Thin end of the wedge has arrived…
Applicants for director of the Lafayette Public Library system may not be required to hold master’s degree from an American Library Association accredited program.
Meeting Monday for the first time, a library director search committee discussed whether the current requirement of an ALA-certified master’s degree should be removed since the library board in December voted to cut ties with the 150-year-old organization.
Sarah Monroe has served as interim director since August, after the board fired Danny Gillane in an illegal executive session. After Gillane sued, the board voted to allow him to resign so he could retain his benefits. Because Monroe is a civil service employee of Lafayette Consolidated Government, she cannot serve indefinitely as interim director, which is not a civil service position.
The civil service board could allow Monroe to serve as interim director until around Thanksgiving Day in November, Lafayette library legal adviser Paige Beyt, said.
The ALA has come under attack by conservative groups and library boards, including some statewide library systems, that have severed ties with the group, calling it Marxist because its president is a self-described Marxist lesbian and because, they allege, the organization conspires to expose children to sexually-explicit materials.
Allan Moore, the newest library board member, asked to strike the ALA certification requirement given the board’s previous action toward the ALA.
Moore, of Broussard, is a former youth minister who was appointed to the library board in November by the Parish Council. Prior to the council vote, Moore said he doesn’t believe libraries should help push “the latest social agenda.”
He replaced David Pitre, a former faith-based school administrator, who resigned Aug. 31 due to out-of-state work obligations.
Pitre had been appointed chairman of the director search committee before he resigned. He remains on the committee, which now is chaired by board Vice Chairwoman Stephanie Armbruster, who voted to ban at least one book from the library system and spoke out against the ALA. Dawn Williams of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette also is on the search committee.
State law, Armbruster said, only requires librarians to be certified by the Louisiana Board of Library Examiners. The state board, however, requires they hold an ALA-certified master’s degree, she said.
Armbruster said she was advised by State Librarian Meg Placke that librarians at some small, rural libraries in the state may not meet that requirement because they have trouble filling positions.
Placke, she said, advised the library board to keep the requirement but noted that exceptions can be made as Louisiana libraries are having trouble filling director positions. It took East Baton Rouge Parish a year to hire a librarian.
Beyt cautioned that the state board requirement of an ALA-certified master’s degree is a backdoor requirement.
“The highly qualified pool, I suspect, will be very small,” Pitre said.
The state library under Placke did not renew its membership in the ALA for 2024. The state board did not vote to do so.
