Berkeley librarian quits over book toss
Head Berkeley librarian Jeff Scott announced his resignation following a controversy over the process of winnowing old library books from the collection in a dispute that disgruntled staff members had dubbed “Librarygate.”
Scott said he would step down Sept. 8 and be temporarily replaced by Deputy Director Sarah Dentan. His resignation came three weeks after 100 people and more than a dozen librarians and a city councilman gathered on the library’s front steps to rail against the process that sent what they said was up to 39,000 books to recycling plants and donation centers without first consult-
ing department heads.
“It is with a heavy heart that I tender my resignation,” Scott said in a statement. “I have enjoyed my work here and I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish.”
On Aug. 12, librarians and Berkeley City Councilman Kriss Worthington angrily complained that Scott had misrepresented the number of books culled from the collection and had lost the confidence of his staff. In a raucous demonstration, librarians denounced Scott, wheeled out a cart full of books and said that the number of books Scott had removed from shelves would fill 360 such carts. Then they solemnly read a list of booted-out books, as if reading the names of the honored dead on Memorial Day.
At the time, Scott said he had been “blindsided” by his librarians who, he claimed, don’t like to perform the necessary job of weeding books from the collection.
Following Scott’s announcement, former head reference librarian Diane Davenport said it was “time for Scott to move on and for us to find someone who is a better fit for us.” She said Scott’s insistence that only 2,000 books had been culled and that all culled books had been offered to a library fundraising group were “outright falsehoods.”
Interim Director Dentan agreed that Scott’s 2,000-book figure was “absolutely incorrect,” and that Scott had chosen not to acknowledge the mistake.
Dentan acknowledged there were “morale issues” at the library, and pledged to mend fences with staff members and investigate claims of retaliation against protesting librarians, which she called “absolutely unacceptable.”
Scott, former head of the Tulare County library in Visalia, was hired by Berkeley last fall.