An Open Letter to the Fairfax County Public Library Board of Trustees

Dear Members of the Board,

Charles Fegan ended the last meeting of the Board quietly saying, Its a beginning. Its a beginning.
This followed a long presentation, recitation of a community survey, some conclusions and
recommendations. There were immediate responses of protest. It is no secret that the meeting
concluded a long period of FCPL decline; although it may be convenient to say that budget reductions
were to blame, that is a facile and inaccurate answer, failing to explain the disregard for the very
purpose, nature and structure, fiscal, administrative and political, of public libraries.
Like most people vitally interested in the public library, I pored over the presentation; I had recorded it
and viewed it twice. I printed out all the public documents and went through them point by point until I
had a thick document filled with highlights, Post-It notes, citations, and, most often, refutations. I was
discouraged. I suspect that staff and board members are poring over mountains of added comments.
Suddenly I realized that I was reacting like the long-time academic, IMLS review panel member, proposal
writer and judge, and that was not the answer for Mr. Fegans beginning. The survey and its
presentation represent remaining in the mire of the past, not looking to the future. Refuting the
presentation and its recommendations point by point does show its failure to provide guidance.
Chairman Fegans words were the most important ones spoken that night: Its a beginning. He spoke
for the Board, Friends, staff, Foundation, a newly-appointed director, and the community.
The real question and answer that night was not found in the survey, the recommendations, the public
responses, or proposal. It simply is: What makes a good, even great urban public library, and how can
FCPL become that?
Although the question is simple, the answer is complex. The answer rests in the careful balance of
influencers which have served public libraries well and continue to do so in creating and maintaining the
integrity and responsiveness of the institution rooted in the American devotion to freedom of speech
and press. The citizen library boards, whether elected or appointed, are charged with the overall
responsibility for policy and purpose of the library.
Looking at the challenges facing the Board today in carrying FCPL forward then are:

Purpose and outcomes

The Librarys purpose is clearly, if generally, set out in its mission statement: educational,
recreational, and informational. Although those words have been recited so often that their
implication is often not heard, but it is apparent that those purposes are interest drivenavid
readers of popular authors, language learners, people seeking family ancestry or preparing for
any number of examinations or gaining financial management skills, or people beginning new
businesses, students of all ages, . . . the list is as varied as the population. The Library is a
trusted entrance into the realm of unbiased, accurate, and accessible resources. When the
Library is successful, it is marked by favorable outcomes: changes in skills, attitudes, behaviors,
knowledge, status or condition.
Outcomes and outputs are entirely different measures. Output measures are necessary to
determine staffing, hour, location and other workflow related adjustments. However, it is
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possible to have very high outputs with negative outcomes: a good example is a large retail
organization, which enjoys very high sales nationally. However, studies in every community
where that store exists has suffered negative economic, employment, healthcare, and wage
impacts. Excessive emphasis on outputs can be very detrimental to libraries: short term
popularity adding little to the community becomes irrelevant to the community welfare.
Libraries are successful when they bring about positive impacts: changes measured in skills,
attitudes, behaviors, knowledge, status, or life condition. These changes can be seen for
individuals and for organizations, including the community organizations and segments of the
population as well. Many urban libraries have documented their economic value to their
communities, raising literacy, educational levels, employment qualifications, small business
development, and so on. There is a history in FCPL of programs supported by the Institute of
Museum and Library Services and other foundation grants to test and demonstrate measurable
outcomes. For example Changing Lives through Literature, which significantly reduced the
recidivism rate for teenagers; library outreach to the elderly in congregate residences resulting
in stronger community connections and participation; cooperative programs for residents of Ft.
Belvoir which raised achievement levels at the base school so successfully that it that was
deemed a model for transient school populations nationally. For the past quarter century all
federal grants and many private grants required outcome measures for the programs they
supported. In other library sectors as well, outcome measures are required. I can think of no
library of excellence where outcomes are not the measure of the librarys success.
Instinctively the respondents to the recent community survey understood the value when they
chose early literacy programs as a critical prioritythe impact of those efforts is easily
measurable and understood. It would be shortsighted to think that is the only, or even primary
value, of a vibrant public library. It is not a free Red Box with some childrens resources! Project
Outcome, a national program for field driven outcome measurement launched in 2015 by the
Public Library Association division of the American Library Association, identified seven core
services to address for all public libraries:
Civic /Community Engagement
Digital Inclusion
Early Childhood Literacy
Economic Development
Education and Life Long Learning
Job Skills
Summer Reading

The structure of public libraries: A Partnership of Board, Friends, Foundation, Director, Staff,
County, Library Users
The public library traces its roots to the subscription library: a community bound together to
support commonly shared resources. Those roots are readily seen in many contemporary public
libraries even today: the New York Public Library, for example, is the merger of three private
subscription libraries, and though it receives substantial public funding, it remains a nongovernmental body. Because of these roots, the library is a community collaborative effort to
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ensure that both freedom of speech and freedom of the press are vibrant in our society. Every
oppressive government in the world crushes public libraries as one of its first priorities. The
existence of the public library is not a trivial aspect to our democracy; it is vital to it. Though we
may take public libraries for granted, they share history with free press and speech neither
existed as rights before established in our Constitution.

The Role of the Library Board of Trustees

A citizen Library Board of Trustees (sometimes elected, sometimes, as in FCPL, appointed) is the
governing body, establishing priorities, policies and selecting the chief administrator, the Library
director. In this sense, library boards are similar to school boards. Like school boards, library
boards appoint directors/superintendents who are responsible for administration.
The strength and continuity of any public library rests on the strength and authority of its Board
it alone is directly responsible for establishing the policies and priorities of the Library. To
carry out its mission it must be visible, empowered through access to both internal and external
information. Participation in regional, state and national trustees organizations ensure that the
Board can operate with knowledge of best practices, trends, and awareness of strategies
successes and failures by other libraries. Direct public accessibility is also critical to its
effectiveness. The Board can set the ideal: the director, staff and Friends assist in achieving that
ideal so far as is possible. We have a powerful example of another Board acting in this way: the
Fairfax County School Board. It is unflinching in its role of setting policies, goals and empowering
the agents to achieve those goals, including strong private support, fiscal and material, at all
levels down to the individual classroom.
One concrete actionable recommendation that I make to you as members of the Library Board is
to review the Web page of FCPS (https://www.fcps.edu/school-board ) as a model of
accessibility: each member can be directly contacted easily. Although there is opportunity
presently to post a message to the Library Board as a whole, there is not that channel to directly
address a member by either district or committee. You are the channel for concerns to all
library users.
A second recommendation is that the Board have its own research/evaluation officer,
independent from the Library Director. Originally evaluations were carried out by library staff
not reporting to the Director to assure lack of bias. There was heavy reliance upon national
survey and measurement methods. However that office was moved to report to the Director,
and although much of its work is meritorious, it ceased being anchored in national norms and
focused increasingly in buttressing the Directors agenda. The recent community survey
consultancy was an effort to break that connection, but having an on-going research arm
directly reporting to the Board will assure not only impartiality but also continuity across
directorships. One research project worth immediate consideration would be the impact of deprofessionalization of staff and the effectiveness of the library. Virtually every professional
library position was reclassified into the management analyst series without such a study being
undertaken and quite recently putting FCPL in the position of no interim director within the
organization.
To be perfectly clear: the Boards effectiveness is enhanced by diverse membership, not only
representing districts, but interests and capabilities as well along with its accessibility. It is a long
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practice in the Commonwealth to welcome members of the profession to sit on library boards,
from the State Library of Virginia (which has some active librarians as well among its members).
FCPL is especially fortunate to have active and retired librarians on the Board, serving graciously
after distinguished careers.

Library users
The users of the library were originally called either subscribers or patrons, recognizing their
financial support; to call them customers is demeaning. Customers pick and choose products,
pay for them, may or may not benefit, may or may not be impacted by these products, and
ultimately contribute to the profitability of the seller. Individuals and groups use the library to
make a change in their lives. They are readers, students, historians, writers, entrepreneurs,
investors, poetry lovers, language learners ( not only English language learners, but many
preparing for trips, jobs or assignments to other countries), career changers, genealogists --seekers of information, the wisdom and enjoyment of the recorded word in all its forms at every
junction of their lives. The demographic market segmentation strategy works for sales
organizations, and other business applications, where there is direct correlation between
age/gender/disposable income/age and buying patterns. Indeed that capability already resides
in the County. The market segmentation for the library rests in identifying the unmet needs of
neighborhoods of interest, not location Fairfax County was identified decades ago as an
edge city, an urban county. Often originally serving geographical neighborhoods, churches,
parks, theaters, galleries, shops, ball fields, the list goes on to include other entities, now expect
participants based on interest as well. FCPLs Virginia Room is also a case in point.

Staff
The professional librarian is a curious and wonderful part of this heady mix, responding to daily
requests, enabling assisting staff to smooth the operations of organizing and moving resources.
After over 50 years of library service to libraries on three continents I can vouch for the
universally collaborative nature of the profession, within their library and within the
professional organizations. When John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid turned their efforts to
understanding how information is transferred in businesses, they found that social networks are
critical in the process. Librarians know that they listen, they share, they respond. The first
people to know community concerns are those on the front desk; those behind the desk capture
and organize information relevant to those concerns so that they can be found and used; those
in administration are the enablers of the process. To break the flow of that network is to cripple
it.
FCPL did become crippled. Not because of budget cuts, but because the network was broken.
There was a deliberate effort to discourage networking, both within and outside the
organization. De-professionalizing staff, the infamous Beta Plan failed to take into
consideration that librarians not only provide operations and services, they are the eyes and
ears for community needs and concern. Participation in professional library associations was
made difficult and frowned upon, making staff competency growth difficult. Library licenses
require only the degree without a continuing education update to maintain that license. It is
alone in that respect, and librarians have compensated by having participation in professional
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organizations, reading professional literature, and networking within local common interest
groups serve that purpose. Minimally, healthy exchanges with the public libraries sharing
reciprocity with FCPL would be expected: for decades the public libraries in the entire
metropolitan area have shared their collections with each others users. Exploring how that
agreement can be more richly used during this time of tight budgets for all can only be
beneficial.

Funding
Public libraries share the promise and challenge of all educational, cultural, and recreational
bodies: huge missions and promise, and not enough resources. There is no large American
public library of note existing on public funds alone: indeed, strong development offices,
Foundations, Friends, public/private partnerships, and grants offices are critical to their success.
The non-governmental funding allows strength unbound by the annual budget constraints of the
tax-provided money. Indeed, sometimes star successes are spurred by private funding coming
with designations reflecting a community-identified special resource, program, or enhancement
or a joint program with another educational or cultural organization. The public funds at FCPL
are decided annually, except for the buildings and their maintenance. Although this assures
some level of day to day operations, it also makes multi-year efforts difficult or impossible.
Most public libraries are only beginning to realize that they are on the same trajectory as other
cultural, educational and arts organizations but on that trajectory they are. Examples abound
close to home: in the case of University of Virginias total budget, the state contributes less than
6% of its total budget; approximately 5% of National Public Radio comes from the federal, state,
and local government funds; roughly 22% of George Mason University comes from the state.
Both were founded as publicly funded institutions. The trend is clear reliance upon private
funding is increasing, and FCPL is no exception. However, FCPL has never developed a long term
vision and projected the resources for fulfilling that vision. Great visions span many years and
involve participation of the entire community, eventually funding from many sources. This is
not a new unproven concept: examples abound among them is the San Diego Public Library,
which worked 18 years to realize its goal of a revitalized library, a new central library with a
charter school within its wall yes, a school within a library rather than a library within a school!
re-routed public transportation to its doorstep, a magnet for neighborhood redevelopment,
enlarged services and resources largely through the vision of an energetic board and council.
There are examples closer to home: A sister Northern Virginia public library has space adjoining
a rep theater; another has a thriving MakerSpace; and yet a third has a strong business library
serving both private and non-profit organizations.

Advocacy
Who are the librarys advocates? We all are: readers, citizens, Friends, staff, Board, Director,
elected officials, newspapers, publishers, teachers. . . . Of course we are. Advocacy, to crib
another line, takes a village. This is such a universally accepted norm that there is even an
advocacy section of the American Library Association with rich and valuable resources to give to
us. No voice supporting FCPL should be silenced how utterly un-American is that notion? Think
of schools and universities, long giving voice to teachers/faculty, administrators, students,
parent and community groups, businesses, and how effective that is in leading to the
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understanding that educational institutions are vital and integral to the success of the whole
society. Such is also true for public libraries. Coordinated advocacy is the best, of course, but
every voice needs to be heard. It may be worthwhile for the Board to sponsor a session of ALAs
Advocacy University for all willing and interested.
FCPL is on the path to a new beginning. It has some wonderful assets to make that beginning a good
one: And what does FCPL have to do that: a remarkable professional staff, a new director filled with
enthusiasm, an energized Board, steadfast Friends wanting to get the word out and contribute in so
many ways, volunteers every day keeping the library humming, a supportive County. There is the
makings to build a very good library.
I am a librarian, and so I often start making a point with saying, There is a book. Thus I conclude with
this thought from one of my favorite author/thinkers on information, John Seely Brown. In The Power of
Pull, he states: Small moves, smartly made can set big things in motion. Organizations can make large
scale transformations, the type typically associated with large investments, by beginning to take action
now through a series of smaller steps: Pragmatic Pathways. These steps are designed to help
organizations accomplish more with less by circumventing political and financial obstacles, leverages
disruptive technologies and building strong relationships in the broader ecosystem to share information
and risk. The goal is to help create transform the organization to be more fluid, constantly learning and
adapting. Good words. Good advice.

Over to you with good wishes and my support,

Vera Fessler
Vera Fessler