Our dear Mrs. Sikes, remember what happend to Dewey in 1948?
It’s time for history to repeat itself once again.
While our headline proudly declares Dewey’s win, this time in the form of the beloved library decimal-based organizational system continuing its stranglehold over the genealogical section of the Lewis Cooper, Jr., Memorial Library.
By voting 3-1 (due to the absence of long-serving member Ida Jackson) to retain the Dewey system within the genealogical section, the library board has once again shown its disdain and complete lack of concern for the library patrons they are appointed to allegedly serve.
The members of the Genealogical Society of East Alabama are the primary patrons of Cooper Library’s genealogical section.
They’ve contributed funds to help bulk up the collection (including the newly purchased Seagraves family books, estimated at more than 2,000 volumes).
Heck, Edna Ward, a stalwart GSEA member, even helped carve out the section to begin with, arranging it in a fashion that made sense to her and the other GSEA members: a system devised primarily upon arranging the volumes alphabetically by state, a system which promotes its usefulness to genealogical researchers.
Makes sense to us.
By desperately clinging to the notion that the Dewey System must be preserved within the genealogical section, the board has elected to put the needs of computer-based search engine compliance above the needs of actual, breathing patrons who use the section on a regular basis.
The board is charged with managing all library operations, setting library policy, hiring the librarian and other employees and generally running the library on behalf of the citizenry.
We had been working under the assumption that a library board should exist primarily to serve the needs and meet the issues raised by local citizens about the library their tax dollars help pay for.
This does not appear to be the case with the majority of our present board (the lone holdout being Charles Wacker, the board’s newest and possibly naivest member. Respect, sir.)
It appears appointments are made to city boards all too haphazardly, without thought to the role of the board or the capabilities of the appointee.
City council members should review the legislatively-mandated charge to the board or commission before making appointments and, once initial four-year appointments are made, remember that members don’t have to be automatically reappointed for the rest of their lives.
For example, while we do not mean to criticize or cavil at her years of service to this community, with 31 years of experience on the library board, perhaps it might be time for nonagenarian Ida Jackson to step down.
Her current term ends Oct. 19, 2012.
Two current board members, 13-year board member Shirley Carter and two-year member Lynn Slocum, have terms that expire Oct. 19, 2013.
Library board chair Aimee Sikes, a five year veteran of the board, has a term due to expire Oct 19, 2014, as does the aforementioned Wacker.
(We hope Mr. Wacker, naivete and all, will be reappointed at that time.)
Dewey may have won this round, Mrs. Sikes, but it isn’t over yet. See you at the next meeting, ma’am.
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