Steve Thomas:
Sari, welcome back to the show.
Sari Feldman:
Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.
Steve Thomas:
So the last time you were on the show was about four years ago when you were still ALA president and you helped to kick off the Libraries Transform campaign. How do you feel that a campaign has been going over the years and how do you feel like it’s going now?
Sari Feldman:
I think that the campaign of Libraries Transform has had an incredible amount of traction. It’s really served to be a kind of rallying cry for libraries because we can talk about transformation in so many different ways. It speaks to us as an institution to our profession. It speaks to libraries of all types, which is I think another very valuable piece of that campaign. And it also speaks to our customers and it gives customers a language to recognize what’s happening in libraries across the country.
Steve Thomas:
So when we talked last time, you had really just gotten started as ALA president. Did you find anything that you learned over the course of your presidency was something that you were able to apply to your work at Cuyahoga or other professional pursuits or even personal pursuits?
Sari Feldman:
Absolutely. So during my tenure as ALA president, one of the tremendous opportunities you have is traveling across the country and visiting libraries. And there was so much learning that happened for me by seeing libraries of all types, but in particular public libraries across the nation and looking at the ways that they were increasingly facing outward to better serve their customers. So using change as a catalyst for making sure they met individual customer needs. I think another big piece for me was looking at the ways that library education programs are grappling with what to teach. This is the big question and I know that we want strong affiliated programs, programs that are recognized and accredited by the American Library Association, but the profession is changing so quickly and in order to maintain a rich library education program, the colleges and universities were recognizing venues to be more nimble in terms of what they were teaching and the kinds of experiences they were offering. It was a very interesting period, 2015 to 2016.
Steve Thomas:
One of the issues that you dealt with a lot before you became ALA president, during your presidency, and then since after has been the ebook issue with libraries, and obviously that’s a continuously changing landscape. I just wanted to know where do you see that landscape today and what kind of changes have you seen over the last few years, positive or negative?
Sari Feldman:
So we’re returning to a kind of dark age in terms of those relationships. So about eight years ago when I co-chaired Digital Content in Libraries working group with Robert Wolven who is now retired from Columbia University, we focused on improving communication with publishers and restoring the kind of access we need from publishers in particular the Big Five, what was then the Big Six, so we wanted to make sure that we had free access to digital content. It was primarily ebooks from all publishers, and it was available to libraries. In recent months starting, I think, really last summer we started to see publishers once again pulling back from those models that offered free access and perpetual access. So most of the large publishing companies, the Big Five have now moved. They’ve all moved away from perpetual access to some kind of term limit. Harper Collins has had a 26 loan limit per copy for ebooks for about eight years. So they’ve been very, very consistent. Other publishers had offered that perpetual license, but now they are all, I believe, in a two year licensing model. And after that you need to rebuy a copy of a book. So, you know, I’m going to talk about it most about the issue with digital content through a public library lens because obviously that’s the lens I know the best. And when you think about a major author, Stephen King or John Grisham or, you know, anybody who is prolific in their work, they’re going to have a new book coming out. And whenever they have that new book coming out, what we’re going to see at public libraries, is people are looking for the backlist and the library is probably not going to have that backlist if we are only in a lease agreement for digital content and after two years the backlist goes away and we will be in a constant state of rebuying that content, which will be very expensive for libraries. That coupled with the collection management nightmare that managing all of this repurchase requires when you’re not in a perpetual license or perpetual ownership situation will really make digital collection extraordinarily expensive. So while we’re seeing some kind of reduction in the overall cost of digital content, the cost of collection management of repurchasing is going to take away any benefit we might see in the cost-per-item. Then we take a look at embargoing, and we have the horrendous embargo that was announced from Macmillan, which says that libraries can buy one perpetual copy, but for eight weeks they are not able to purchase any additional copies. And how that.. so if the library does purchase that initial copy, what they are doing is actually in my opinion, marketing for Macmillan. They put that title in the catalog, you know, over eight weeks. One, maybe, two people get to borrow that item and everybody else is in a whole building queue, and those with means will be frustrated enough to go out and purchase it. And you know, quite frankly, that’s not the business we are in, in libraries and we are in the business of helping people to discover that next great read, frustrating our customers is not a good practice for libraries. We are also increasingly hoping that customers will use the library as the discovery platform for, you know, emerging authors as well as big blockbuster names. When we discourage customers from having a good experience in library catalogs and in our library websites, we discouraged discovery. And perhaps the most important piece of all of this is that we create readers. If Macmillan and other publishers have any hope for the future, they depend on us to create readers, everything from teaching people to read to discovering that next great read. And in fact 25% of Americans did not read a single book last year. We have a market to turn that around, but that’s not going to be possible if we start to limit people’s choices.
Steve Thomas:
And the name of the column that you wrote was “Libraries must draw the line on ebooks.” And so I think it’s up to us now to take a stand because you can’t just let them roll over us because they’re going to do what is best for their shareholders basically. So we really have to take a stand.
Sari Feldman:
I really believe that there is a movement throughout the world that good public policy is good for business. And I hope that libraries through… and I’m only speaking as Sari Feldman, an independent voice an unaffiliated independent voice… takes action, that we get loud, that we take it to our customers to get loud and try to demonstrate to the publishing industry that good policy will result in good business successful longevity in the publishing industry.
Steve Thomas:
Yeah. And you bring up a good kind of side point there though, and I’m glad that now that you’re independent Sari Feldman, you were still going to be involved with the profession and you’re still going to be able to push issues and I believe you’re still gonna have that Publishers Weekly column. So you’re still, you’re not going to have a day to day job you’re going to go to, but you’re still going to be pushing library issues.
Sari Feldman:
Absolutely. You know, libraries have, it’s been a profession for me, but it’s a passion. I believe in public libraries as foundational to a democratic society and as essential in the lives of people who live in the United States. And so I am determined to support the health and well-being of libraries and in particular public libraries after my, you know, in this post-retirement period.
Steve Thomas:
Well this will kind of lead us through that back to Cuyahoga. But there’s one other topic I wanted to bring up was that you’ve led several successful ballot initiatives and some of them you’ve even gotten help pushed through in some tough economic times. So do you have advice for other libraries and in similar circumstances, because obviously it’s always kind of a constant struggle for funding, so do you have advice as someone who’s successfully been able to do this?
Sari Feldman:
You know, I used to make this joke, I think about the ballot every day. So I believe that if you are consciously serving people with a high quality service and the service that they want, that you are instilling value every day, and therefore when you start to develop some kind of campaign or initiative for levying taxes that your public is already your supporters. Now that sounds a little unromantic or Pollyanna-ish when I describe it that way, but I think that we want everyone to have that experience to be met at the door and find what they need when they come to a library or when the library reaches out to them, and that is really the first step to a successful ballot issue.
Steve Thomas:
And really I think something like Libraries Transform can help with that cause that can kind of give you some tools to help push that message.
Sari Feldman:
And a couple of states, Ohio being one, but also Maine, used it as a statewide messaging, and they used it for their own advocacy programs for state funding.
Steve Thomas:
That’s great. And, I think Ohio is always known as kind of a good strong library-supportive state. And I think a lot of us are jealous of Ohio…
Sari Feldman:
Right. We are very lucky, and in fact we just had another successful biennium budget pass where libraries were among the public entities that were able to get a small but important increase. I think it’s always important when state officials recognize the value that libraries add to the lives of citizens, but also to the economy.
Steve Thomas:
Right. Well, before we really dive into Cuyahoga for our last little segment, can you talk about your career kind of up to Cuyahoga, I know you were at Cleveland Public right before, but what was your career like before that? How did you get up to that point of being a deputy director and the director?
Sari Feldman:
So I came to libraries in the 1970s before most of your listeners were born, and I was living in Madison, Wisconsin and I always make the same corny joke: working the kind of job that lets you know it’s time to go back to school. And somebody recommended that I should take a look at libraries, that the kinds of things I was interested in and the direction I wanted my career to take would be well suited for public libraries in particular. So I did go to the University of Wisconsin in Madison and while I was there I had a part time job as the Dane County Corrections librarian. So I was a jail librarian. And through that experience, truly meeting people whose lives were in turmoil, I discovered that the power of information and learning could really change lives. I saw that happening at the Dane County Correctional Facility. So it just changed everything about my career, having that experience, because I wanted to be deeply embedded in a library service that would really make a difference in people’s lives. And so I found myself in a couple of different jobs eventually ending up in Syracuse, New York where I was first Onondaga County Public Library Teen Librarian, and then I became the head of Youth Services. And then, I was the head of the main library, but in every kind of professional step that I took, I was very focused on, really the outcome of the services we could deliver. You know, were they teaching people to read? I ran a very large literacy program as the head of the main library in Syracuse that was funded by the Lila Wallace Foundation. It was an early look at how technology could actually be married to adult basic education to improve the reading and learning outcomes of adults, and while that doesn’t sound very radical now, in the 1970s, it was an astounding thought when most libraries didn’t even have computers yet. But no, I guess it was the 80s by then, sorry, in the 1980s. Another area of service that I became very involved with in the 90s was early learning in libraries, and I worked with a woman named Sandy Feinberg from the Middle Country Public Library who started the Family Place Libraries, and when we began to do research and talk about early learning in libraries, people were actually pushed back and said, we’re not schools, we’re not teachers. And, the work, the research that we did showed the kind of impact that early literacy could make on families and that the library was well suited to model for families, the value of reading aloud to children, etc. And we had a big research project and we were doing quite a bit of work and writing in that area. And then later, a few years later, Public Library Association began their work that led to Every Child Ready to Read. And so clearly, you know, we were just a little ahead of what was going to be one of the most important services public libraries could deliver. So I’ve had a very interesting career in the sense that I always, I would think things up and I was like a dog with a bone. I would find funding either to pilot something, to research it, to write about it, whatever it took. And it’s made for just a lot of great experiences over, believe it or not, more than 40 years in libraries.
Steve Thomas:
Yeah. It’s a great full career. So once you’re at Cuyahoga, you were at Cleveland previously, I know Cleveland and Cuyahoga are kind of sister / partner libraries because they’re in the same area.
Sari Feldman:
Right, we’re community partners.
Steve Thomas:
Yeah. Can you talk about the, again, it’s got a little overlapping there, but can you talk about the community of Cuyahoga County and what kind of, I’m sure that it’s diverse and everything, what kind of community you serve there?
Sari Feldman:
So there are, we have 27 branches and those branches are 47 communities in Cuyahoga County and it makes up about 620,000 people in population and we serve the gamut of demographic, you know, race, cultural and ethnic origins, income. We serve the entire gamut. We have some of the poorest communities actually in the state of Ohio and communities with some of the most struggling schools in the state of Ohio, in our service district. And so we have had a large focus on helping children to be ready for school, and then at school age to be well supported in their academics. In addition, there are about 150,000 adults in Cuyahoga County who do not have a high school diploma. And we have become a state recognized provider of adult education called Aspire in the state of Ohio. And we have a memorandum of understanding with Cleveland Public Library, and we provide adult basic education, English as a second language, high school equivalency through this program. And we actually have about 40, mostly part-time adult education teachers on staff who are either teaching in libraries or community settings but also teaching out more broadly. Such as in the correctional facilities or in factories or teaching hotel workers English on their work site. So we are very, very involved in the adult education world of Cuyahoga County. I think one of the many sea changes that has happened at the Cuyahoga County Public Library is this focus on much more deliberate education and learning with real outcomes that can be measured to ensure that our population has individual opportunity and ultimately contributes to the success of our communities.
Steve Thomas:
So the last time we talked you talked a lot about the team you have there at Cuyahoga and how helpful they were in particular at that time of helping manage your schedule and your time and getting the library running while you were doing your ALA presidential duties. But, so we’ll take it as a, given that you have a great team you’re working with, but if you can have a little bit of an unmodest answer, what would you feel that your biggest accomplishment at Cuyahoga is like, that you feel like maybe even one that you came into the job that you really wanted to do, that you got accomplished. Is there something, one goal that you had that you really got going that you feel like was kind of from your pushing?
Sari Feldman:
So I will say that when I came to the Cuyahoga County Public Library, even during the interview process, and we were just reminiscing about that this week, all my board members came to my last board meeting, board members of the past and they said that they wanted a director that would make Cuyahoga County Public Library recognized locally, statewide, and nationally as a critical institution on, not just the library but to be impactful in all ways. And I can tell you that that was a very important part of my 16-year tenure, that through the unrelenting effort that I made, we are very engaged. We are major collaborators with organizations and services throughout the county. And, in fact, our county executive thinks of the Cuyahoga County Public Library for everything he wants to deliver in this county to better serve the residents. And we don’t have to fight our way to the table anymore. We are at the table. We are often, you know, called to talk about who else should be at the table with us because we have been such great partners to so many organizations and institutions in the community. And I think that that was a cultural change that I brought to the library system, something that I personally pursued to make happen. And then, something that has just permeated every level of the organization. I would say if I could be immodest and say one more thing.
Steve Thomas:
Sure.
Sari Feldman:
I also, being very… having good financial management was important to me as an Executive Director. And, I did that in many ways, but I think the diversification of our income was something that I really pushed hard for. So while we are still a tax supported institution and our major income comes from the state of Ohio and our property tax levy, we also bring in significant revenues from our passport business, where we take photos and we are a passport acceptance location at every site, just about every hour that we’re open. And we’re raising, almost six figures every month on that business. And additionally, last year we brought in $2.7 million in grant funded projects. So really recognizing the work that needed to be done to diversify our revenue.
Steve Thomas:
That’s fantastic. And I think though that those are great gifts, I think that you can present to your successor to be able to take on and continue on and to obviously make their own impact on the library, but that that’s a great thing to hand off to them.
Sari Feldman:
Right, and I will say that, you know, if I want to say the third attribute is the team that I built because the team is, are all people that I brought to Cuyahoga County Public Library. And in fact my successor is my deputy director, Tracy Strobel, sorry, Tracy Strobel. She’s been named, and Tracy worked with me at Cleveland Public Library, and we like to joke and say I rescued her from the basement of Cleveland Public Library, where she was the web application supervisor and I brought her to Cuyahoga County Public Library to be our deputy. And I recognized that this library system was a solid one, had many great things that were happening that it needed a lot of change. It needed to be woken up. And one area in particular was technology, so Tracy’s background and technology made a huge change here. But then she also had, you know, kind of a passion for public service that was infused into the organization and helped to make many of the other changes. And the third piece is that while I was out there, making land deals with mayors to get property for our capital program, and I was raising money, and I was the public face of our capital program where we replaced 10 buildings and renovated 10 buildings, Tracy actually led the building program and made sure that our buildings are beautiful, just incredibly successful operations, and run efficiently and that we were, you know, the perfect team and she is the perfect leader for the next phase of Cuyahoga County Public Library.
Steve Thomas:
Well and I assume that’s a nice proud moment, I guess, that somebody that you are able to mentor and work with was able to accomplish such a great thing of getting that position, because I know, cause I know they did a national search for somebody, but that the person that you were able to work with and kind of mold and work with, that they were able to get the position.
Sari Feldman:
Absolutely. And they did a national search and they had great candidates, but they really, at the end they recognized they have the best candidate right here.
Steve Thomas:
Well, the team may be one of these answers, but what will you miss the most as time goes by away from Cuyahoga County Public Library?
Sari Feldman:
So it’s always about the people, isn’t it? So I certainly will miss my team, but I’ll be bereft if they don’t want to keep in touch with me. They don’t have to tell me the business, the gory details, but, I hope that people will, you know, we’ll still see each other. And then, I love my board of trustees, and I have had the best boards for the entire 16 years. I mean, just people who, I get so attached to, and my husband and I actually socialize with because just such wonderful, generous, smart people in our community. And then, I’ve gotten very attached to many of our donors who give, you know, time and talent and treasure to the Cuyahoga County Public Library. I feel so fortunate to know these people, and I hope that, you know, many of them will also continue to have lunch with me and we’ll be, we’ll remain involved in each other’s life.
Steve Thomas:
So as we said earlier, you’re, you’re not going away from libraries, you’re just leaving the 9-to-5 kind of job, but…
Sari Feldman:
It’s never been 9-to-5!
Steve Thomas:
Well, you may be walking away from your 12 hour days, but do you have, as kind of a last thing to kind of wrap up, do you have any kind of insight, advice to the profession in general about what kind of issues we need to be grappling with, other than we talked about the ebook kind of thing, but anything in a wider sense that you think libraries need to make sure we’re focused on? Maybe kind of the kind of things that you’re going to be focusing on now that you’re, kind of on your own?
Sari Feldman:
Well, you know, we’ve kind of talked ebooks to death, and I’m not going to raise that again, but the other areas for me, and I mentioned it before, is around library education. And I am going to be working with David Lankes at the University of South Carolina. He’s the Assistant Dean there. And David is, you know, in my opinion a very, very important voice in public library education. And, although I’m not going to be teaching and I’m not going to be in residence there, I will be working with him to try to reimagine what public library education can be like. And I think, we’re at a very, very critical tipping point if we are going to ensure that there is a professional education for people who work in libraries.
Steve Thomas:
All right. Well, Sari, thank you so much for not only coming back on the show again to talk to my listeners, but to all of your service you’ve given over the past 40 years to the profession and obviously many more to come. And I hope that people can continue to find inspiration in the work that you do. If people want to follow up with you, do you have some contact information of how they can get in touch with you?
Sari Feldman:
Absolutely. I have the good fortune of having sarifeldman@yahoo.com as my email. So, you just basically have to remember my name and it’s Yahoo! And people, I look forward to hearing from people and I will be writing for Publishers Weekly. I’m on Twitter, and, keep in touch.
Steve Thomas:
And hopefully we’ll see you at conferences as well?
Sari Feldman:
Absolutely.
Steve Thomas:
All right. Well, thank you so much, Sari.
Sari Feldman:
You’re welcome. Okay. Bye. Bye. Thank you again.
Circulating Ideas 