LIBRARY BOARD MEETS FINALISTS FOR TOP JOB

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Two of the five finalists for the $63,000-a-year job as chief of the Chicago Public Library met with library board members Tuesday afternoon in a final step toward naming a new commissioner by next week.

Board President James Lowry, who has served as interim commissioner since April, refused to identify the five finalists but said ''all are librarians.'' Two ''top candidates'' met in a closed-door session with Lowry and board members Cindy Pritzker and Cannutte Russell.

Library insiders said that the five finalists include two former employees of the Chicago library but that they were not considered the ''top candidates'' and were not interviewed Tuesday.

Several candidates from out of town were attending the American Library Association convention here, Lowry said.

The names of finalists were presented to a board committee Monday by a national search firm, Heidrick and Struggles, and a local firm, ASI Personnel, which screened candidates in a three-month quest to find a successor for former Commissioner Amanda Rudd.

Rudd was forced to resign Feb. 27 after board members criticized her management abilities. She officially stepped down in April and was retained as a consultant with a $80,750 contract that expires in November, 1986.

''We have not made a final choice,'' Lowry said in a board meeting Tuesday. ''Hopefully, we`ll have a decision next week.''

In other business, the board voted to retain Arthur Andersen & Co. at a cost of $30,000 to $35,000 to determine how to implement the library`s trouble-plagued computerized circulation system.

''We`re not talking about studies. We`re talking about action,'' Lowry said. ''We`re just going to try to bring this thing to a head.''

Lowry conceded after the meeting that the Andersen team may determine that it is more costly to fix the current computer system than to buy new hardware and software.

''That`s a possibility, and if that happens, that will be one of the options we bring back to the board and the public,'' he said. ''But we`re going to go with one of them. We`re going to solve this once and for all.''

The $2.1 million system, designed to automate circulation, maintain an inventory of the library`s collection and ''flag'' patrons with overdue books, was supposed to be operational four years ago.

The library has been engaged in protracted negotiations with DataPhase Inc., the Shawnee, Kan., firm that was hired in 1980 to design and install the system, to force the company to make the system operational.

''In the past I think we`ve concentrated too much on the legal (remedies) and not enough on the technical,'' Lowry said after the meeting.

Andersen, he said, is expected to report back to the board within four to five weeks with information ''on what has to be done to make it work.''

The contract was the second in less than a year awarded to Andersen to help solve problems with the computer system.

Lowry also lauded the efforts of board members and library staff members in effectively lobbying in Springfield for $8 million in construction funds for the Chicago system, including $5 million from the ''Build Illinois''

program targeted for the new $50 million central library.

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