(KCPW News) An audit reviewing the practices and policies of the Salt Lake City Library calls for more management changes. The 53-page report says decision-making needs to be more streamlined, something Amy Cohen Paul of Management Partners, which conducted the audit, says wasn’t happening under the plan implemented by former Library Director Beth Elder.
“The implementation of the current strategic plan is very unusual,” she says. “We have not seen other libraries or even local governments devote the kinds of resources that the library has. We also feel that that there is a better way to involve more employees in the library system in implementing the strategic plan than the way it’s being done now.”
The audit, which was presented to the Salt Lake City Council and library board today, also shows that morale among the staff is better under Transitional Director Linda Hamilton.
Library Board President Kevin Werner says Hamilton was essential in helping turn the library around after Elder resigned in October.
“Public administration is tough, and administrating something the size and scope and complexity of the library is a tough job, and I think that in Linda Hamilton, our transitional director, we have somebody that has an extensive and long skillset in doing that,” he says. “Beth Elder, she did not have that same level of experience or amount of experience.”
The library is in the process of hiring a new full-time director who will likely start in the fall.
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