|
Military Decisions Outweigh
Pentagon Library Storage Needs
���There are parts of the collection that no one had ulilized in decades.������Fritz Kirklighter
(American Libraries Editor and Publisher Leonard Kniffel interviewed Fritz Kirklighter, Pentagon director of administrative services, November 6, 2002. This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.)
American Libraries: How, when, and by whom was it decided that the bulk of the Pentagon Library would be moved to the Taylor Building in Crystal City?
Fritz Kirklighter: When my supervisors tell me that this is what I have to do, I���m not always sure who in their chain of command made the decision. The library was impacted not because of the airplane crash but because of the water it took to put the fire out. After that, equipment was moved out to other buildings. There appeared to be mold growing in the gypsum board. As the extent of the mold growth started to show, we found other problems creeping up in the back portions of the library. Roofing material started to fall, perhaps asbestos. The library was shut down as an indirect result of the crash.
AL: Would it be correct to say that the library lost out in the scramble for space at the Pentagon after September 11?
Kirklighter: Around October, the issue about space in the building came up, in trying to get some for the organizations that were determined to need it by the department secretaries and the Secretary of Defense in order to prosecute the war. After 9/11, the Pentagon has taken on the image of the largest operations center in the world. Determinations were made that certain things had to leave. The powers that be decided that because of concerns for the safety of the Pentagon Library and the available space, it needed to move. The decision was made at higher levels. It was up to the Army to decide who comes and who goes in the available living space. The library space, although damaged, was large enough to accommodate a large number of people. Once the extent of the damage was determined, people started making an assessment. It was a matter of luck that the Taylor building came open at the same time the Office of the Administrative Assistant (OAA) was looking for space to house its people. The Navy that was in there had vacated. We were notified about the fourth floor of the Taylor building in mid to late October.
AL: We understand there are two plans currently on the table. One involves the redoing of the Taylor facility to properly house library materials. The second involves eventually bringing the library wholesale back into the Pentagon when the new Pentagon Athletic Club is built in 2004. Is any of this definite?
Kirklighter: What is definite is that the third floor of the Taylor Building is being renovated. We had hoped that the new library would open to the public in January 2003; that may have sloped to February. Roughly 80% of the Pentagon Library collection will be in that facility. The remaining portion will be located on the Pentagon concourse. We have couple of options there. One is what you see now, the Reference Center. We are also looking at other places in the Pentagon to move that operation. One idea is to move it downstairs near what used to be the old Defense Supply Service���s Washington area, an OAA storefront. The reason to move it is that would we would like to think we���d gain more space. One of the options that I���m looking at is that the Pentagon is being rebuilt, and they are looking at five different ���wedges.��� They are currently in construction of wedges one and two. Down the road���that is six or eight years down the road���we may be able to relocate the Pentagon Library in one of those wedges, when they are starting to develop the planning.
AL: We also understand that there are many positions now vacant in the library. What���s the plan for those positions? Is there still a hiring freeze?
Kirklighter: We are in the process of advertising those positions. One has already been advertised, and we have already identified a candidate, a senior reference librarian. The plan is to fill the positions. We���ve been under a freeze for a year, an Army-wide freeze. As for the director of the Pentagon Library���who is now going to be called chief of the Pentagon Library���we���re hoping to get that into Access this month, the librarian career field for government personnel. They advertise it within the field of librarians in the government. The jobs are open first to the federal work force. It���s hard to say when it will be filled, but a short search would be two to three months, nine to 11 is long. The hiring freeze was lifted in July.
AL: Is the library being marginalized because it has failed to demonstrate that it is essential to the war fighters?
Kirklighter: It is not being marginalized. The idea that it is comes from some of the librarians who have left the organization. I was threatened by one of the librarians, who has since left, that they would write a letter to Mrs. Bush saying that that they have shut the library down, they are closing the doors. What I was trying to do, even before 9/11, was to modernize this library. The image they had���and I���m not trivializing what they���ve done���but there were a lot of areas that I saw needed improvement. Kathy [Earnest] refused to acknowledge the fact that we had told her the library would be moved. Finally we had to say, ���Get the librarians ready, Kathy, they are coming tonight.��� There were parts of the collection that no one had utilized in decades. They don���t want to give up some of those materials. I questioned why we need to have the yearbooks of the Naval Academy. Who uses those things? If they did nothing, they just thought the problem would go away. The letter-writing campaign started to get pretty negative, and government officials had been told half-truths and lies.
AL: What do you make of the users group that has formed to get the library back in the Pentagon?
Kirklighter: They all have similar concerns that Mr. [Joel B.] Hudson [administrative assistant to the Secretary of the Army] and everyone else shares���that materials are safeguarded and made available. We���re doing the best we can with what we���ve been given. We have several things we are working on to improve access; one is the establishment of a shuttle. We have augmented the bus system with a Taylor shuttle, running every 10 minutes from the Pentagon to the Taylor Building. Other functions are moving out there too, not just the library.
AL: What other functions do you oversee besides the library?
Kirklighter: Also the passport and visa section and the Department of Defense post office. I���ve been in this position since July; I was at the War College until July 2001. I took over the U.S. Army Center for the Armed Forces in the Pentagon, which included the Pentagon Library. That was dismantled in October 2001, and in November the OAA realigned itself functionally. For the new organizations that evolved I became director of administrative services.
I spoke to Kathy Earnest about what was occurring and sought her advice on a number of issues. Kathy was a good librarian head. I was responsible for her being hired into the director���s position in 1997. But when OAA was given the direction that ���this is what you need to do,��� when my superiors have made that decision, I become directive in nature: These are our marching orders, and this is what I expect you to do with your assets in the way you see fit.
AL: Secretary of State Colin Powell was recently quoted as saying that he no longer has any encyclopedias, dictionaries, or other reference material in his office because ���all you need is a search engine.��� What do you make of that?
Kirklighter: I can tell you that one of the things that I had asked Kathy about many times is that there is no clear tabulation of the users. Yes, we get a count of how many walk through the doors, and they can show books checked out. But there is something missing. Although there is a great deal of support for the library and you see it coming from leadership in the Department of Defense, what I have not seen is the hue and cry from the Pentagon users themselves, the average person in there. We know they���re out there, don���t get me wrong, but a lot of people have found that it���s easier to go on the Internet. I did my master���s thesis 99% on the Internet. That is the wave of the future���digitization, electronic media. I want a statement of worth from someone who can come in and start doing some work on what other databases are out there in the field. I want to be able to sit here in Rosslyn and access the Pentagon Library. And I want to digitize that historical documentation. I don���t see the need, in a lot of cases���when librarians identify areas of library that can be made accessible���to maintain the paper volumes. Dispense with some of the bulkiness of them. Once we���ve digitized materials they could go to an archive or to an institution that can���t use the electronic media. None of it would be thrown out; it could go to the National Archives.
AL: Anything else you can tell me about the future of the Pentagon Library?
Kirklighter: We are committed to providing outstanding library services to the Pentagon public. We are unfortunately in a position where we are trying to evolve, find a home for it. There are a number of other options that my superiors are looking at, but right now I���m trying to focus on getting the library into the Taylor Building and improving the Reference Center and transportation to give people better access. But we have to get it established on its current path and then see how it pans out. The longer the Pentagon Library is kept in its current configuration, the more customers it���s going to lose.
Kathy was kept apprised of the issues surrounding the Pentagon Library. She was a strong advocate for keeping it in the Pentagon, but she could no longer control the decision-making process. People above her and me decided and said, ���Do we want people in the building or do we want books?��� It came down to that. The library is a valuable source of material to the people. It���s a very difficult time for the librarians. They are in a catch 22. There is service they want to provide but no secure base from which to provide it. We���ve been on real seesaw here and the librarians bear the brunt, trying to do their jobs from a suitcase. | 
