Exploratory Reflections on the Role of Library Director in municipal librairies

The directors of municipal libraries are civil servants, held in obedience to the municipal authority. However, they also have obligations to the public which include, notably in the area of acquisitions, neutrality. The guarantees which they enjoy to protect themselves against pressure from the municipality in such matter are uncertain ; these lines are explored in order to improve them. But the necessary reinforcement of the rights of directors, effected in the interest of the public, has as a corollary the necessity for them to submit to the rules aimed at protecting that same public against possibly arbitrary decisions: an explicit acquisition policy; transparency in management and evaluation practices. The perceptible problems of an association between the determination and drive of the acquisition policy of those responsible on the one hand and users on the other are the object of an examination aimed at making room for each of these in their appropriate place. That is to say, the most appropriate ways to resolve eventual conflicts.
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