Floyd Council

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Floyd G. Council Sr (born c. 1964 in Shelby, MIssissippi) is the executive director of the Birmingham Public Library system.

Council is the son of Floyd Billings and Evelyn Council. He grew up in northwest Mississippi and attended Broad Street High School, but spent summers with family in Dallas, Texas and Chicago, Illinois. He served in the U.S. Army as a communications specialist in Hanau, Germany, and has performed around the world as a tenor jazz vocalist. He earned his bachelor's degree in media communication at American College, and began studying law at Western Michigan University before switching to library science. He completed his master's at the Florida State University College of Information.

Council worked in libraries in Dallas, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee, and for the Joseph Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago. He was branch manager for the Dr Julia Davis African-American Research Library and Archives for the St Louis, Missouri Public Library; assistant director of public services at the District of Columbia Public Library; and regional manager for the Broward County, Florida Libraries Division.

Council was most recently the central library administrator for the Atlanta-Fulton, Georgia County Public Library System before accepting the Birmingham job in November 2017. As director, he planned to engage residents in the process of developing a master plan to utilize the libraries as partners with schools and as community resources, and to enhance programming and service.

Many library employees have expressed displeasure with Council's leadership, citing instances of harsh and humiliating conduct and an atmosphere of fear and mistrust. A survey of employees in May 2018 found very low morale. Twenty staff members, speaking through a statement delivered to the library's board by Monica King-Slater in October of that year, urged the trustees to terminate Council at the end of his one-year probationary contract.

Council is divorced and has two sons, Floyd Jr and Jonathan.


Preceded by:
Angela Fisher Hall 		Director, Birmingham Public Library
November 13, 2017 - present 		Succeeded by:
current

References

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