Facing Budget Pressure, Oak Brook Draws on Consultant's Report To Lay Off Staff

Staffers vote to unionize; head of circulation, not tech services, leaves

Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 10/08/2009

• Library staff resistant to consultant's report
• Relatively high salaries
• Expert questions consultant's conclusions
• Dispute over library role

[Update October 26: This article was originally written under the assumption that the head of technical services had been laid off, which had been confirmed both before and after original publication by the Oak Brook city manager. He has since clarified that the head of circulation was laid off. Peggy Johnson's comments were based both on the report by consultant LAC and the information that the head of tech services had been laid off.]

In its effort to cut the budget by one-third at the relatively well-supported Oak Brook Public Library, IL, and effect major changes, the town of Oak Brook has drawn on a report by the consultant Library Associates Companies (LAC), which has caused some local controversy and raised questions about how to support Technical Services.

Oak Brook eliminated the jobs of the circulation [not tech services] department head, an adult services librarian, and two part-time circulation clerks, and laid off director Meg Klinkow Hartmann, who had disagreed with some of the recommendations. Only the director will be replaced. LAC had recommended that another Technical Services job be eliminated, as well. The changes save more than $300,000 but not the $400,000 sought from the $1.35 million budget.

The remaining librarians have filed a petition to unionize with the Teamsters, part of what the Daily Herald calls an “ugly battle.” While Oak Brook’s support for the library is still over $120 per capita, some in the community, notably attorney Constantine "Connie" Xinos, who ran unsuccessfully for the village board, have pushed for board members who consider the library not an essential service.

Staff loyalty
Though the LAC report praised the library in some ways, it stated that it has a “current culture… that will make change difficult but not impossible,” including “significant staff longevity, long-standing procedures, a comfortably and well-established departmental structure, and the Library Director’s demonstrated loyalty to her staff.” 

The September issue of the library newsletter, Library Beacon, noted that the OBPL staff was formulating a proposal in response to LAC. Wrote director Hartmann, “These staff perform services that the remaining staff will be asked to assume. We anticipate changes but hope they will not adversely affect our public service.”

In a September 15 press release, Village Manager David Niemeyer said the staff reorganization was difficult but would help save the village $1.5 million a year. Sue Madorin, head of youth services, was named acting director. 

“There will be some bumps along the way as the Village restructures the Library over the next several months, but I am confident that after this transition we will emerge as a healthy and streamlined public library,” said Niemeyer.

Changes recommended
LAC recommended combining two departments (technical services and circulation services), and consolidating two public-access desks (adult and youth services) into a single reference desk, with some staff cross-training. The job of a full-time YA librarian was to be eliminated—though instead Oak Brook lost an adult librarian.

LAC said the library doesn’t need two people at the circ desk, just one, and by better educating patrons about self-check, staff could be reduced in the circ department by one FTE. The consultant also recommended outsourcing fines and fees notification and collection, online payment of fines and fees and credit card payments, and online library card registration

Combined with two recent retirements, the library could save $408,685, according to the report. (One fewer person, however, was laid off.)

Oak Brook, LAC pointed out, pays higher salaries than peer libraries in Northern Illinois, with a range of $23.06 to $31.14 per hour for a librarian, some ten to 30 percent more than several neighbors. 

Tech services debate
The most significant change recommended was in technical services, where the consultants questioned the department head’s lack of enthusiasm for outsourcing. LAC recommended outsourcing approximately 95% of book and material cataloging and processing to vendors, with the reference staff placing orders directly without going through technical services.

LJ sent the report [updated: with the information that the head of tech services had been laid off] to Peggy Johnson, Associate University Librarian for Access Services at the University of Minnesota, former president of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Service (ALCTS), and co-author of Fundamentals of Technical Services Management (ALA Editions).

“Outsourcing routine technical services tasks is a common cost-saving measure in libraries, especially in libraries that acquire few unique materials,” observed Johnson. “The consultants indicate that 95% of the items acquired do not require original cataloging. I'd be more comfortable evaluating the technical services recommendations if I had additional data: number of monographs acquired annually, ratio of copy cataloging to original cataloging records, number of current subscriptions to print and e-content, how access (bibliographic/catalog) is handled for print serials and e-content, etc.” 

While Johnson noted that outsourcing does save on lower-level staff, she said, “An upper level staff person (usually a librarian), who understands the work of technical service, is needed to develop, monitor, and manage the technical specifications with the vendor.”

[Update: Johnson's comments were based on the assumption that the head of tech services was laid off, as originally reported.]

“In many medium-sized and small libraries, the head of technical services also manages the library's automated system or serves as the local contact point for a shared system—in this case, the DuPage Library System (DLS) hosts the shared ILS,” she said, expressing skepticism that part-time technical services staff could address and resolve problems with the vendor, as the report suggests. “A core function of technical services is to facilitate discovery, and removing the professional librarian who oversees this function seems a risky move.”

“I did read in the July 6, 2009 Oak Brook [corrected] PL quarterly report that TS has been loading some 8,000 bib records for the Gale Virtual Reference, netLibrary, and eMedia Library collections into the online catalog," she added. "I do not see this as a reasonable expectation of one full-time 'technician' and two part-time support staff in TS.”

Possible innovations
LAC suggested new ways to acquire some expensive publications. The investment reference source ValueLine is heavily used, so LAC suggests that the Friends of the Library might purchase the online edition—or a patron could donate the annual subscription.

Given that Oak Brook is home to many businesses that may not have corporate libraries, the library’s databases could be marketed to them, and they might want to sponsor specialized databases in exchange for some name recognition, LAC suggested.