Suddenly Directing: An Interview with Florence Doksansky

The article presents an interview with Florence Doksansky, interim university librarian at Brown University. Doksansky served as associate university librarian at Brown for twenty-one years until early 2004 when her supervisor resigned. Doksansky spoke about the challenges of being an interim director at a medium-size Association of Research Libraries library. The library was in the middle of a multi-year reorganization and into the second year of contract talks with unionized nonprofessional support employees who were working without a contract. In addition, budgets weren\u27t keeping pace with inflation, the physical condition of the libraries was deteriorating and a new offsite storage facility was about to be brought online. Doksansky feels that reporting to the deputy provost has been interesting and at times fun. It gave her an opportunity to educate a member of the senior administration on many of the library\u27s issues, concerns and opportunities. Doksansky feels that he has learned a great deal about the library that will help him bring in a new leader to meet challenges