In Search of an Emotionally Healthy Library
by Nancy Cunningham

Your job search involves not only finding the right position, but also the right kind of library that will support your professional goals and allow you to flourish. Libraries, like people, have an emotional IQ and their cultures can be characterized as healthy or unhealthy. Emotionally healthy libraries allow you to fulfill your personal and professional goals. Working in a library with an unhealthy culture may drain you, prevent you from reaching goals, and keep you distracted by “drama,” no matter how positive, professional, well trained and focused you are. In the worst circumstances, an unhealthy library culture undermines your self-esteem, your sense of professional direction, and your commitment to the profession.

A library’s emotional health is unaffected by level of funding, technology, collections or perceived prestige. The most emotionally unhealthy libraries can be housed in fabulous facilities, contain prestigious collections, access cutting-edge technology, and fund a well-paid and trained staff. Likewise, there are emotionally healthy libraries plagued by a constant lack of funding, poor and substandard facilities, or a small, underpaid staff.

Often an unhealthy culture results from an amalgam of unhealthy personalities and characteristics, lack of oversight by an outside body such a library board of directors or university administration, and other factors. Staff turnover, administration changes, re-organizations, and outside changes from stakeholder groups can all serve as catalysts for the re-emergence of healthy culture in a library.

Characteristics of Emotionally Healthy Libraries

Positive attitude toward library’s patrons
Desire to continually improve visible through new services & projects
Visible respect for all staff at all levels
Decision making process is open and shared
Criteria for decision making grounded in fairness and commitment to mission
Meetings in general are well organized, well facilitated, focused and appropriate
Committees are well structured and both professional and paraprofessionals have opportunities to chair committees
Communicating regularly with the library’s stakeholder groups
Constructive criticism from stakeholder groups is responded to appropriately and in a timely fashion
Visible dedication on the part of the outside bodies (i.e., University Administration, Library Board of Directors) to the mission of the library
Mechanisms to celebrate everyone’s contribution
All staff included in planning
Managers at all levels work together and share the same vision
Ongoing training for all levels of library staff
Socializing is inclusive and open

Characteristics of Emotionally Unhealthy Libraries

No meetings (“We don’t have time for meetings” or “Too many meetings waste everyone’s time”)
Too many meetings, meetings are long, and are not well facilitated
Imposition of one person’s views on the rest of the library
Invisible administration – library administrators are not in the library but are busy at conferences and other duties outside the library
Committees that do not change leadership or constituents
Lack of communication between divisions, lack of mechanisms for communication
Lack of mission and vision articulated by the administration
Library lacks good communication with its stakeholder groups (i.e., community, faculty, students, etc.)
Culture is dominated by a few negative personalities that “act out” their own personal agendas or decrease staff morale.
Passive library administration that seeks no conflict or resolution to unhealthy situations
Complaints are ignored or are used against the staff member who complains.
Library administration not held responsible by stakeholders
Double standard for performance by library administrators and staff (i.e., staff may not arrive late but administrators can).
Hiding behind prestige of collections or “good old days” image
Publishing requirements for tenure are unlinked to the goals and objectives of the library; tenure is given a greater priority than the need to improve the library’s own services, collections, and operations
Lack of respect for the staff by the library administration
Lack of clear direction from library administration.

How do you avoid an unhealthy library? Here are some questions you might ask during your interview.

Meeting and Committees

How is information shared in the library?
How many committees do you have? How long do they last? How do they communicate with the rest of the library? When results of the task are ready, how long does the administration take to respond?

Management of Operations

How does the library handle budget cuts? What gets cut and how is the decision reached? Who had input into the decision?
Describe a crisis situation and how was it handled.

Library Culture and Communication

Describe the morale in the library. How does the staff socialize together?
What are some of the frustrations of the professional and paraprofessional staff?
How is information communicated in the library?
How are executive decisions made and communicated?
How do departments communicate in the library? Are there mechanisms set up for communication across divisions and departments?

Staff Tenure

How long has the staff and the library administration been here?
What has been the staff turnover rate? Why?
How long has the director been here? What is the director’s relationship with the staff?

Interview Warning Signs:

How did your interviewers answer your questions? Did they seem uncomfortable or guarded? Did they seem to resent the questions?
Whom in the library did you meet? Only a select few? Why? Did you get the opportunity to meet everyone you will be working with or supervising?
Does staff generally seem to enjoy what they do? Did staff complain or seem guarded when they interviewed with you?
Were there a lot of “inside jokes” made during the time you were there? Did you feel left out while you were with the search committee?
Were your requests for more information fulfilled in a timely manner?
Were you made to feel guilty about your requests for information on benefits or salary?
How did your interviewers interact with each other?

There are no perfect answers to these questions. Try to find out as much about the library’s culture as you can, to determine if it is the right library for you. If you feel uncomfortable with something you hear or observe in the interview, don’t ignore it. Share your perceptions with other friends, mentors, professors, and colleagues. Use the “library grapevine” and your professional contacts to find out what you can about the library and the people who work there.

Getting a great position in unhealthy library may lead to frustration, personal disappointment, and an inability to reach professional goals. I hope you can use these tips to decide whether an environment will be right for you.

About the Author:

At the time she wrote this article, Nancy Cunningham was the Associate Director for Public Services at the Mary & Jeff Bell Library at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi. She is now Director of the Learning Resources Center at Southwest Florida College in Ft. Myers. She received her MLS at University of California, Berkeley in 1983 and an MBA in 1997 from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. Nancy has been active in the Texas Library Association with the Texas-Mexico Relations Committee and in ALA serving on the Staff Development Committee of the Human Resources section of ALA’s LAMA division.

Article submitted Dec 2001

Disclaimer: The ideas expressed in LIScareer articles are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the LIScareer editors.

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In Search of an Emotionally Healthy Library by Nancy Cunningham

In Search of an Emotionally Healthy Library
by Nancy Cunningham