WiLS March 2016 Member Interview: John DeBacher, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

One of our greatest joys at WiLS is hearing our members tell the stories of the big and important work they are doing – interesting new projects or initiatives, or even interesting and new approaches to old projects.  And, in addition to hearing about it, it makes us even happier when we can share those stories with other members.   Each month, WiLS is proud to feature an interview with one of our library members.  This month, we are very happy to share the insights of John DeBacher, Director of Public Library Development for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Why did you, personally, choose to work with libraries?

I love literature. I love to read, as well as write. Going to college as an English major, I thought a life in publishing would be great–working with authors, editors, marketing. But after five years of work as a book designer (note to self: colorblindness not a good attribute), production manager at a university press, then for a software publisher in Boston, I realized that there was not much connection, if any, with the reader.

The Boston Globe ran an article on the Simmons College library degree program–that they were recruiting students for their children’s concentration, since there was  a need for children’s librarians. At book design competitions, I was drawn to the children’s books, which had a much larger palette for creativity, particularly the newer editions (at that time) of folktales–from Paul O. Zelinsky to James Marshall–and imagined myself telling tales for children (solo storytelling appealed since I’d spent a lot of time in theater). I called my brother, who at that time was director of marketing for ALA’s publishing division, and asked if the need for children’s librarians extended beyond Boston. He confirmed that it did.

From there it was fortunate serendipity. The Boston software publisher sold its product and laid us all off. My wife finished law school and we returned to Chicago. I got a six-month interim job at the U of Illinois at Chicago library as facilities manager at about the time unemployment ran out, then got a scholarship to the University of Chicago’s Graduate Library School, as well as a job as an editorial assistant on their Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.

What is unique about the culture of Wisconsin libraries?  How do you influence it?

Ha! That makes me smile wryly because “unique” sometimes is a euphemism for odd, wacky, weird, or different is an anomalous way. And in a number of ways, I guess the culture of Wisconsin libraries is a little like that. Maybe because you need culture to make things like cheese!

I worked as a children’s librarian for Chicago Public Library, then as director of a small, rural library in Big Rapids Michigan before coming to Wisconsin in early 1994 as director of the public library in Monona, so I have a bit of multi-state perspective (and each of those others is somewhat “unique,” too). I also am in contact nationally with state library development directors, and comparisons are something we do.

I think Wisconsin’s library community has a bit of an insular attitude–that we do things this way, so it must be right. That may provide some interesting (another euphemism) challenges as we attempt to review and redesign regional library services. I sometimes think that library directors don’t know just how lucky we are — we have a structure for resource sharing among public libraries that is unparalleled — definitely unique when considered nationally. I think we also are somewhat unique in that we tend to carry an embattled attitude with us: the special libraries because there are so fewer; the academic libraries, particularly in the UW System, because they feel somewhat powerless in justifying, advocating for, and obtaining budget support for the libraries, distinct from the academic departments they support; and school libraries because the local funding limits have caused many non-classroom professional vacancies to be cut or left unfilled in order to keep teachers in the classroom.

But at the same time, we are a terrifically unique bunch of individuals who work hard to carry out our missions, and to collectively contribute to literacy and learning throughout the state. Next time you see a colleague or a librarian in another discipline, do some mutual back-patting.

What do you think is important to know about the patrons or community you work with? What helps you understand those needs?

I work at the state level, and frankly, I miss the local, county, and regional communities I worked in when I was a library director. It’s an odd point of view a here, a block off the capitol square. Our efforts are somewhat an extension of the regional library services, and in that regard are pretty invisible to the public. To individual library directors and trustees, I am the one who they contact when things are not going so well. I try to get re-energized at conferences and meetings, absorbing some of the energy and successes that are achieved throughout the state. Like a lamprey eel.

What big ideas are being worked on at your library? What problems are being solved?

The Public Library System Redesign project is probably the biggest, from my perspective. If that goes well and is carried out with support from the libraries throughout the state, it could bear fruit to more effectively support libraries in new and different ways as we go into the next 45 years of Wisconsin library systems. My team is also reviewing and updating the Public Library Standards, and I hope we can consider the additional services public libraries are looked upon to provide, as well as the community-based planning and partnerships that help to keep public libraries relevant and essential to their individual communities.

Do you have anything else you’d like to share here?  

Help to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Wisconsin Library Association! And if you are in the Madison area (or like to visit the Madison area, or like to have fun…), watch for the special event to be announced for Sunday, August 21, on the shores of Lake Monona!

Aloha!

John DeBacher