May 13, 1996|By Larry Carson | Larry Carson,SUN STAFF
The three library directors who are finalists to replace retiring 33-year Baltimore County director Charles W. Robinson would come from cities with library systems as large or larger than the county's.
The finalists for the $100,000-a-year job -- Mary R. Somerville of Miami, Jim Fish of San Jose, Calif., and Ronald A. Dubberly of Atlanta -- are due in Towson on Wednesday for tours, interviews and a forum Saturday with library employees, public school officials and library-affiliated public and professional groups.
The library board expects to choose this month. "It's going to be a tough choice," said Patricia Fisher, library board president.
County library officials say they are not surprised at such high-caliber finalists, because Baltimore County's system has a national reputation for innovation and high circulation.
The county library had grown from circulating 2 million items in 1963 when Robinson took over as director, to more than 12 million in 1992 before budget cuts forced the closing of eight minibranches and the Loch Raven branch.
Robinson said he would be pleased with any of the candidates as his successor. "If I had personally come up with the top three, these are the people I would have picked," he said, adding that he knows all three professionally. Thirty-two people applied last summer for the post.
Dubberly worked for the Baltimore County Public Library from 1965 to 1969. He has been in Atlanta since 1987.
He would take a slight pay cut to come to the 15-branch system based in Towson from his 32-branch system. "This is a positive challenge for me, a great opportunity to be a leader" in the profession, he said.
Somerville, Miami-Dade director since 1994, said Robinson's reputation as the man who built Baltimore County's library into one of the top systems in the nation is a big attraction within the small professional library community. "It really is a fine system," she said. "He [Robinson] really is an innovator in the field."
She did not say why she would want to leave Miami, with its 1.6 million population and 31 library branches. Her salary also would drop slightly if she were chosen county director.
Fish has been director of San Jose's 17 branches, serving a population of 840,000, since 1990.
"Baltimore County is viewed as one of the premier library systems in the country," Fish said. "I'll certainly miss the weather, but I like the energy of the [Maryland] area." He was stationed at Edgewood Arsenal, now part of Aberdeen Proving Ground, in Harford County from 1969 to 1971. Fish is the only finalist with young children, ages 7 and 9.
Robinson plans to formally leave his job in September, when the new director will take over. Jean Barry Molz, his deputy director since 1964, plans to retire after spending several months aiding the new director.
Library officials have made clear they are not looking for a clone of the witty, often blunt Robinson, nor are they planning huge changes in the system. What the board does want, Fisher has said, is "a risk taker" with "high political skills."
Those skills will be in demand. After losing nine library branches in 1993 because of budget cuts and burdened with stagnant budget support since then, the system faces an uncertain financial future at a time when the board wants to expand computer technology and continue buying popular books.
Pub Date: 5/13/96
