Library Director for the past eight years. Kennedy will retire at the end of 2011.

Wednesday night, Library employees expressed their dissatisfaction with the Board having gone into executive session at the last meeting to discuss management issues. In addition, the staff had many questions for the Board regarding potential cost-cutting management options: How would a shared manager with another town's library deal with day-to-day problems or crises in Maplewood? Was South Orange interested in merging? How long would a merger take? What would happen in the interim?

The staff also brought up technical issues such as the fact that the South Orange and Maplewood libraries use different library software to run their catalogs and merging the two could be costly. They also noted that, according to state law, voters must approve any library merger in a referendum.

When the Library Board members got down to discussing the issues themselves, it seemed that they had formed many of the same questions and came across much of the same information during their fact-finding mission over the course of the last month.

Both Library Board member Carol Buchanan and DeLuca had spoken with Patricia Tumulty, executive director of the New Jersey Library Association. Tumulty had explained the need for a referendum, the fact that there were only six joint libraries in New Jersey and that those all had just one building, and the fact that Essex County does not have a county library system that could be used as a resource. Tumulty did mention that Ocean County has a county-wide library director and system and branch directors in each town. DeLuca thought that Ocean County could be a model in the long term — but offered no immediate solution for Maplewood.

Ultimately, the Board voted unanimously (5 voting members were present) to seek a full-time replacement for Kennedy, although member Doug Duncan expressed his disappointment "that we are defaulting to a single director without weighing alternatives."

Board President Katherine Hilaire, however, said, "We've exhausted other possibilities and put other ideas to rest." She added, "We are looking at every opportunity to save money but are also looking at a great institution and a level of service and maintaining that and a great staff."

DeLuca stressed to the Board and employees that, ultimately, the 2% tax cap imposed by the state on the municipal budget could bring pressure to bear to reduce funding to the library — which the town currently funds above the state-mandated rate. DeLuca defended the Township Committee to those who had sent him letters and emails saying the "town doesn't care about the library."

"That's bogus," said DeLuca. "We've put more than $1 million into this building in the last year." He also reiterated the town's commitment to keeping both the Main and Hilton branches of the library open.

The Board did not give up the idea of merging with another library in the long-term.

DeLuca and other Board members agreed that, in the job description for the new library director, that director would be tasked with looking at opportunities to share services and looking to merge the library with another.

The discussion then turned toward the search process. The Board voted 3-2 (Duncan and Buchanan dissenting) to hire the firm PRO LiBRA to perform a search for a new director. Library Board President Katherine Hilaire stated that since tempus fugit, it was in the Library's best interest to expedite the hiring process with a professional search firm as opposed to leaving it to volunteers to organize in the summer months.

The $9,000 search fee would be paid for through interest on the Library's Stokes Fund.