The District’s central library has been, by all accounts, greatly improved in Cooper’s seven years at the helm — thanks to improvements as modest as replacing light bulbs and signs, and as innovative as installing a bookbinding machine and “3-D printer” for the public’s use.
An even more dramatic makeover is on tap, with a conceptual plan in place to wholly renovate the 40-year-old Ludwig Mies van der Rohe structure and more than $100 million budgeted to carry it out.
Those accomplishments alone might be enough to secure Cooper’s place in the hearts of the city’s library patrons, but they are easily overshadowed by the library system’s other advances: An ambitious capital campaign that has rebuilt or renovated 14 libraries, with three others slated for improvements, and a significant expansion of operating hours that has kept those buildings open longer than ever before in the city. . . .Instead, we have Sam Clay as head of FCPL. He seems to have made it his mission to decimate the County's public libraries by destroying a quarter-million books, eliminating certified librarians, eliminating children's collections & librarians, and, of course, cutting the budget by more than a quarter.
Maybe we could get Ms. Cooper to replace Mr. Clay--SOON?
Mr. Clay no doubt undercut the County's libraries with the complicity of its Chief Executive Ed Long and the Board of Supervisors (for example, our Supervisor Hudgins bragged about "organizational efficiencies", a euphemism for "budget cuts") in the library budget. Still, he is the face of the FCPL--and he must go. Any leader who advocates against the organization he/she leads--especially in the obtuse and deceitful way Clay did--is not worthy of the term.
Click here for the rest of the WaPo article and learn what a good leader of public libraries does.
Couldn't agree more, Mr. Maynard.
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