College and Research Libraries Interpersonal Relations in Libraries By W I L L I A M H . J E S S E Is I T N O T L O G I C A L to assume that the Staff Organizations R o u n d T a b l e , of all the groups in the library profession, represents the one best acquainted with — a n d the strongest proponent o f — t h e art a n d science of interpersonal relations in library organization? If it were a gen- eral-interest g r o u p rather than a special- interest g r o u p this assumption could not be made, and a great deal in the way of definition of subject would be in order; for in all philosophies definitions must be stated first, or no one knows what you are tacking your small contri- bution on to. A n d interpersonal rela- tions is nothing less than a philosophy; with many it is a theology; and with many more, a belief which has existed so long in their minds that it must ap- pear to them to be inherent. Certainly many of the experts feel it is inherent, being spiritual rather than practical, and, as has been expressed by one au- thor, " . . . he who goes out to meet a person meets G o d . " 1 T h e r e are those who feel, and to some extent justifiably, that the exploitation of interpersonal relations for increasing work production is a misuse of manage- ment. F r o m an administrative stand- point it can readily b e concluded that it is not* a misuse, b u t a convenient justi- fication for proceeding humanistically, or at least individually, with the busi- ness o personnel administration. T h a t is, i r aft institution which recognizes the v a l u e of interpersonal relations, it is no long^f necessary to justify a d o p t e d poli- cies of treating the individual as an in- ax. Ual instead of merely as a m e m b e r of th^* g r o u p , even though this at times i n 1 P a i m E . Johnson, " T h e Theology of Interpersonal- i s m , " Sociometry, X I I (1949), 225-34. Mr. Jesse is Director of Libraries, Uni- versity of Tennessee. This article is based on an address made to the ALA Staff Organiza- tions Round Table at San Francisco, July 18, 1958. may seem to be a very expensive way of administering a library. B u t many of us recall the times d u r i n g the depression when j o b s a n d money were so scarce it was necessary to prove that each step taken with each individual would pay off in a measurable way. T o d a y , how- ever, it can probably safely be said that most of the p e o p l e to whom librarians are responsible (college and university presidents, p u b l i c library b o a r d mem- bers, business a n d industrial executives) are, by and large, better acquainted than are most of us with the values of staff participation in administration and other creditable interpersonal relation policies. A n earlier p a p e r 2 delineated a n d il- lustrated my belief, based on twenty years' experience in library administra- tion, in the values of interpersonal re- lations, with specific application to staff participation in administration. It af- firmed that Tennessee has presently and for many years has h a d a complete policy of stressing interpersonal rela- tions, staff participation, and, as nearly as it can be defined, democracy in ac- tion. T h e r e are definite limitations to these concepts, b u t they should not be pointed out until it is understood that we are sold on the principles. T h i s would be u n f a i r to my institution, my associate librarian, department heads, 2 William H. Jesse, " S t a f f Retention," CRL, X I X (1958), 129-33. M A R C ^ 1 9 6 0 149 supervisors, and others who have worked, without too many exceptions, rather hard to b r i n g a b o u t a condition which is permitting us to operate primarily with a permanent staff a n d to fill most vacancies, often new positions, with re- peaters. By a n d large, we would rather be j u d g e d on a relative rather than a per se basis. N o effort is m a d e to have an ideal situation in which every staff member can work, because while one should strive for the ideal, we know per- fectly well it will never be attained; b u t some p e o p l e are u n h a p p y merely striv- ing for the ideal, a n d they might as well go elsewhere. T h e y simply are never go- ing to be happy, and we don't want to be b l a m e d for it. Mr. E d w i n C a s t a g n a , librarian of the L o n g Beach Public, in his understand- ing, perceptive, a n d intelligent Library Journal article3 admits to limits to democratic administration while advo- cating it in general. U s i n g his check list, I shall attempt to point out limitations, as I have experienced them, in terms of specifics. Planning is an obvious area for staff participation, and staff participation in p l a n n i n g can be do ne on a b r o a d area in a university library, unless it is as- sumed that all b r o a d p l a n n i n g must have staff participation. Some can and some cannot. In 1946 when the GI's re- turned en masse to flood the campus, the staff met the problem practically without the help of those of us in library administration. In the branches and in the main buildings, suggestions were m a d e by people on the firing line, who knew student habits better than we in administration did. A couple of illustra- tions might serve here, but would no- where near cover the extent of the staff contribution at that time. It was noticed in the r e a d i n g rooms that many students were engaged in non- library pursuits, such as working on their 3 Edwin Castagna. "Democratic Administration," Li- brary Journal, L X X X I I ( 1 9 5 7 ) 3138-44. 150 math problems, etc., b u t they d i d not all have g o o d dormitories or a student union to g o to then. At the suggestion of the staff, a " n o s m o k i n g " rule was re- laxed a n d the students were permitted to sit on the many, many steps in and outside the library, thus to some extent dividing the library user from the per- son who merely wanted a place to study. T h e reserve room people quit trying to keep the books in the reserve room. T h e y p u t the material on a time loan a n d let the student go where he would. Shortly thereafter came the tremen- dous increase in acquisitions at the Uni- versity of T e n n e s s e e to meet the new Ph.D. p r o g r a m . Even before this started, the stacks were filled. T h e staff sug- gested lining the walls of the stacks with wooden shelving (crowding aisles b u t not m a k i n g them impassable), thus housing successfully thousands of vol- umes for which there h a d a p p a r e n t l y been no space. B u t at the same time a limitation in p l a n n i n g occurred. T h e staff was of prac- tically no value in helping the adminis- tration of the library and of the univer- sity meet the problems of the Ph.D. pro- gram, except for checking bibliog- raphies, m e a s u r i n g holdings, etc., and this is not assistance in planning. T h e p l a n n i n g was d o n e in conferences with deans, directors, administrative officers, and in the G r a d u a t e Council, groups of which the director of libraries is a mem- ber, where one must express a consid- ered opinion of his own outfit's poten- tial, or else go home and send someone else who can and is willing to d o so. T h e r e was some library p l a n n i n g done when the university drew u p contracts with O a k R i d g e ' s Institute of N u c l e a r Studies. T h i s p l a n n i n g took the form of budget estimates, etc., and there was nei- ther time nor o p p o r t u n i t y for staff plan- ning. T h e program was a reality in a matter of minutes, and the library staff's j o b was to catch u p as quickly as pos- sible. T h i s is not participation in plan- C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S ning, either; it is participation in execu- tion, and that hasn't anything to do with planning. Another limitation can be pointed out here. At that time the head of one of the m a j o r departments came in to see me, feeling so sorry for herself that she wept twice: once because the increased acquisition p r o g r a m was so great the work could not be done with the staff provided; again, all in the same thirty- minute conference, because she was so busy trying to get the work done there simply was not time to train new people. T h i s was not a conference; it was a monologue, and I did the listening. Now it wasn't her fault that she could do neither of these things, a n d probably not even her f a u l t that she could not see the conflict. T h e whole thing was just too much for her, so she was d u m p i n g her problems on the administration. T h e fact that she had completely tied the hands of the administration on both counts, one counteracting the other, never occurred to her a n d probably hasn't since. H e r answer to her problem, of course, would have been to tell the administration, Oak R i d g e , and especi- ally the G r a d u a t e Council, to stop trying to start any g r a d u a t e and research pro- grams. Contrary to the beliefs of some admin- istrators, organization is an area in which there can be permitted considerable staff participation. T h e University of T e n - nessee L i b r a r y simply is not organized the way I originally meant it to be, b u t I a m convinced that its organization is much better because of this fact. T h e result was brought a b o u t through the customary procedure of having decisions m a d e at the point where the most knowl- edge was, and most often this point is not at the administrative level. T h e limitations are many, however. Often when the staff is organizing some- thing, it painstakingly (and appropri- ately) ignores the ability of the indivi- dual to d o the new work, or it ignores the fact that he is not getting his current j o b done in the m a n n e r expected. It is the function of the hierarchy, not of the staff, to evaluate an individual. Each person is p a i d to be willing to evaluate the person under him, and he is foolish to evaluate the person to the side of him, thus getting himself in a lot of trouble with no reward. Staff participation in organization should not be attempted in assignment of personnel, but should be limited to function. T h e next item is staffing. Mr. Cas- tagna states that this is merely a func- tion of the administration b u t that there is every reason for consultation with the immediate supervisor before m a k i n g every a p p o i n t m e n t or personnel change affecting his department. I do not agree. First, in my opinion, .the function of the administration is to provide candi- dates for the consideration of staff down the line, with the sole exception of his own secretary and his assistant or associ- ate directors. We never hire a person and then assign him to anybody. We provide candidates, and in most cases insist that there be a personal inter- view, whatever the expense, before ap- pointing the staff member. In the very, very large library, where personnel must apparently b e separated from the hier- archy, this might not be possible. Per- sonnel should not be set u p as a separate agency except as a last desperate resort, or possibly because of sheer size of staff. Naturally, personnel records, etc., should be centrally kept and classification, pay, vacations, etc., kept equitable. B u t it is much better when complaints can go the next step u p in the hierarchy, or all the way to the top, for that matter, rather than to a personnel officer. T h e fact cannot be overstated that this is not being recommended as a policy to be adopted universally. T h i s is another area in which there could be much wider ap- plicability of staff participation than is generally found. Directing is giving orders, a function M A R C H 1 9 6 0 151 of the supervisor which cannot be shared without inviting confusion: " I n order to create a situation which will be con- ducive to good working relationships, an old rule of thumb of personnel adminis- tration must be observed: everyone must be responsible to someone and no one must be responsible to more than one p e r s o n . " 4 T h e r e is no question b u t that coordi- nating is p a r excellence a g r o u p activity. Even a full-time coordinator can d o no m o r e than get people to d o the coordi- nating, and coordinating is q u i t e a dif- ferent thing f r o m cooperation. Coopera- tion can often be assumed. C o o r d i n a t i n g must be striven for consciously. T h e r e is a limitation, however, even here. Actu- ally the limitation has more to d o with communications a n d reporting than any- thing else. T h e staff sometimes feels that the administration does not communi- cate enough, b u t f r o m my experience I a m convinced that the communication of intended action is do ne less well and less frequently by the staff to the ad- ministration than by the administration to the staff. In other words, where you have a large, fairly loose administrative assignment that reaches, as some do, as f a r as f o u r h u n d r e d miles across the state, you have considerable difficulty keeping u p with what even a fine, ma- ture, eminently c a p a b l e staff is coordi- nating on. I have felt at times that I could not even report adequately on my own operation, since—in many cases within well defined policies of delega- tion—the energetic, decentralized librar- ians have raced far, f a r ahead. A recent e x a m p l e was with the extension divi- sion b e i n g housed in permanent quar- ters in Nashville. T h e r e was so much space in the old Methodist P u b l i s h i n g H o u s e b u i l d i n g which the university purchased that the School of Social Work, N a s h v i l l e Division, and several other operations were invited to join ex- * Jesse, op. ext., p. 129. tension. By the time I got there, plans were well along for an extension library, but it d i d not include p r o p e r provision for the non-extension phases of the uni- versity's Nashville programs. It was only through an a n n u a l report that I learned that audio-visual mate- rials a n d personnel at one distant branch h a d been p a i d for in the initial year f r o m the book budget, a f u n d already too limited. Admittedly, it would have been most u n f o r t u n a t e to have a branch librarian who did not meet most of his own problems, b u t some communication in time to the administration of the li- brary, and in turn immediately to the university administration, w o u l d un- doubtedly have brought financial assist- ance. T h e branch librarian, an excellent one, h a d done a better j o b of shoulder- ing his own burdens u n d e r a general policy of delegation a n d autonomy than he h a d of reporting. H e had in a sense coordinated his operation in connection with the i m m e d i a t e p r o b l e m of the change in p r o g r a m . C o o r d i n a t i n g is a most fertile field, if the communications will j u s t come u p as well as they some- times g o down. Reporting, another area for participa- tion, is not used in the sense of " c o m m u - nications," b u t rather of report-writing. I personally feel that the a n n u a l report of an institution Tennessee's size or larger should not be written by the li- brarian, b u t by somebody who is closer to the branch librarians and the depart- ment heads. Sometimes a n n u a l reports written by a librarian who is pretty far removed f r o m the day-to-day work are reports written in abstract, often d e a l i n g heavily with resources or with need, let us say, for a new b u i l d i n g . In most large libraries the annual reports seem to do one of two things—either they overwork the reality of the m i n u t i a e of accom- plishment a n d need, or they merely transmit the statistical reports, often poorly interpreted, to the superior per- 152 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S son or body, who in turn c a n n o t under- s t a n d them. M a n y of the research library reports t a b u l a t i n g g i f t s a n d stressing de- s i d e r a t a a r e a m o n g the m o s t tiresome r e a d i n g e n c o u n t e r e d . I d o not believe this is the case when the r e p o r t is writ- ten by s o m e o n e w h o knows the opera- tion day by day, b u t w h o still is not assigned to a tight s c h e d u l e of d a i l y work, as are most staff m e m b e r s . A g o o d e x e c u t i v e officer somewhere between the d e p a r t m e n t h e a d s a n d the l i b r a r i a n s h o u l d b e a b l e to d o a m u c h better j o b . I a m not f a m i l i a r e n o u g h w i t h p u b l i c l i b r a r y work or even special l i b r a r y work to say that this i d e a s h o u l d h a v e wide a p p l i c a t i o n or even consideration. T e n - nessee is a b o u t m e d i u m in size of the G r o u p I universities in CRL's a n n u a l statistical r e p o r t , a n d that g r o u p aver- ages 1.5 assistant or associate l i b r a r i a n s or d i v i s i o n chiefs p e r i n s t i t u t i o n . N e w s or f e a t u r e stories in connection w i t h n e w s p a p e r p u b l i c i t y a r e o f t e n mis- l e a d i n g . T h e r e h a v e been instances at T e n n e s s e e when the university commu- nity a n d the p u b l i c at large were b a d l y m i s i n f o r m e d as to total need by h a v i n g s o m e o n e p h a s e of o u r p r o g r a m receive u n d u e a t t e n t i o n . Stories i n the local u n d e r g r a d u a t e p a p e r once g a v e the im- pression we d i d not h a v e m o n e y e n o u g h to k e e p u p with c u r r e n t p r o d u c t i o n of g o o d t r a d e books; a c t u a l l y we h a d plenty of m o n e y for that type of thing. W h a t we were w o r r y i n g a b o u t p r i m a r i l y was s t r e n g t h e n i n g o u r serial h o l d i n g s in the sciences a n d m a t h e m a t i c s . T h a t ex- p e r i e n c e a n d others led to centralizing o u r p u b l i c i t y as well as r e p o r t i n g . M r . C a s t a g n a states that budgeting offers a fine o p p o r t u n i t y f o r c o o p e r a t i o n a n d that " a l l levels s h o u l d have a h a n d in m a k i n g u p the b u d g e t , since it is ac- tually a p r o g r a m f o r the l i b r a r y f o r the n e x t year e x p r e s s e d i n terms of m o n e y . " I disagree, b u t , I think, only b e c a u s e of the differences in the n a t u r e of libraries which are serving e d u c a t i o n a l institu- tions a n d those which are e d u c a t i o n a l i n s t i t u t i o n s : f o r instance, a p u b l i c li- brary. I n the p u b l i c library, the staff m u s t pretty m u c h d e t e r m i n e the needs of the c o m m u n i t y , I i m a g i n e , a n d , with the h e l p of the b o a r d a n d a few other indi- v i d u a l s a n d g r o u p s , d e c i d e w h a t the edu- c a t i o n a l p r o g r a m is g o i n g to be, a n d therefore w h a t the library p r o g r a m s h o u l d be. L i b r a r i e s which serve educa- tional i n s t i t u t i o n s h a v e their p r o g r a m s pretty well m a d e u p f o r them, a n d the l i b r a r i a n s merely h a v e to e s t i m a t e the library services l o a d which those pro- g r a m s will require. Since the library staff is not the g r o u p o n the c a m p u s p r i m a r i l y r e s p o n s i b l e f o r the institu- tion's e d u c a t i o n a l a n d research pro- g r a m s , the staff s h o u l d n o t d e v e l o p the library's p r o g r a m directly f r o m detection of n e e d of the clientele. T h i s is a pre- r o g a t i v e a n d d u t y of the faculty. I n in- stitutions like T e n n e s s e e where the pro- fessional staff has f a c u l t y status a n d r a n k , the l i b r a r i a n s d o p a r t i c i p a t e in de- t e r m i n i n g the p r o g r a m s , b u t n o t to a very c o n s i d e r a b l e e x t e n t ; a n d this is p r o p e r . I t seems to me, however, that even in i n s t i t u t i o n s of h i g h e r e d u c a t i o n the staff o u g h t to b e e x p e c t e d to state needs which in t u r n can b e r e d u c e d to d o l l a r s a n d cents by the a d m i n i s t r a t o r . T h i s is p a r t i c u l a r l y t r u e when there is g r e a t e x p a n s i o n or d r a s t i c c h a n g e in pro- g r a m . I t has b e e n so l o n g since things in e d u c a t i o n were at a standstill that we have a l m o s t f o r g o t t e n w h a t a p l a t e a u is. B u t once a p l a t e a u is reached, I d o u b t the necessity of very m u c h staff partici- p a t i o n in b u d g e t m a k i n g , since most of the changes a r e m i n o r a n d not pro- g r a m m a t i c . ^ # D e m o c r a t i c a d m i n i s t r a t i o n , as repre- sented by the p r e c e d i n g categories, does n o t c o m p r i s e the whole of i n t e r p e r s o n a l relations, which, while m o r e d e t a i l e d M A R C H 1 9 6 0 153 than democratic administration, is at the same time broader. T h e illustrations which follow will demonstrate. You are no d o u b t aware that there are times when becoming well acquainted with a staff member more than one step removed in the hierarchy can d a m a g e that person a n d even the library opera- tion itself. W e had a young m a n whose interests m a d e for a very quick friend- ship between us. It was impossible to avoid talking shop when together out- side the library. D u r i n g the course of the conversations his department head was often criticized by implication when he commented on how the department was operated. Consider for a moment the po- sition in which this placed me. If he were not corrected (and I felt he was mistaken), he would assume agreement, as one is entitled to do. T o correct him would have been assuming the duties of his immediate supervisor. T h i s contact, while it led to a friendship which is still lasting, also led to certain intense situ- ations in the department and an atmos- phere of strain. Another type of interpersonal limita- tion is that of access to anyone u p the line for counsel. It must be recognized that some people seek counsel as other people go swimming or play golf: just for the f u n of it. T h i s counsel-seeking sometimes takes trumped-up or imag- ined degrees of intensity. You might as well face the fact that there are some people too lazy to go out and get a date who enjoy nothing more than g o i n g over their personal problems, sometimes in the most exhausting fashion, with an- other h u m a n being. My salary is ade- q u a t e to my position and competency, b u t is not enough to make me feel that I should pinch-hit for a psychiatrist. For this reason, undoubtedly, staff members sometimes feel that administrators or other people u p the line from them are not willing to hear their stories. T h e story grows tiresome, may not have too much reality, and there are no real solu- tions anyway, except for the person to face his problems himself, perhaps with the aid of a psychiatrist or, m o r e often, with the aid of his own M.D. Staff should not be assigned to an im- m a t u r e person, a n d it can be assumed that he is m a t u r e only when he is able to make u p his own m i n d regarding his own behavior in a social a n d moral world. W h e n he has reached this stage, there is a f a i r chance that he will be willing to extend this privilege to peo- ple u n d e r him. T h e r e are many ways to determine when a person has reached this point, a n d it is at times more mean- ingful than the acquisition of further degrees or the attainment of greater pro- fessional competence, where supervision of staff is concerned. In other words, leave the staff alone as individuals and d o not try to run their lives, a n d they may in turn treat their staff that way; if not, they simply shouldn't have any staff any longer. A shocking limitation is that many people who insist loudest on being left alone as individuals and not having their lives m a n a g e d are the ones who, ironically, assume that their relative ma- turity makes it incumbent u p o n them to mother or boss—and one is as b a d as the other—their own staff. It has become widely recognized in m a n a g e m e n t that the person in a position of administra- tion or supervision must not proceed as an a m a t e u r psychologist, psychiatrist, or physician. One should merely learn to recognize and refer. T h i s referral to the specialist is coming near enough to the position of practicing outside one's own profession. Sometimes referral calls for tact, strength, and insistence, and cre- ates misunderstanding. T h e r e is probably less need to stress this now than there was ten or fifteen years ago, but some people still seem to feel that the moment they occupy a super- visory or administrative post they are ex- officio endowed with the tools of coun- sel and even with curative powers. An- 154 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S other extremely dangerous practice is to dig too deeply for motivation when your counsel is sought. If a person has good sense and is in good health, he is sim- ply not going to reveal his true motiva- tion. Certainly I would tell no one mine, least of all a superior. A great deal of guessing goes on about motivation, and people supervising other people are al- ways coming u p with a reason why the person did this or that or wants to do this or that or won't do this or that. I am very careful of my use of statistics, b u t without hesitation I would say that nine times out of ten these reasons are all wrong a n d would be proved so if we would check through the years and get verification or refutation of our hypoth- eses concerning the motivation of a given individual. Naturally, when you guess about motivation, then dismiss the whole thing and never check on it, you are apt to become pretty certain of your ability to detect true motivation. T h i s is a presumptuous, asinine, and danger- ous position into which one can easily slip. F u r t h e r examples of the detail and the scope of interpersonal relations are set d o w n i n Twenty-Five Short Cases in Li- brary Personnel Administration, b y K e n - neth R. Shaffer,5 in which, it would surely seem, is described every aspect of personnel relations which could conceiv- ably arise, from staff use of phones to forgery and theft. But these are by n o means delimitative; the ramifications of interpersonal relations spread in every direction to encompass all phases of employee-employee / employee-employer communications. It is my hope that the above com- ments have been of interest to you and may someway or other help f u r t h e r your work toward increasing the a m o u n t and quality of interpersonal relations in li- braries; for to quote Mr. Castagna, who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors, "although there has been rela- tively little on the subject in profes- sional library literature there is evidence among librarians of increasing interest in democratic administration. T h e Staff Organizations R o u n d T a b l e and the old ALA Board on Personnel Administra- tion have devoted time to it at confer- ences. It is especially i m p o r t a n t for us to be aware of the S O R T interest. As administrators we cannot afford to be too far behind the thinking of staff or- ganizations." 5 Twenty-Five Short Cases in Library Personnel Ad- ministration ( H a m d e n , C o n n . : Shoe S t r i n g P r e s s , 19S9). Technical Information Service T h e ALA Library Technology Project offers a technical information service to librarians who seek data on materials, machines, equipment, and systems useful in library operations. Such information can be furnished from L T P ' s comprehensive collection of e q u i p m e n t and supply catalogs, from its library of technical literature, and from suppliers and manufacturers, testing laboratories and research and devel- opment organizations with which it has contact. Requests for information should be addressed to Library Technology Project, American Library Association, 50 E. H u r o n St., Chicago 11. T h e project's telephone n u m b e r is DElaware 7-4740. M A R C H 1 9 6 0 155