To the editor:
What this article [after-nine-months-samara-klein-to-resign-as-great-barrington-library-director] fails to investigate is why, in the span of less than a year, three senior staff members of the Great Barrington Libraries, including two executive Directors, have resigned. Nor does it recognize that neither of the two staff members who have submitted their resignations but who are still Town employees is in a position to discuss what made them reach their respective decisions. They are both thorough professionals, and the explanation provided at the most recent Trustees meeting needs to be seen in this light.
Those who have been following the Trustees meetings each month will perceive a crisis of leadership that resides within that body, and not the professional library staff. Two Trustees have also chosen not to continue in their positions, both of whom have professional experience in nonprofits and libraries. The fact that these two highly qualified people left the board after a short time is also notable. The bizarre apparent resignation of the chair of the Trustees at the end of a recent meeting, followed by his continuation in that roll the following month as if nothing had happened, also deserves scrutiny.
The professional staff at the library deserve support from the elected volunteers on the Board of Library Trustees. Instead, anyone who has watched the recordings of the Trustee meetings will readily perceive that they have been repeatedly treated with a callous disregard that is truly shocking. Great Barrington needs to get its house in order or very soon there will not be sufficient staff at the libraries to provide the community services that we all have come to depend upon.
In her nine months as Library Director, Samara Klein has achieved a great deal, including updating policies, instituting new initiatives, and offering a much needed boost to the morale of staff worn down by their heroic efforts to serve our community during the pandemic, coupled with chronic infrastructure issues at both libraries.
While these Town employees are indeed under compensated, especially at senior levels when compared with their peer organizations in Berkshire County, this is not a significant reason for either Samara’s departure, nor for long-serving Assistant Director Talya Leodari’s decision to accept a position elsewhere. The appalling lack of support, empathy, consideration and respect with which they have been treated by those whose position should be to enhance their work rather than impede it, is the real story here.
Tim Abbott
Great Barrington
