Book Companion:

Library and Information Center Management,
Seventh Edition

The Red Carnation

Today, with its population of almost 90,000, Wexler bears little resemblance to the roaring lumber center it was during the latter part of the nineteenth century. It was hacked out of the wilderness by Caleb and Ephram Wexler, and for many years it stood alone in the forest, a halting place easterners were taking on their western journey. News of boundless timber reserves spread, however, and before long lumber jacks from the thinning hardwood forests of New England swarmed into the unchartered area with no other possessions than their axes and brawn and the clothing they wore.

Soon the hills began to echo with the thud of the woodsman's ax. The forest wall receded. A sawmill was erected. And then another. And another. Here came every sort of human ingredient - sturdy homesteaders, skilled craftsmen, precious scoundrels. Here, too, came succeeding armies of immigrants - from Scandinavia, Poland, Germany, Italy, Russia, the Netherlands - drawn by the promise of a better life.

The town grew swiftly and without direction. And when, finally, the heavily timbered ranges had been pillaged almost beyond repair, many lumbermen pulled stakes and pushed westward. Others remained and revived the stripped acres with hand-reared trees, or turned to dairying. Whereas, before, the land was dense with stately white pines, now apple, plum, pear, peach, and cherry orchards stood in regimented rows. Cattle grazed peacefully.

And so, form its hardscrabble beginnings to immediate time, Wexler has lead a varied existence, changing from mill town to shipping point for fruit, and from resting place for travelers to dairy center. Now a thriving industrial city, it covers 40 square miles, has a population of 78,808, gives employment to 30,500 workers, and distributes an annual payroll of $649 million.

Unmindful of the epic moves that made it what it is today, Elwood Bibeau fastened his seat belt as the commercial aircraft approached the Wexler airport. He was to be picked up by the secretary of the board of trustees, who would be wearing a blue blazer and a red carnation boutonniere.

A native of the Southwest and the assistant director of a public library serving a population of 40,000, Bibeau had not visited this part of the country before. He had consulted a map to find the location of Wexler, and had familiarized himself with the library by consulting the American Library Directory online, but that was all he knew. He was coming to Wexler to be interviewed for the position of director of the city's public library - the Halvorsen Memorial Library. The incumbent director, who had held the position for 28 years, planned to retire as soon as the board found a suitable replacement.

He was to learn something of the history of the city from the secretary as they drove from the airport to the Three Willows Golf and Country Club, where he was to dine with four members of the board and the president of the "Friends of the Library" group. At dinner, he was to learn several other things as well, to wit: that the city was incorporated in 1901; that the Council Manager form of government was adopted in 1919, that the board of trustees consists of nine elected members, who serve three year terms with a turnover of three members per year; that the "Friends" group is very active; that the trustees had had a "phenomenal" response to their ad; that he was one of three people being brought in at the trustees' expense for an initial and then a second interview; that they had been very impressed by his credentials; and that on one from the Halversen staff had applied for the position.

As he and the secretary made their way along from the country club on the outskirts of the city to the library, where the interview with the entire board was to occur, Bibeau noticed that the streets were unusually broad and that century-old houses mingled on surprisingly good terms with modern mansions as well as some bungalows and new apartment buildings. He commented on how attractive the city was.

The secretary admitted with a twinkling smile that they were passing through one of the most exclusive residential sections - the fashionable Silver Hills area - occupied by the most prosperous elements of the community. He went on to explain that while there were no unsightly slums, there was a fairly large district of rather nondescript homes intermingled with plain two- and three-family brick and frame dwellings, principally in the eastern reaches of the city. He added that in the early days of the city's development, the different ethnic groups had clustered in well-defined colonies, but that with the passage of time these cantonments have become blurred; the groups continue, however, to keep alive their heritages through festivals and cultural activities.

The secretary pointed out that all main approaches to the city lead to the courthouse square, the hub of the city's business district. Here, within an eight-block radius were the principal businesses, stores, and municipal buildings. Told to look to his immediate right, Bibeau saw a two-story marble structure, suggestive of an Italian palace. A sign on the lawn read: "Halvorsen Memorial Library," and gave the hours as "9 to 9 Monday through Friday," and "9 to 5 Saturday." "So, here's where I may spend the next several years of my life," Bibeau mused.

On entering the parking lot behind the building, the secretary informed him that the library, which had been the Halvorsen residence, was bequeathed to the community in 1917 by Anna Lucciola Halvorsen as a memorial to her husband. In addition to contributing $20,000 for remodeling (it was considerably modernized in 1959), she established a $25,000 endowment fund. Lester J. V. Halvors3en, a Swedish immigrant who made a fortune in lumber, built the mansion for his Italian bride. The library opened its doors to the public in 1921. It is now one of 29 members of the Weymouth Pines Federated Library System.

After a quick tour of the facilities and after meeting a few staff members, Bibeau was ushered into the "Board Room," where he as introduced to the other remaining trustees. As the nearly hour long interview drew to a close, during which time they had roamed freely over an enormous range of topics, much of it in the vein of small-talk, Faith L. DeSmedt, chairwoman of the board, told Bibeau that as part of the screening process the trustees had decided to ask those who had successfully survived the initial winnowing - the three people being interviewed - to furnish them with tangible evidence of how they might perform on a specific assignment. She hastened to add that the trustees considered the choice of director to be one of their most important duties, further remarking that they were scrupulously committed to the clear demarcation of duties: the board establishes the policy and the library director carries them out.

"What we would like you to do," she remarked, by way of commencing, "is to tell us in writing how you would undertake a community survey and a needs assessment survey."

Bibeau had his coffee-cup close to his face. At these words of Faith DeSmedt he gulped loudly, spilling his coffee recklessly, and then said, in a sporting tone: "Right now!!"

Everyone laughed. "We'll give you 15 minutes!" the chairwoman said merrily. "No, really, here's what we have in mind. We've pr4epared a description of Wexler (Appendix II) on which we've assembled some information about the town - the number of schools, churches, recreational facilities, special events. Things like that. Please accept our apologies for it, but we didn't really know what sort of information to compile. What we'd like you to do is tell us how you would get to know the community. We'd expect our new director to be able to do this. He or she should be knowledgeable enough that we wouldn't need a consultant, whom I understand are engaged for this purpose."

"We've been thinking of doing this for some time," another trustee interjected, "and then when the pres3ent director announced that she would be retiring we saw it as an ideal time. It would give the new person an opportunity to learn about the community, and us an opportunity to review our services and see what we might do that we're not now doing."

Bibeau listened intensively. He was fascinated.

"Permit me to backtrack a bit and tell you how we've been approaching the business of selecting a new director." It was the chairwoman's voice. Bibeau glanced in her direction. "We studied the resumes of our applicants carefully, and sifted from them three people we're interested in. You're one of the three, of course. The resumes gave us the educational credentials and previous work records. We've paid careful attention to references. We view the preliminary interview as a way of securing additional information about the applicant and transmitting information about us, the library, and the town, and what we're seeking from the second interview. Thes3e interviews give both of us - you and us - a "feel" for how we might work together and get along."

The secretary then spoke. "There's no question," he said, "but that an individual's past performance is a good indicator of how he or she will perform in the future. However, success on a job is not just a function of personality and abilities but of personality and abilities in a given environment."

Bibeau made no reply, but the comment set him thinking. He gulped down the last of his coffee.

"That's why we'd like you to address yourself to one of our problems," offered the chairwoman. Bibeau turned his head back to her, "the problem of getting to know the community."

"As you know," another trustee put in, "Many companies are experimenting with putting their applicants through tests of various sorts - intelligence, aptitude, projective, socio-metric, and such. Underlying each of these is some measurable advance prediction of how people will behave on the job. We're going to be experiencing a considerable turnover in staff in the next few months due to retirement. For instance, we'll be needing a new assistant director, a new head of information services, and a new systems staff member shortly after the new director is hired - all important professional positions. Then within the year we will need to replace the young adult services librarian and several support staff members. We want to avoid hiring people who won't succeed."

"Can you imagine everyone going at once like this," said the voice of another trustee mirthfully, and to Bibeau, "You'll have quite a bit of interviewing to do yourself, if you become director!"

Another trustee spoke up, "Not one of us on the board has had to interview anyone for a library position," he said, "So we're novices at this!"

"That brings us to our next request," supplied the chairwoman. "We'd like you to outline for us what kinds of tests are available and would be desirable to use in our setting."

"More that that, Faith," said another. "We also need to know the kinds of questions we are legally restrained from asking."

"And the federal laws that apply," quickly added another.

"Well, that brings up another matter we had discussed among ourselves," DeSmedt said. "Are there selection evaluation forms we might be using?"

Said another timidly, nay, sheepishly: "You can see we need help, can't you Mr. Bibeau?"

Elwood Bibeau nodded and smiled weakly. (Somewhere within a voice was whispering, "You better believe it!")

The chairwoman resumed:

"Since we'll be requiring a new assistant shortly after you, I mean the new director" - she corrected herself - "is hired, we thought another useful assignment for our director applicants to undertake would be to identify the characteristics and qualities an assistant director in a line capacity should possess. And then, how can we determine whether applicants possess them - through the kinds of tests mentioned before? As I said earlier, we want to be as sure as we can be that the people we hire will succeed in their positions. There must be some acknowledged predictors to find out in advance."

A trustee who had not spoken before said: "Mr. Bibeau, our plan is to have the three contenders for the position, if I may use that expression, research these topics for us and then come back for a second interview and share their findings and thoughts with us."

Bibeau nodded comprehendingly. A person less confident than himself might have been astonished by their requests. But Elwood Bibeau quailed no more now than he had quailed at being assigned tasks in his present position as an assistant director. It is true that assignments were being heaped upon him with immense rapidity, but he would be able to sort them out and contrive solutions. It was not for nothing he had learned to identify and isolate problems and to solve them.

"Let me see if I can state what we'd like you to do as succinctly as I can," the chairwoman was saying. "We'd like you to outline for us how you would go about undertaking a comprehensive community and needs assessment survey of Wexler - what you'd look at and study, and why. We'd also like to see how you'd involve the staff and us and the Friends - and any others you can think of. How would you distribute a questionnaire if you have one? And how would you tabulate the results? How would you work up a survey sample? Then, having done this, we'd like you to show how you would translate the information gathered to plan a library program or activity or service, using a hypothetical program, activity, or service, of course. How would you organize it? What would its goal be? What sort of timetable would you set up? Et cetera. This would be an opportunity for us to see how creatively you'd approach an assignment of this sort."

She stopped and looked hard into his eyes, as it were, appealing for approval. He greeted her look with a kindly smile which was entirely matter-of-fact - as though this assignment was just like any other assignment he had ever been given. Yes, he understood. No problem.

She went on:

"Then there's the whole question of the selection of a virtually new staff. We've narrowed that down to what you would look for in the case of an assistant director. How would you determine whether the person possesses those qualities or attributes? Would you use tests of some sort? What kinds are there? Are there questions employers are legally prohibited from asking? What major federal laws must we be aware of?"

"I think I get the picture, Ms. DeSmedt." Here spoke the absolutely confident applicant, the young man equal to this or any other task.

"That's splendid," she beamed. Then something compelled her to blurt out: "Are you interested in the job?"

"We haven't frightened you off, have we?" ejaculated another, with a nervous laugh.

"Very much so" - he told the truth in reply to the question from the chairwoman. "And not in the slightest" - he said this in response to the other trustee. For not merely was he struck favorably by the board's obvious interest, but he was convinced that there was a job to be done in Wexler and he was the one to do it. As a director of a public library he should be able to do and to know what they were asking. Their methods might be unorthodox, but the requests were certainly not. He saw nothing wrong with them. To hire as director someone who could not do what they wanted and did not know the answers to their questions would mean they were slighting their responsibilities. And, too, the salary they were offering - a detail not trifling - was better than twice his current salary. Thoughts of this sort kept running about like clockwork mice in his head, while the murmur of chatter filled the room.

Outside dusk had yielded to black night.

"Look at the time!" someone cried out. "I have to get an early start tomorrow morning, so I'll have to leave."

"Is it really ten o'clock?" exclaimed Faith DeSmedt, glancing at her watch. Then to Bibeau" "Mr. Bibeau, you've been very patient with us. Please understand that we're not experienced trustees. We hope we're doing the right thing, and not asking too much of our finalists. We're taking this search for the right person very seriously. If we get the right person, then he or she'll get the right people all the way down the line, and we'll be offering the kinds of services and doing the kinds of things a good public library should be offering and doing." Then she sat back, happy in the virtuous sensation of duty accomplished

.

"I will work on these things in the next few weeks," said Bibeau, emphasizing still further his seriousness. "Where I might need additional facts about the city and the library, I will make assumptions and proceed accordingly." He rose to depart. The secretary said he would drive Bibeau to his hotel and take him to the airport the next morning. Bibeau smiled, said thanks, shook hands with the chairwoman and bid everyone adieu. He and the secretary left.

WEXLER PUBLIC LIBRARY. Lester J. V. Halvorsen Memorial Library. 122 Umitilla road. Dir. Helen Baskin; Asst. Dir. Martin Roedder; Acq. Rosiline Bleecker; Ch. Eleanor Hatt; Ref. Gilbert Graham; YA, Martha Blair; Tech. Serv., Neal Levinsky; Ref., Gilbert Graham; Ref., Lorraine Farran; Br. Coord. & Bk.mobile Coord, Gloria Fransson. Staff 59 (prof. 15, cler 31) Founded 1921. Pop. served 78,000, Circ. 833,572.
Inc. $1,535,020 (incl fed $72,061, state $69,953, city $1,320,994, other $72,012)
Esp. Bks $89,957, Per. $10,305, Technology (equipment and online subscription services) $211,817
Library Holdings: Bk vols 427,105; Per sub 463, Online services 15 subs.
Special Collections: Genealogy, Large Print Books; Talking Books, recc., tapes: Hermans Historical Coll; American Culture (American Culture Series); World War II (Fisher Coll); Antique Silver (Budd Coll) Mem of Weymouth Pines Fed Libr Syst

Branches: 4
Argonne, 250 Fowler, Libn Kent Poyntz, Bk vols 19,909
Butner, 578 Buies, Libn Teresa Sherrill, Bk vols 35,466
Hiram, 930 Tionesta, Libn Susana Wise, Bk vols 26776
Ulrich, 67 Dimmitt, Libn Trina Benet, Bk vols 6955
Bookmobiles: 1

Population: 88,108. Projection: 5 years, 92,000; 10 years 100,000.

Recreation: Wexler has 14 city parks of 345 acres; a community center with swimming pool and covered ice-skating rink; 2 golf courses; 16 tennis courts; 2 lighted baseball diamonds; supervised by the City's Recreation Department; 2 outdoor public pools; football, baseball, basketball, and softball leagues for men, women and children; bowling, 68 lanes; 8 theaters. The Recreation Department sponsors a variety of clubs for radio amateurs, coin and stamp collectors, square dancers, and many others. It also has an active senior citizen program of activities.

Schools and churches: Public: 18 elementary, 4 middle school and 2 high schools,. Parochial: 4 elementary and 1 high. Wexler Junior College, St. Rita's School of Nursing and Medical Technology. Wexler has 96 churches, 35 denominations. Largest denominations: Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian.

Hospitals: Our Lady of Mercy Hospital, 323 beds. Wexler General Hospital 278 beds. 16 retirement and nursing homes.

Administration: Council-Manager government; Mayor and 6 councilors are elected; city manager heads all departments. Separately elected are the Board of Education, Board of Library Trustees, County Officials; Sanitary District Board of 3 is appointed by the County Court.

Information and Accommodation: Wexler Region Chamber of Commerce, 36 W. Pine St. Wexler Monitor (daily and Sunday); Dairyman's Weekly Review, Wexler Today (weekly), 4 radio stations and the WRXV television station with access to a major international network. More than 1,000 rooms in 30-odd hotels and motels.

Culture and Entertainment: Wexler supports a symphony orchestra, Wexler Light Opera Co., Wexler Art League, Janus Players, Summer concerts in Chippewa Park.

Written by Dr. A. J. Anderson Problems in Library Management Libraries Unlimited, 1981 (adapted)