There isn’t a more polite group of people than the members of the various DC Public Library Friends groups. Their outrage at the systematic neglect that has turned DCPL into a broken-down wreck has been characterized — at its fiercest – by striking eloquence and silent anger.

Thus when the President of the Board of Library Trustees, John W. Hill, opened the “public” portion of the August 9 Trustees meeting by announcing that the President of the Federation of Friends, Richard Huffine, would not be sitting at the board table with them — a slap in the face heard ‘round the room — the Friends seemed to take the insult quietly.

Why would the Board of Trustees want to alienate the Friends publicly? This meeting was an important opportunity to introduce the new library Chief. Why not just let her show her chops (which she did), instead of sowing disharmony and resentment at a time when all systems appear go for the launch of the long awaited library Turnaround?

It felt like a PR fiasco, except that the Trustees knew they could count on the civilized politesse of the Friends — who prefer not to fight in public, who do not go running to the press, who came prepared to listen, and who were nearly all committed to giving the new Chief “some time,” even after decades of waiting and advocating for change. The Trustees would have known this had they asked.

One library industry commentator speculated that the Library Trustees, having finally installed the nationally recognized talent they wanted for a new Chief, backed by the power of the Federal City Council, and led by a Mayor who has chosen to involve himself at a detailed level, have simply begun to flex their muscles. “You can hear the steamroller idling,” the commentator said.

For a group as powerful as the Trustees now appears to be, the dismissal of annoying Friends — who quibble about the legality of meetings conducted behind closed doors or who cavil about cataloguing and core collections — may not even register as the affront it was. And, in fact, the Board of Trustees may have meaningful reasons for distancing itself formally from the Friends Federation. Yet

announcing the decision without discussion was simply rude, especially in front of a roomful of staff, many newly hired, who can have no doubt of the low esteem in which Library officials hold the elected representatives of the Friends.

In the end, the Friends did not stand down. Martin Carmody, Vice President of the Friends of Northeast Library and Treasurer of the Federation of Friends, dealt the Trustees a deft response, riffing on the word "friends” and cautioning that friends will “differ."

More will be heard from these most decent of the decent. Library supporters should run out to their

local library now and join the Friends group there. There is not a nobler crowd and all voices are needed in the coming period of library “transformation.”

Readers can also link to their library’s Friends group at the Federation of Friends site: www.dclibraryfriends.org