How long have the library systems management problems been going on?
Since the mid-1990s, when the Library Board of Trustees began meddling into the day-to-day operations of the library system. The Library Board then accelerated its micro-management of the library system after library director Julie Hunter resigned in 1998 because of it. After William McClure (now deceased) became the most powerful figure on the library board, eventually becoming chair, he orchestrated the hiring in 1999 of Mary Kaye Hooker as library director and the appointment of Carolyn Garnes as Hooker’s deputy. The regime of McClure, Hooker, Garnes and their cronies lasted approximately five grueling years. Almost a decade after their departure, the consequences of their attitudes and decisions continue to thwart current efforts to rid the organization of their ill-conceived, divisive, and self-serving values and practices. After a six-year (!) campaign by library reform advocates, Georgia legislators rewrote the law that spells out the structure and powers of AFPL’s trustees. The
