Susan Kent "Getting Political: Politics and the Library"			August 7, 1.00-3.30
	If you think the library, any type of library, is "above" politics, you are not dealing with the real world. Politics, in all of its manifestations, drives institutions. It has a great impact on libraries -- public, university, school and special-- in terms of funding, planning, facilities, staffing, technology, resources, and governance. The library, as part of a larger whole, whether that be a city of county government, a university, a school system, or a corporation, must actively play the political game to succeed and to survive. Library leaders must be politically astute, aware of the political/corporate culture in which they work, and, most importantly, know how to work effectively within their institution's political and governance system. Positioning the library as a valued and valuable resource is a key responsibility of library leaders. Understanding how "the system" works, how to be influential and, perhaps, most importantly, how to respond to political pressure, is critical. Getting political -- and staying political-- is a key to effective and dynamic library leadership. We'll discuss: - playing politics-- the pitfalls and the dangers.. - learning to bend or when to say "yes" and when to say "no". - how to twist arms and influence people. The session will consist of a short presentation and several case studies which will require active participation by attendees. Suggestions for the case studies, especially those based on real life situations, are welcome and may be emailed to skent@lapl.org. For some preliminary reading on the subject, I recommend: Garcia, June and Sutherland, Sue. Public Library Administrators in the Political Arena. Bertelsmann Foundation Publishers, 1999. (This publication may be found on the web at www.stiftung.bertelsmann.de/english. From this website go to "Publications" and then "Public Libraries" where this paper may be downloaded.)
				Coordinates
				Susan Kent is the City Librarian for the Los Angeles Public Library where she is responsible for the overall administration of the library system which serves a population of 3.8 million people through a Central Library and 67 branch libraries. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles. She has a Bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton and a Master's degree from Columbia University in New York. Ms. Kent is the Immediate Past Chair of the Executive Board of the Urban Libraries Council. She served as the President of the Public Library Association from 1987-1988 and was a member of the Council of the American Library Association from 1990 - 1998. In 1998, she was the first recipient of the Charlie Robinson Award from the Public Library Association for excellence, creativity and innovation as a Public Library Director. Ms. Kent has been appointed to the Bertelsmann Foundation's International Network of Public Libraries. Ms. Kent is a Fellow of The Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities. She is a member of the Trusteeship, the Southern California Forum of the International Women's Forum. She also serves as the First Vice President of the Los Angeles City General Managers' Association. She has been appointed to the Los Angeles Unified School District's Reading Matters Task Force which is advisory to the Superintendent of Schools. Ms. Kent's experience in public libraries includes work at the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, the Finkelstein Memorial Library in Spring Valley, New York, the Tucson Public Library in Arizona and the Minneapolis Public Library in Minnesota. Ms. Kent's experience includes two years as Managing Director of the Arizona Theatre Company, a professional regional theatre. She was an adjunct faculty member of the University of Arizona Graduate Library School where she taught courses in management, collection development and future trends in library service. Ms. Kent serves as an independent consultant for libraries and nonprofit organizations in the areas of strategic planning, capital facilities planning, financial development and management. Most recently she has consulted for the San Francisco Public Library on its "Post Occupancy Evaluation of the Central Library" and for the Seattle Public Library on its capital facilities needs. Ms. Kent is the co-editor of Courtly Love in the Shopping Mall: Humanities Programs for Young Adults, published by the American Library Association in 1991. She has written a regular column on fundraising for the Bottom Line and has had work published in many professional journals and monographs including "American Public Libraries: A Long Transformative Moment" an article in Daedalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Fall, 1996) .