Public Comment Jason Gibbs - June 18, 2026 Library Commission meeting

 Jason Gibbs, retired librarian. 

My return to participating at library commission meetings has lasted a little over a year now. My former colleagues have been encouraging me to continue doing this so I can speak for them.

Today's commission is different from that of 30 years ago. That commission conducted business, held committee meetings, passed numbered resolutions. It was a substantive body. The current purpose of commission meetings is to polish an apple. The frankly delicious and beautiful apple that is the library. 

The city librarian has restructured library priorities to assemble a cadre of apple shiners to dazzle you. Public comment is your opportunity to ignore what's not going right beneath that shine. 

Your May 2026 meeting included an impressive presentation on staff appreciation and recognition. I was stupified to learn how much library administration values the library's employees and how appreciated library employees feel. Nothing like the library I worked for last year. 

I later spoke with staff at the main and branches and asked them about this sudden turnaround of staff morale. You may be shocked to learn that they fullthroatedly contradicted what we heard at last month's meeting. 

Do all of you know the Peanuts comic strip? One of the constant tropes is Lucy offering to place the football so that Charlie Brown can kick a field goal. He has grown wise to the fact that she's going to take the football away at the last minute. He's knows he's going to end up flat on his back. 

Welcome to the experience of the ambassadors for the San Francisco Public Library strategic plan. Several ambassadors told me about their first meeting with the Gensler crew. It was quite contentious. They knew about Lucy and Charlie Brown and expected that they would be asked to devote a good deal of time and thought into this exercise and find their contributions ignored in the final product. They were told that wouldn't be so, but they were right. It's a very old management trick. invite staff participation to present a notion of consensus and then take the project in the direction that they had intended to from the start. 

Throughout ambassadors were concerned mostly about safety and professional growth for staff. One ambassador tried to put it generously: The final plan translated the work of the library into balderdash. Circulating books is resource providing. Answering questions is thoughtful navigation. The resulting plan had nothing to do with anything they suggested. It became apparent that their role was to rubber stamp the City Librarian's pre-established goals. Lucy snatched away the football again. 

The leadership of the library can set any strategic priorities they like. They have done so. They don't even need your vote. It's going to take a lot of training to convince staff to believe in those priorities, but the library disbanded the training committee and the reference committee and the collections committee. Thoughtful navigation anyone? 

I've observed that the the current Library Commission is a powerless entity. The commissions of old actually managed the City Librarian, went into close session to conduct an annual appraisal. But you are here to shine the apple and you do it well. 

But you love data and surveys. I challenge the library to survey the staff on their morale, their safety, opportunities for growth, and on their opinion of the strategic plan and the city librarian. The results may not shine. 

Public Comment - City Librarian's Report

I really like the tote bag because the message is clear -  Read. But I'm a little puzzled that the learning goal or actually, is it a learning goal as opposed to a reading goal. It's it's just all the combin combined ways that it's possible to get this instead of just reading - the learning, listening, library time. I just think it should really be about the reading.