Montana Library Commission strikes library director standard

Despite an outpouring of opposition in recent weeks, the Montana State Library Commission voted 5-2 Wednesday to eliminate a requirement that directors of the state’s largest public libraries hold a master’s degree in library sciences.

The commission’s striking of the educational standard from state regulations came after a month-long comment period during which 532 members of the public responded to the proposal. Of those, 120 supported the elimination and 412 opposed it — a ratio that critics attempted to underscore for the commission ahead of its vote. Sarah Widger, the president-elect of the Montana Library Association, put the feedback at “four-to-one” against the proposal and said she hoped the commission would “pay attention to your public.”

“Those are your patrons,” Widger told commissioners. “These are your patrons speaking up, including library staff, librarians, directors, trustees statewide for libraries of all sizes, former commissioners, as well as the general public … 71% of people opposing the removal of this standard should speak for itself. It’s not a close discussion.”

Commissioners Tammy Hall, Carmen Cuthbertson, Tom Burnett, Robyn Scribner and Elsie Arntzen voted in favor of the proposal, while commissioners Peggy Taylor and Brian Rossmann voted against it. The breakdown was unchanged from an initial vote in October. Of the members, only two were not appointed by Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte: Arntzen, who serves in her capacity as state superintendent of public instruction, and Rossmann, who was appointed this summer by Commissioner of Higher Education Clayton Christian.

With Wednesday’s action, Montana will no longer require the directors of libraries serving more than 25,000 people to hold a master’s degree in library science in order for those libraries to receive state funding. The rule applies to public libraries in Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Great Falls, Hamilton, Helena, Kalispell and Missoula, only one of which has fallen out of compliance for employing a director without a master’s degree in recent years. Several trustees from that library — Kalispell’s ImagineIF library — were vocal advocates of eliminating the standard, Cuthbertson among them.

Cuthbertson sought to assure fellow commissioners and the public Wednesday that even without the educational requirement, Montana libraries would still be subject to roughly 30 other state quality standards. She also criticized several public commenters for making “misguided” statements in opposition to the proposal. Hall added that her imminent vote in favor of the elimination “isn’t about politics” but rather about putting decision-making authority in the hands of local library trustees, and argued that the commission was not lowering library standards.

“We are not lowering any standards. We are not bypassing any standards,” Hall said. “We are directly passing standards to a local government board, and they are welcome to raise the standards.”

Rossmann challenged that assertion, saying that eliminating a state standard was “what this vote is about.” He and Taylor both acknowledged the volume of oppositional testimony as a key indicator that the educational standard should remain in place.

The back-and-forth over the commission’s proposal has waged for more than a month, with supporters arguing that such decisions belong in local government hands and opponents decrying what they perceive as a denigration of the library profession. Those sides were each represented by a single voice during a hearing on Dec. 1. In speaking in favor of the proposal, David Ingram, a trustee at Flathead County’s ImagineIF Library, criticized the work of a task force that, earlier this year, recommended the commission maintain the master’s requirement. Ingram questioned the “validity” of the task force’s work, claiming that it had received “minimal input” from library trustees and patrons.

“The removal of this requirement,” Ingram argued, “in no way impacts the ability of other communities to hire as they see fit and select candidates with credentials most important to them while returning ultimate control to the local level.”

On the other side, Lewis and Clark Library board chair Judy Meadows read from a statement opposing the change signed by the directors of the public libraries in Great Falls, Helena, Butte, Billings, Bozeman, Hamilton and Missoula. She told the commission that members of the state’s library community were “disappointed and dismayed” by the commission’s proposal — one, she added, that felt like “a subtly subversive and political attack on Montana libraries.”

“The purpose of the standards is to incentivize local investment in staffing and services so that all Montanans can access quality library services,” Meadows said. “Undermining this standard at the request of one library can be the first step down a slippery slope, undermining any and all standards. The standards exist to ensure quality. Local control is not a standard.”

Meadows and Ingram reiterated their respective positions ahead of the commission’s vote Wednesday. Ingram was joined by fellow ImagineIF trustee Heidi Roedell in speaking in support of the proposal. And alongside Meadows, six others made last-ditch pleas for the commission to reconsider its stance. Among them was Mitch Grady, director of the Livingston-Park County Public Library, who reminded commissioners that Montana maintains numerous other state standards for large libraries — including that they remain open a minimum of 50 hours per week — none of which have been similarly challenged in a nod to local control.

“The commission can now do one of two things,” Grady said. “Either stick to its guiding principles and begin working to repeal all public library standards, since their very existence is apparently a blatant affront to local control. Or it can repeal just the [master’s of library science] standard and, in doing so, affirm what everyone in this meeting probably suspects: that this is nothing more than political retribution for a perceived injustice at one library.”

The debate over the education standard followed another controversial move by the state library commission this summer: the withdrawal of the Montana State Library from membership in the American Library Association. Commissioners said the move was due to concerns about the ALA president’s political beliefs, even as critics from public libraries throughout the state cautioned that the move could limit access to critical services.