Agree or Disagree
- The Board makes policy
- AND
- The Director and Staff is responsible for carrying out the policy that the Board decides on.
Wilsonian Dichotomy
- Named after Woodrow Wilson.
- The father of public administration.
- No Democratic way to build a highway.
- Now considered over simplistic and taught only in library science classes.
Public Policy
- Authoritive or sanctioned
- decisions
- by governmental actors
Authoritative or Sanctioned Action
- It has to be approved by a governing body
- It doesn’t always mean an action
- State’s decision to NOT fund public libraries is also a public policy
By governmental actors….
- Public policy is more than the policies of the Library District.
- It can be a city giving a tax break which affects the District
- It can be a cooperative arrangement like WIN
- It can be influenced by non-governmental actors:
- Unions-- prevailing wage groups
- Professional groups-- standards
- Consultants and Experts
It refers to….
- The substance of what government does, not the processes by which decisions are made.
- Policy means the outcomes or outputs of governmental decisions.
Public Policy
- Top Down and Rational?
- Most professional planners
- Accountants
- American Library Association
- Bottom Up and Incremental?
- Public Administrators
- “Science of Muddling Through by Charles Lindblom.
Pluralism...
- States that there is no single public good but a lot of competing interest groups.
- By being responsive to its customer base, bureaucracy is at least as responsive as the three “official” branches of government
Pluralism
- Joe Smith
- Works for Boeing
- Hates Taxes
- Is a Catholic
- Boy Scout Leader
- Uses Amtrak
- Has Elderly Mother
Pluralism
- Positives
- Rights of the individual -- what America’s all about.
- Good customer service is based on pluralism, ie keeping everyone happy
- Negatives
- Creates rigid structures of privilege
- Those that have keep and resist new participants,
- Brings about inertia and atrophy
1988 Planning Process (pluralism in action)
- Three roles out of possible eight were accepted
- Standards developed because of input from professional association (Public Library Assn.)
- Were influenced by staff input
- But had to be adopted by Trustees (governing body)
Planning Process Roles --1988
Planning Process Roles 1988
- Most public libraries picked the same roles we did.
- Formal education support was ignored even though it represents a large portion of our clientele.
- World Wide Web made some of these roles (I.e. Research) outdated.
- Necessary for accreditation.
Been there before
- Zero base budgeting experiment in early seventies.
- Each function of government had to be reaffirmed on a regular basis.
- In the real world, would you really deep six the University of Missouri?
- How much time should be spent justifying the existence of the University of Missouri?
Round & Round We Go...
- Planning for Results--
- Launched by the Public Library Association in 1998.
- Developed with the aid of a consulting firm.
- SCCCLD is a national leader (God help us all)
- Necessary for Accreditation (what accred?).
Planning for Results Roles
Politically Correct Question
- Where’s the references to Children’s Door to Education?
- Children aren’t to be isolated in their own little programmatic activities. Every function is to appeal to the full range of age groups.
- Watch out Jim Hicks!
Point for Discussion...
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of this new planning paradigm?
- What does it have to do with public policy?
- Who are the special interest groups?
- Who are the actors?
- Who sanctions?
Policy Example--Tax Abatements
- Pluralism-- who are the players?
- Cities
- School Districts and other entities
- Developers
- Experts
- Public
Policy Example-- No Mo Money for MO
- Special interests demand mandates
- Hancock Amendment requires that refunds be delivered
- Tax cuts are enacted to so that checks don’t have to be written…
- Missouri runs out of money.
Policy Example-- Z39.50
- Standards ANSI, NISO, ISO.
- Predates the World Wide Web.
- Let’s make the Internet hard to use for the general public.
- Let’s have a Z39.50 policy making board and go to meetings in exotic places.
Policy Example--GASB 34
- Tries to make public and private accounting standards the same
- Supported by bond investors so that they can accurately read the balance sheets.
- Are books capitalized? ALA v. accountants.
Bureaucracy
- Bureau= writing desk
- Kratos= rule
- Max Weber
- Expert, Rules, Continuous reg. not whim.
- Loyalty to duties, lifetime career
Bureaucracy is a neutral term
- Nazis bureaucratized the holicaust
- Bureaucracy kept the U.S. going during Watergate.
- Too little bureaucracy: Somalia, Afghanistan.
- Too much bureaucracy: most governments.
How will these future developments affect public policy and libraries?
- Merger of Internet & Digital TV?
- Merger of cable & telephone? (Charter/ATT)
- On line and automated book replacements?
- Holography & visual reality?
- Micro machines?
- Bioscience/Technology?
- Further development of world economy?
- Terrorism
- Multiculturalism reaches St. Charles County?
Case: It’s Perfectly Normal
- Pluralism/ Professionalism
- American Life League
- ACLU
- American Library Association
- Advantages to Both Parties…
- A universally held and challenged book
- Fund Raising for ALL
- Continued Sales for Robie Harris
- Defense: Swim with a large school
Case: Church Services in Library
- First Amendment Rights?
- Free Speech v. Separation of Church and State.
- Public Discussion of Religious Books?
- School v. Library?
- Public Forum? Proselytizing at entrance to library?
- Is Worship Protected Speech?
- Religious Speech v. Worship
- Church, Bah’ai’s, Ethical Society?
- Other ways to bureaucratically regulate?
Your role in a public policy system
- The District’s policies are public policy statements.
- You can’t make policy, you can interpret it.
- There are broader policy making bodies which affect Library District
- Professional groups are a pluralist influence on public policy
- There are competing pressures, however.