March 2008 by American Libraries

SECOND LIFE Second Thoughts

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NEWSMAKER Stephen M. Kohn

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SUMMIT School Libraries

MARCH 2008

THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

Turning Community Stories Into Homegrown Poetry

LIFELONG Reaching Out to Every Age at Every Stage

LEARNING

PLUS: ALA PHILADELPHIA MIDWINTER REPORT From NBA to FBI: Speakers, Exhibits, Candidates

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A new K-12 discovery portal that ﬁnally makes the Web a reliable learning tool! Quality: content selected by teachers Standards: 71 subject areas with content aligned to curriculum Best of Web: students search 3 million educator-selected Web pages On-target: age- and subject-appropriate resources Affordable: as little as $695/year (district and multi-year pricing available) Outreach: great for K-12 and public libraries

“This is better than Google® because in Google you get lots of stuff you don’t need.” ~ SchoolRooms student user in Ohio

www.schoolrooms.net

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CONTENTS AMERICAN LIBRARIES

Features 50

STORY QUILT: POEMS OF A PLACE A library’s social history project turns a community’s stories into homegrown poetry

SPEAKERS FROM NBA TO FBI DRAW 13,600 TO PHILADELPHIA Attendance soars as a basketball legend, notable authors, and a whistleblower tackle issues of free speech, privacy, and literacy

MARCH 2008

BY MARY CUFFE-PEREZ

OFFICIAL CANDIDATES STATEMENTS

Story Quil lwa

Poems of a Place

2009–10 presidential contenders Camila Alire and J. Linda Williams

CANDIDATES FORUM

ALA COUNCIL AND EXECUTIVE BOARD WRAP-UPS

Highlights of the Midwinter Meeting debate

Accreditation standards and accessibility are Council priorities, while Executive Board hears predictions of an election-year lull for library legislation at the federal level

Cover design by Jennifer Palmer

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ost days, you’ll find John Mechanik, his family homestead in Galway, a ti upstate New York, tinkering with his splitting wood, or making cider in his homem press. If you catch him in the right mood, he By Mary Cuffe-Perez what he’s doing and tell a story about Galwa days, when it was 90% dairy farms. Where yo expect to find John is at a poetry reading—h COVER STORY read a poem since high school—but there he October 15, 2005, in the third row of the Gal ALL SEASONS & ALL REASONS School auditorium, as poems from the Story Lifelong learning involves the establishment of a continuum performed onstage. He even wore his brown of library use that moves our patrons through a lifetime sports jacket for the occasion. of learning, for every age at every stage, connecting every type of library

A library’s social history project turns a community’s stories into homegrown poetry

BY LESLIE BURGER

2/19/2008 2:29:29 PM

CONTENTS AMERICAN LIBRARIES

MARCH 2008

VOLUME 39 #3

ISSN 0002-9769

Departments

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

30 34

TECH NEWS IN PRACTICE

DISPATCHES FROM THE FIELD

INTERNET LIBRARIAN

Open Everything

BY MEREDITH FARKAS

Ending the Status Quo Mansell, Part Deux

BY BRADFORD LEE EDEN

BY JOSEPH JANES

PEOPLE

News 12 18 42

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

ALA U.S. & INTERNATIONAL NEWSMAKER: Stephen M. Kohn

Special Reports 27

BY JENNIFER BUREK PIERCE

WORKING KNOWLEDGE

LIBRARIAN’S LIBRARY

Loose Lips Sink Ships

BY MARY PERGANDER

The Very Definition of Definition

ROUSING READS

Watershed Moments at the Movies

BY BILL OTT

GIRLS RAISE CASH FOR KENYA

SOLUTIONS AND SERVICES

OPINION AND COMMENTARY

BY BART BIRDSALL

79 34

FROM THE EDITOR

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Getting Involved: It’s Easier Than You Think BY LEONARD KNIFFEL

Circle of Service

BY LORIENE ROY

READER FORUM

10 11

PUBLIC PERCEPTION ON MY MIND

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Downloading the Bard

LIS EDUCATORS MEET TO FURTHER COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

YOUTH MATTERS

BY MARY ELLEN QUINN

BY LOUISE ROBBINS

CURRENTS

Letters and Comments

Overvaluing the Virtual

BY LISA FORREST

WILL’S WORLD

Is Everybody Happy?

BY WILL MANLEY

JOBS

CAREER LEADS FROM JOBLIST Your #1 Source for Job Openings

2/19/2008 2:31:51 PM

From the Editor | CONTRIBUTORS

Mary Cuffe-Perez (“Story Quilt,” p. 50) is the creator and director of the Story Quilt project. A writer with an interest in local and natural history, she has published articles in various magazines, including Adirondack Life, The NYS Conservationist, and Yankee. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous literary journals. Cuffe-Perez is the author of a collection of poems based on the life of a homeless woman living in Albany, New York, titled The Woman of Too Many Days (Calyx Press) and her children’s book Skylar will be published by Philomel Books in March 2008. Her latest collection of poems, Life List, for which she received an Artist’s Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, was inspired by a farm woman living in Galway, New York. She conducts poetry workshops through Poets and Writers Inc.

Feedb@ck Forum What do you think—about Spanish-language collection building? Resource Description and Access? The ALA Midwinter Meeting? American Libraries news stories? Visit the new AL Forum at al.ala.org/forum/ and join the

conversation.

march 2008

try to be careful about what I ask for, largely because there’s always a chance, however remote, that I might actually get it. During ALA’s Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia, I heard quite a few younger attendees talking about how difficult and expensive it is to join the Association and get involved and about how arcane and outdated the structure of the organization is. I also heard a lot of us baby boomers gush about how we welcome new members into the fold. I’m here to tell you that much of that is lip service. The fact is, many of us do not intend to relinquish even one little piece of whatever power and prestige we feel we’ve earned in the profession. Control of ALA is going to have to be pulled from our cold, dead hands. Okay, I exaggerate, but look back at how the boomers began taking over ALA more than three decades ago. They started by joining, then getting on Control of ALA is going to committees, then setting the agenda for have to be pulled from our membership meetings, then running for cold, dead hands. office, and then becoming powerful voices on Council. They encountered plenty of resistance from the old guard, but those determined young Turks would not stop until they had created, among other things, a gay task force, a black caucus, a social responsibilities round table, and an office for literacy and outreach—all in an effort to transform their profession into a force for positive change of their own design. Along with reports on the Midwinter Meeting and the movers and shakers who make it happen (beginning on page 54), this issue of American Libraries also features a manifesto, of sorts, by 2006–7 ALA president Leslie Burger, who during her presidency developed a cadre of “emerging leaders” determined that we can transform our libraries into vital centers of our communities and institutions. Involvement in ALA has always been, for me, at its best when it connects to real-world issues. This year’s Midwinter Meeting offered the standard opportunities to serve on committees that set much of the Association’s agenda, but it also focused on hot topics such as the FBI’s counterterrorism program and its relationship to privacy, the Harlem Renaissance and the civil rights movement, and the future of journalism. These programs were anything but arcane and outdated. Think ALA’s too expensive for you? Here’s some news: no membership fee is required to add your voice to AL’s new online reader forum at al.ala.org/forum/. As for the high price of joining ALA, keep in mind that the annual student membership is $30, and dues for retirees, support staff, and professionals earning less than $25,000 is only $42. If there’s one thing I’ve learned as an ALA watcher for almost 20 years, it’s that no one can empower you more than you can. Don’t wait for someone to step aside; create your own professional agenda. Just make sure you‘re ready for how possessive you’re likely to become. z

by Leonard Kniffel

Leslie Burger (“All Seasons & All Reasons,” p. 44) has been director of Princeton Public Library since 1999. She planned and secured funding for the new 58,000-squarefoot PPL facility that opened to great community excitement 2004. In 1991, she founded a consulting firm, Library Development Solutions. In her consulting practice, she has guided more than 100 urban, suburban, and rural public libraries, academic and special libraries, state libraries, and single and multitype library cooperatives across the US in strategic planning, space needs assessments, evaluation, and program implementation. She has also served as a development consultant at the New Jersey State Library where she worked on leadership and marketing initiatives on behalf of the state’s libraries. She has also served as executive director of the Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative and worked at the Connecticut State Library. In 2006–7 she served as president of ALA.

american libraries

Getting Involved: Don’t Wait for Permission

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Masthead | Ad Index What’s new on

AL Online

n NEW! videos on AL Focus: n

Philadelphia Midwinter wrap-up, Rocky-style.

Youth media awards.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar chats with ALAers.

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Frank talk from an FBI whistleblower.

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n News stories posted as they break. n NEW! Reader Forum online: Comment on issues and controversies. n AL Direct: What to do if you’re not receiving ALA’s weekly electronic newsletter. n Calendar: National listings of continuing education opportunities and services. n American Libraries Buyers Guide: A vital purchasing aid. n ALA MEMBERS! Access American Libraries full text and searchable. n Sample columns such as “Internet Librarian” by Joseph Janes. n Sign up for RSS feeds.

THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

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Donald Chatham Mary Mackay Troy Linker Jon Kartman Robert Hershman

columnists Meredith Farkas, Joseph Janes, Will Manley, Bill Ott, Mary Pergander, Jennifer Burek Pierce, Mary Ellen Quinn advisory committee chair Jennifer Cargill, Joseph R. Diaz, Miguel A. Figueroa, Jana R. Fine, Nancy Kalikow Maxwell, Melanie R. Metzger, Laurel Minott; interns Bart Birdsall, Linda Chopra

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Acceptance of advertising does not constitute endorsement. ALA reserves the right to refuse advertising.

indexed 1996–2007 index at www.ala.org/alonline/. Available full text from ProQuest, EBSCO Publishing, H. W. Wilson, LexisNexis, and Information Access. Full-text searchable database of 2003–2007 issues available online free to ALA personal members. reprints Glen Holliday, Reprint Department, 2137 Embassy Dr., Suite 202, Lancaster, PA 17603, 800-259-0470, gholliday@reprintdept.com subscribe Libraries and other institutions: $70/year, 11 issues, U.S., Canada, and Mexico; foreign: $80. Subscription price for individuals included in ALA membership dues. 800-545-2433 x5108, e-mail membership@ala.org, or visit www.ala.org. Claim missing issues: ALA Member and Customer Service. Allow six weeks. Single issues $7.50, with 40% discount for five or more. published American Libraries (ISSN 0002-9769) is published monthly, except bimonthly June/July, by the American Library Association (ALA). Printed in U.S.A. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, Illinois, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Personal members: Send address changes to American Libraries, c/o Membership Records, ALA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. ©2008 American Library Association. Materials in this journal may be reproduced for noncommercial educational purposes.

Visit www.ala.org/alonline

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march 2008

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ALA | President’s Message

Circle of Service Crust of the Snow Month or Onaabana-Giizis

ments. They desire cuse (N.Y.) UniMany LIS to connect with exversity’s School of programs perienced mentors. Information Studprovide One student obies MSLIS students must opportunities served: “I am a complete an infor graduate firm believer in the power of cultural ternship or cooperative educational students to test, develop, identity to give strength, focus, experience. Masand deliver services and unity to a ter’s students at directly to patrons. group of people, the University of whether it is a naMichigan’s School tion, race, organization, or profesof Information in Ann Arbor must complete six of their 43 credit hours to sion. The stories and anecdotes of accrue Practical Engagement Program retiring librarians can give us a sense of who we are as a profession points, including completion of a required Contextual Inquiry and Project and bring us together through our Management class. Students complete professional organizations. They can internships during summers and may inspire us to work together in the challenges that lay ahead.” participate in an alternative spring These comments help inform a break. One graduation requirement at UT’s task force, led by Arro Smith, that will design a national oral history School of Information is the completion of an integrative Capstone. Those program of librarians exiting the profession. pursuing certificates in conservation, This month I look forward to seepreservation, or school librarianship complete practica or internships. Oth- ing ALA members at state library er students complete Professional Ex- conferences in Alaska and Louisiana as well as at the Public Library Assoperience (fieldwork) Projects, master’s reports, or theses. At the end ciation national conference in Minneapolis, Freedom of Information of each semester, students highlight Day in Washington, D.C., and a results in a public Capstone Fair. Key meeting of the National Center for to these experiences is discussion, Family Literacy. March also brings evaluation, and student reflection. the Young Adult Library Services AsStudents in my fall 2007 Public sociation’s Teen Tech Week. Join Libraries graduate course wrote essays that reflected on what they hoped YALSA in the celebration and “Get to learn from retired/retiring librar- Connected @ your library.” z ians. They acknowledged the limitations of learning through formal ALA President Loriene Roy is professor classroom-based education and are at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Information. She is enrolled on the White concerned about an institutional Earth Reservation, a member of the Minnesota memory loss resulting from retireChippewa Tribe.

american libraries

march 2008

ibrarianship is remarkable for the range of services we provide to our diverse communities. Service is the keystone of our work. Many LIS programs provide opportunities for graduate students to test, develop, and deliver services directly to patrons. These experiences in project management and citizen engagement not only assist students in preparing for interviews for their first professional positions but also provide the framework for career-long commitments. A number of LIS educators, students, and recent graduates are contributing chapters to The Service Connection, coedited by Alex Hershey, a master’s student in the University of Texas at Austin School of Information, to be published later this year by ALA Editions. The book provides historical coverage as well as content on students, faculty, and field supervisors. Required and optional servicelearning experiences in selected LIS programs are provided by Sara Albert, a recent graduate of UT Austin’s School of Information. Prospective school librarians have long completed structured practica, often in alignment with state requirements. Students at San Jose (Calif.) State University’s LIS program can complete one or more internships. They prepare an Electronic Portfolio of written documents and evidentiary items that document how core competencies were achieved, including the ability to “contribute to the cultural, economic, educational, and social well-being of our communities.” Syra-

by Loriene Roy

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2/19/2008 1:24:06 PM

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02/05/2008 4:53:08 PM

OPINION | Reader Forum

Letters and Comments Jury Duty Begs for the Truth I was amused by “Librarians in the Jury Box” (Jan.-Feb., p. 50–54), as I was selected to serve on a jury both times I was called. My experience was interesting, yet frustrating. It is so evident that the set of all possible information relating to a case is not presented and is actually stifled to some extent. I had to sit on my hands in the courtroom to stop myself from raising them to request clarifications and additional facts. Where else do we stop gathering data until the complete anLibrarians may be swer is uncovreasonable and ered? In what other setting intelligent, but we where decisions do like to uncover are made can the truth. one not take notes or look up information beyond the given? I think the trial lawyers have it wrong. Librarians may be reasonable and intelligent, but we do like to uncover the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and we know when the facts are not complete Karen Leon Roslyn High School Library

I have finally stopped relocating long enough to be called to jury duty. I was actually looking forward to the event, but my delight was extinguished after a nearly 45-minute interview with the plaintiff and defendant lawyers. I thought I was answering the questions well, including when the defendant asked if I had an open mind and would be able to listen to all the testimony before making a decision. Yes, I

Sue Lantelme Ledyard High School Ledyard, Connecticut

Digital Information Realities Michael Gorman has made numerous statements about the reliability of information online. Because he gets published and printed, Gorman thinks we should take him seriously. Because he doesn’t accept the realities of the 21st century, Gorman’s solutions (when he isn’t busy criticizing) are impractical. This is evident in his article filled with useless comments for the RDA team and no solutions (Dec. 2007, p. 64–65). While Gorman serves as an excellent example of the weaknesses of the academic establishment, his article reads as though he is trying to save us from something evil. While some digital information might be unreliable, it is just as valuable as printed information and is not to be overlooked or downgraded. That just might be an enduring value for libraries. Jonathan Horrocks jonathanhorrocks@hotmail.com

Really, Mr. Gorman, does the fact that one of your proudest accomplishments is now viewed as an antiquated tool for describing the information world give you license to dismiss off-handedly and rather savagely the efforts of many of your more progressive colleagues? Leaving aside the dyspepsia inherent in

Gorman’s piece, it’s worth pointing out that some of the claims he makes for AACR2 do not hold up to close inspection. Certainly AACR2 has been translated, but that it has been widely adopted or used as a basis for other codes is a suspect assertion. For example, in Germany, one of the largest producers of information in all formats— even books—a translation of AACR2 only arrived within the very recent past and was greeted with a furious debate. It has certainly not been widely adopted, and Germans have done quite well creating their own complex set of rules for descriptive cataloging without Anglo-American inspiration. If AACR2/ISBD is “perfectly and demonstrably capable of accommodating all formats,” we would not be in the mess in which we find ourselves, where too many libraries have made the choice to develop their own metadata scheme due to the lack of a flexible and adaptable standard. I’m no fan of such Babel-esque outcomes, but to claim that AACR2/ISBD could be, in any scenario, the way out of the mess is utter rubbish. The way out is to forge a new path and devise more adaptable and scalable tools, which is what efforts such as FRBR and RDA are trying to get at. Is it ugly, hard work? Of course; and it’s bound to be full of mistakes, missteps, and errors—a phase I’m sure every descriptive toolset has had to endure in its development. Constructive criticism of the work would be quite welcome; reactionary calls for days of bygone glory just sound sad and pathetic. Dale Askey Kansas State University Libraries Manhattan

american libraries

march 2008

Roslyn Heights, New York

said. Sounds like searching Google— one should never take the first hit as the answer. We then got off on a long research discussion. Unfortunately it involved a shoulder injury and I had just had a shoulder operation two years ago. I’ll never know why I didn’t get to serve.

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The only letter of support to appear in the December issue about “English Spoken Here” (Nov. 2007, p. 40–44), written by Bert Chapman, was printed again in the January/February issue. It served once again as the only letter, out of many, that supported Julia Stephens’ position. Why, one wonders, did this letter get printed twice? Was it an oversight? Or did the editors feel compelled to print this letter again to attempt to add a little balance to the issue, subtly revealing their own bias in favor of the author? It’s bad enough that the article, with all of its inaccuracies and inflammatory statements, was printed without much, if any, fact-checking. I think an apology to this nation’s Spanish-speaking communities and those who serve them is in order. Stephens’ diatribe against the Spanishspeaking in this country (and yes, there are millions of us here legally whose roots in the U.S. span generations) does nothing to help raise understanding of the complexities of the issues involved when one discusses immigration, language rights, free speech, or library services to diverse populations. Joseph R. (Bob) Diaz University of Arizona Tucson The editors apologize for this oversight. The letter by Bert Chapman was inadvertently printed in both issues.

Continue the conversation at www.ala.org/forum/.

Tom Jenkins Centennial, Colorado The editors welcome letters about recent contents or matters of general interest. Letters should be limited to 300 words. Send to americanlibraries@ala.org; fax 312-4400901; or American Libraries, Reader Forum, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611-2795.

march 2008

Regional Library District

Garrison Keillor is wrong. You are right, but I digress. As an incurable bibliophile and a lifetime library patron, I was overwhelmed by the superb quality of your September 2007, issue. For me, your magazine is a stimulating godsend at a time of While some diminished and unbalanced reportage by our digital mainstream press. The information controversial subjects covmight be ered by your knowledgeable writers are unreliable, inspirational. Such a variit is just as ety of important issues—I valuable am impressed. Keillor’s prediction of as printed the demise of the newsinformation. paper is worse than premature; it is wrong. The current reduced newspaper circulation is due to its biased coverage, not its nature. Brian Huddleston’s commentary about New Orleans’ aftermath affecting its libraries strikes home. Tom Washington’s account of a Kansas City bookstore burning books staggers the mind. Worse is George Core’s comment that “the average librarian has become hostile to books and hostile to reading.” Au contraire. Such nonsense. Open-source application (Pace) and Flickr (Farkas) are equally relevant issues and they were dealt with expertly. Likewise, John Ayala’s letter pointing to the shortcoming of Ken Burns’ PBS miniseries on WW II, an otherwise worthy documentary, was justified. The September issue is a superlative microcosm of issues facing librarians today. My personal problem is finding a parking place at whatever Denver library I visit. With time, perhaps everyone will have that fortunate problem. Thank you for your publishing excellence.

Cristi Jenkins Fort Vancouver (Wash.)

Kind Words from a Bibliophile

Undocumented immigrants pay into the tax system and thus support library services. Spanish-language collections don’t discourage Hispanic immigrants from learning English. The Pew Hispanic Research Center indicates that speaking and reading English well catapults from 23% with first-generation immigrants to 88% with second-generation immigrants. This study indicates that higher education levels directly correspond with how well a person speaks English. Having Spanish-language materials in public libraries encourages Hispanic immigrants to use library materials. It encourages learning. Library attendance also encourages development of pre-reading skills in young children. Statistically, a child’s solid reading skills strongly correlate with a successful adult. When materials are in a language immigrants understand, they may read more to their kids, and their kids will see them reading. In 40 years, 25% of this country’s population will be of Hispanic origin. Perhaps we, as a nation, should question why we’re afraid to embrace a group that is already part of our culture and will only continue to increase in size and influence. The truth is that we need each other. As baby boomers retire, leaving fewer laborers in the workplace, we’ll need more workers to keep the economy viable. By strengthening all, we strengthen our community. It’s in our best interest to help immigrants work toward literacy and higher education. In doing so, we support our collective growth as a nation—as a vibrant community comprised of many different cultural backgrounds, all of which bring beauty and sustenance to the table of life.

Hopefully, we can collectively look beyond the fear of the unknown and be able to see our commitment to immigrant cultures and maintaining nonEnglishcollections for what it is—humanity at work and libraries at their best.

american libraries

English-Only Collection Debate Continues

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2/20/2008 2:25:25 PM

OPINION | Public Perception

How the World Sees Us “Think of it as your parents’ liquor cabinet.” Writer DREW HAYDEN TAYLOR opining on how banning library books only makes them more popular, Now Magazine (Toronto), Nov./Dec. 2007.

“After spotting a rare and valuable book in the stacks at the University of Tulsa—it was Mabel Dodge Luhan’s early treatise on southwestern painting, Taos and Its Artists—I wondered if I could smuggle it past the low-tech librarian. But my better judgment prevailed, and I left it in place.” Actor and author STEVE MARTIN, Born Standing Up (Scribner, 2007).

“If we are to take the report seriously, every school should have a library, and each library should have a trained librarian and be filled with books and opportunities to read.” Writer MICHAEL

the stores on that subject alone than I have anything else in the entire seven years I have been on the council.” Chico, California, City Council Member LARRY WAHL on the council’s decision not to reduce funding to the Butte County Library, NBC affiliate KNVN-TV, Nov. 2.

“In order to write, in order to make literature, there must be a close connection with libraries, books, the tradition.” Nobel Prize–winning author DORIS LESSING on the distracting qualities of the internet, NewKerala.com (India), Dec. 11.

tional Endowment for the Arts study Readdecreased reading, Baltimore Sun, Nov. 28.

“I’ve gotten more e-mail, more postcards, more mail, more phone calls, and more stops on the street and in

learn and who aren’t going there to get a degree or something like that.” Hedge fund manager ROBERT WILSON of

“Because of the very late comprehensive development of public libraries in Australia, only about one in five of today’s decision-makers had access to a decent library in their formative childhood years.” ALAN BUNDY, president of

the Robert W. Wilson Charitable Trust on his plans to give away 70% of his fortune before he dies, Portfolio.com, Dec. 17.

“You’re going to find them having the stage life of a fruit fly.” A 14-year-old

Friends of Libraries Australia, on his coun-

prediction by Vancouver, Canada, futurist

try’s failure to invest in libraries, Sydney

FRANK OGDEN about the future of librar-

Morning Herald, Dec. 22.

ies—in particular the still-thriving Vancouver Public Library, “Those Who Said

CORBIN drawing conclusions from the Naing at Risk, which links low test scores to

Marketed as “Library Editions,” Hasbro’s Vintage Game Collection includes such board game stalwarts as Monopoly, Risk, Clue, and Scrabble, and packages this “novel collection” in a sturdy wooden “book” for easy storage in your public (or home) library.

“I don’t give any money to colleges. I think the whole college and university sytem is bloated beyond recognition and is a great drain on the resources of this country at this point. I give to the New York Public Library. That’s an organization used by people who want to

Libraries Are Dead Should Eat Their Words,” Toronto Star, Jan. 17.

“When you think of librarians, you think more ‘sweater set’ than ‘party girl.’ But these days, professional bibliophiles are far from the dull and crotchety stereotype.” Writer

thèque” party held at the ALA Midwinter

Meeting in Philadelphia by the Brooklyn-based

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RACHEL FRANKFORD on the “Bibliodisco-

librarian social club The Desk Set, Philadelphia

City Paper, Jan. 10. z

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On My Mind | OPINION

Overvaluing the Virtual

The call of the library

Just for a minute, let’s reflect on the library as place—the space itself as a

Lisa forRest is media resources librarian at Buffalo (N.Y.) State College.

march 2008

sanctuary for learning. On a trip to my younger siblings to read Little Ireland this spring, I spent some House books in the solitude of the time checking out the National reading corner. It was there that I esLibrary of Dublin and the Trinity caped the agonizing summer heat to College Library. I swear that my IQ sink into a cool beanbag chair and rose a few points just standing on Nancy Drew thriller. It’s true—I had a the steps of these grand cultural infirst life in a real library, and I believe stitutions. There are many great that these experiences continue to shape my core values as a librarian to- libraries that are not just places full of old books and new computers— day. Standing in the library of my they are sanctuaries for imaginayouth, alongside my teenage son, I tion, intellectual and creative realized that thought. not everyone Consider the The power of is so fortunate places that you place cannot be as to have a yourself want to reunderestimated. first library turn to again and life. I wonagain—and then ask dered: Is it reyourself, does your alistic to expect our potential users, own library call you back? Why or some who have never set their Nikes why not? The power of place cannot in a brick-and-mortar library, to be underestimated. Many of my own value a Second Life library? Or, will friends admit that they prefer to reSecond Life patrons flock to the virturn to the aesthetic of the local tual library precisely because they Barnes and Noble over the library. have no First Life library experience, Are the Barnes and Noble folks as including no librarian anxiety? Perconcerned about creating bookstores haps in time, the Second Life library in Second Life as we are about conwill redefine the entire profession. structing libraries and librarian avaI’m not saying that libraries couldn’t tars with multicolored hair? I do be a huge hit in Second Life land. But think that there might be useful applications for Second Life in I cringe at the thought that, in our libraries; I really do. But I have my quest to remain relevant, we might just be making ourselves increasing- reservations. I can’t help but listen to my childhood self, who remains ly irrelevant. Maybe, just maybe, comfortably stuck to the blue beanwe’re putting our energy, our prebag chair in the corner of the chilcious time, and our money into the dren’s reading room, calling me back wrong cause. to a favorite place, again and again. z

Photo credit: Paul D. Van Hoy II

’m sure by now that most of you have heard the hum about Second Life—the virtual online community where users create worlds and interact through 3D avatars. I’m proud to say that my campus has been quick to explore the significance of this multiplayer online role-playing game in higher education. We have innovative folks diligently working on some very nifty projects, including the building of a Second Life fashion runway for the fashion design department. But what about Second Life in libraries? Sure, there are practical applications, like having a virtual librarian lead an online book discussion or assist with 24/7 reference help. I agree that it’s an appealing way to reach out to patrons who are not bodily able to get to the library. I understand that we need imaginative tactics to charm a generation of kids raised on PlayStation and Xbox—and flying (yes, avatars fly), attractive, hipster avatars do add superhero flair to the library’s virtual help desk. It all makes sense. So why am I—a 30-something, forward-thinking librarian—feeling somewhat reluctant about embracing Second Life? A few weeks ago, I took my teenage son back to my hometown in rural Minnesota. We spent time just walking around town, where I reminisced about the town’s grocery store, post office, Army recruiting station—and the local public library. As a child, the library had been my sanctuary. It was there that I fled from the clutches of

by Lisa Forrest

american libraries

Second thoughts about Second Life

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2/19/2008 1:29:59 PM

NEWS | ALA

Gates Funds E-Rate Project

nationwide. While many rely on eproject designed to inrate to make connectivity affordable, crease the benefits that public libraries obtain from other libraries have difficulty taking full advantage of the program. the federal e-rate program is unThe Gates Foundation grant is supderway by ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy, based in porting the Association’s work to develop and provide Washington, D.C., training and conand funded by a The grant supports the sulting services for $950,000 grant development of training libraries attempting from the Bill and to navigate the eMelinda Gates services for libraries rate application Foundation. The trying to navigate the process. ALA is also effort includes working to improve data collection and e-rate process. the program in the development as well as the implementation of strat- long term by such actions as advocating for simplification of e-rate’s apegies to make it easier for libraries plication and disbursement to participate in the program. processes. E-rate is the biggest single source Visit www.ala.org/ala/washoff/for of funding for telecommunications and information services in libraries more information.

al forum New e-spot for hot topics Are you looking for a way to share your views on an column, or news story? AL Forum is the new online location to share your comments on these and other library-related issues. Read what your colleagues have to say or share your own views. Visit al.ala.org.forum for more information.

ALA President Loriene Roy is offering a unique, one-time presidential citation to libraries—and librarians—that use games and gaming as tools for learning, literacy development, and community development. Nominations are being accepted at creator.zoho.com/olos/ through April 21 in three categories—education, recreation, and innovation, including creative collaborations. Self-nominations are strongly encouraged. Entries will be reviewed by a panel of experts from the library field, the gaming industry, academia, and philanthropy. Winners will be notified in mid-May and winning selections announced at ALA’s Annual Conference in Anaheim during the first conference open gaming night.

APA Report Shows Librarian Salary Rise Mean salaries for librarians rose faster than some estimates of inflation, according to surveys conducted in 2007 by the ALA–Allied Professional Association. Six-figure salaries were also reported for several non-MLS positions in libraries. According to the ALA–APA Salary Survey: Librarian—Public and Academic , previously known as the Librarian Salary Survey, the mean library salary rose to $57,809—an increase of $1,500 from 2006. This rise is higher than the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of 2.4% for the same time period.

For academic librarians, huge jumps were seen in the average salaries for beginning librarians (up 14.65% and averaging $ 48,365) , depar tment heads (11.85%, $65,270), and support staff supervisors (6.48% , $54,959). Public librarian gains were smaller overall but still higher than the CPI for every position other than director. The average salary for deputy directors showed an increase of 6.3% at $74,942. Visit ala-apa.org for more information.

american libraries

march 2008

American Libraries feature,

Presidential Citation Recognizes Gaming

0308_NewsALA.indd 12

2/19/2008 2:49:15 PM

n Stephen L. Matthews, librarian, Foxcroft School, Middleburg, Virginia.

n Monika J. Antonelli, reference librarian, Minnesota State University, Mankato.

n Linda Mielke, interim director, Shasta Public Libraries, Redding, California.

n Kathleen E. Bethel, African American studies librarian, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

n Michael J. Miller, coordinator of access services and assistant professor, Queens College–CUNY, Flushing, New York.

n Mary Biblo, retired, Stony Brook, New York. n Diedre Conkling, d irector, Lincoln County Library District, Newport, Oregon. n Alison Ernst, director, Library and Academic Resources, Northfield Mount Hermon (Mass.) School Library. n Carrie Gardner, assistant professor, library science and instructional technology, Kutztown (Pa.) University. n Barbara A. Genco, director, collection development, Brooklyn (N.Y.) Public Library. n Dolores D. Gwaltney, media specialist, Lee M. Thurston High School, Redford, Michigan. n Marilyn L. Hinshaw, e xecutive director, Eastern Oklahoma District Library, Muskogee. n Ling Hwey Jeng, director, School of Library and Information Studies, Texas Woman’s University, Denton. n Wei Jeng-Chu, technology division head, Worcester (Mass.) Public Library. n Margaret L. Kirkpatrick, elementary librarian (retired), Wichita (Kan.) Public Schools. n Bonnie L. Kunzel, youth services and adolescent literacy consultant, Germantown, Tennessee. n Johnnieque B. (Johnnie) Love, coordinator, personnel programs, University of Maryland Libraries, Human Resources—PASD Division, College Park. n Norman L. Maas, director, Norfolk (Va.) Public Library.

n Toni Negro, school library media specialist, Montgomery County (Md.) Public Schools. n Robert Randolph Newlen, deputy assistant director, Knowledge Services Group, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. n June A. Pinnell-Stephens, collection services manager (retired), Fairbanks (Alaska) North Star Borough Public Library. n Mable W. Robertson, trustee, Brooklyn (N. Y.) Public Library. n Patricia H. Smith, executive director, Texas Library Association, Austin. n Barbara K. Stripling, director, office of library services, New York City Department of Education. n Ida Williams Thompson, director, instructional technology services, Richland School District One, Columbia, South Carolina. n Theresa A. Tobin, head librarian, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Humanities Library, Cambridge. n William L. Turner Jr., director of volunteers, District of Columbia Public Library, Washington, D.C. n Lisa Von Drasek, librarian, Bank Street College of Education Library, New York City.

ALA Events Mar. 14: Freedom of Information Day. www.ala.org/ washoff. Mar. 25–29: PLA National Conference, Minneapolis. www.placonference.org. Apr. 13–19: National Library Week. “Join the circle of knowledge @ your library.” www.ala.org/ pio/nlw. May 13–14: National Library Legislative Day, Washington, D.C. www.ala.org/ washoff. June 26–July 2: ALA Annual Conference, Anaheim, California. www.ala.org/ annual. Sep. 18–20: ALSC Institute, Salt Lake City. www.ala .org/alsc. Oct. 16–19: LITA National Forum, Hilton Netherland Plaza, Cincinnati. www .ala.org/lita. Jan. 23–28: Midwinter Meeting, Denver. Visit www.ala.org/ala/

n Ann C. Weeks, professor of the practice, University of Maryland, College Park.

alonline/calendar/calendar

n Courtney L. Young, reference librarian, Penn State University, Beaver Campus Library, Monaca.

ies’ full calendar of library

.cfm for American Librarconferences, institutes, and other events.

In addition, two Nominating Committee candidates have dropped their names from ballot consideration—Plummer Alton “Al” Jones Jr. and Esther L. McRae

march 2008

n Bernadine Abbott-Hoduski, Helena, Montana.

Calendar

In addition to the candidates for ALA Council published in the December 2007 American Libraries (p. 15–16), 31 individuals have petitioned to be included on the ballot. According to ALA’s Governance Office, petition candidates are:

american libraries

Petition Candidates Seek Council Posts

0308_NewsALA.indd 13

2/19/2008 2:48:01 PM

NEWS | ALA Smart Investing Grant Recipients Announced

Affiliate Briefs AILA Book Award Winners Named

Ellison: A Biography (Knopf) by

The American Indian Library As-

Arnold Rampersad.

sociation announced the winners of its first American Indian Youth Literature Awards, created to

Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas

identify and honor the best writ-

(Doubleday) by Kevin Merida

ing and illustrations by and about

and Michael A. Fletcher and Si-

American Indians.

lent Gesture: The Autobiography

The winners are: picture

of Tommie Smith (Temple Univer-

book—Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom (Cinco Puntos Press, 2006) by Tim Tingle and illustrated by Jeanne Rorex Bridges

sity Press) by Tommie Smith with

Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond (National Geographic, 2006) by Joseph Medicine Crow and young adult—The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Little Brown, 2007) by Sherman Alexie. Visit aila.library.sd.gov for more information.

BCALA Literary Award Winners Announced

march 2008

David Steele. Other winners were: First Novelist Award to Chantal Ellen for The Rise: Where Neighbors Are Sometimes More (Lion’s Den Publishing) and Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation to Deborah Willis for Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits (Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture).

CALA Scholarship Deadline Nears The deadline is March 15 for the

The Black Caucus of the American

Chinese American Library Asso-

Library Association has announced

ciation’s 2008 scholarships.

the winners of the BCALA Literary

Nonfiction honor selections are: Supreme Discomfort: The

middle school—Counting Coup:

Four opportunities are available

Awards, which recognize excel-

to full-time MLS students—the

lence in adult fiction and nonfiction

CALA Scholarship of Library and

by African-American authors pub-

Information Science of $1,000;

lished in 2007.

the C. C. Seeto Conference Travel

New England White (Knopf)

Scholarship of $500; the Schiela

by Stephen L. Carter is the fic-

Suen Lai Scholarship of $500; and

tion category winner. The fiction

the Huang Tso-Ping and Wu Yao-yu

honor book recipient is Cold Run-

Scholarship (USA) of $200.

ning Creek (LaVenson Press) by Zelda Lockhart.

Visit www.cala-web.org for more information.

RUSA Releases “List for America’s Readers”

Away: A Novel (Random House) by Amy Bloom and The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story (W.W. Norton) by Diane Ackerman are among the fiction and nonfiction books that comprise the 2008 list of outstanding titles for the general reader compiled by ALA’s Reference and User Services Association’s Notable Books Council. Also included are two poetry titles— A New Hunger (Ausable Press) by Laure-Anne Bosselaar and In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus: New and Selected Poems 1955-2007 (Johns Hopkins University by X. J. Kennedy. Visit www.ala.org/rusa/for more information.

Booklist Chooses Eight for Top of the List Eight titles comprise the 18th annual Top of the List chosen from the annual ALA’s Booklist Editors’ Choice selections as the best books and media of 2007. They include: adult fiction—Falling Man (Scribner) by Don DeLillo;

american libraries

The nonfiction winner is Ralph

Thirteen libraries and library networks are the recipients of more than $853,000 in the “Smart Investing @ your library” project funded by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s Investor Education Foundation and administered by ALA’s Reference and User Services Association. The project is designed to address the growing need for reliable investor education at the grassroots level. Participating libraries will use available technology and other means to reach patrons at library facilities, at home via the Web, at the workplace, and at community locations. Investor education opportunities and materials will be available to patrons at no cost. Visit www.ala.org/ala/rusa/ for more information.

0308_NewsALA.indd 14

2/19/2008 2:25:39 PM

Affilate Founder comes home

KINGSLEY AL FEB 08:AMER LIB

1/5/2008

MembersOnly Alert

E. J. Josey (seated), founder of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, joins ALA President Loriene Roy (left) and Joseyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sonin-law Lawrence Turner during the BCALA membership meeting in Philadelphia. Josey also met basketball legend Kareem Abdul Jabbar at the Presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Program.

3:52 PM

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s election time Polls open March 17 for all paid ALA members as of January 31 to cast election ballots either via the Web or by paper. Again this year, there is an extended period between the last date for requesting a paper ballot (March 3) and the last date for returning the ballots (April 24 at 11:59 p.m. Central Time). Paper ballots are being sent to members who requested them prior to March 3 and will be mailed between March 17 and March 24. Election results will be announced May 2. Details at www.ala.org.

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march 2008

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0308_NewsALA.indd 15

2/19/2008 1:31:29 PM

NEWS | ALA

Leaders In Training The second group of Emerging Leaders and their facilitators gather for the first time during ALA’s Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia. The project, designed to put newer librarians on the fast track to Association and professional leadership, began in 2007 as one of Immediate Past President Leslie Burger’s six initiatives. For more information visit wikis.ala.org/emergingleaders. available at alfocus.ala.org. In other news, Booklist Online has launched a one-stop resource called Book Group Buzz, a blog designed as an online gathering place for anyone involved with, or interested in, book groups. Visit booklistonline.org.

“Batting for Literacy” Winner Announced

Al Smitley of the Northville (Mich.) District Library has won ALA’s Campaign for America’s Libraries “Batting

for Literacy @ your library” competition for his use of baseball to promote literacy and library services. Smitley receives a trip for two to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, and will be recognized June 16 during this year’s Hall of Fame exhibition game between the Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres at the Hall of Fame’s Doubleday Park. “Batting for literacy @ your library,” a companion promotion with the 2007 “Step Up to

american libraries

march 2008

adult nonfiction—Edith Wharton (Knopf) by Hermione Lee; and youth fiction—Elijah of Buxton (Scholastic). by Christopher Paul Curtis. A complete list of winners, along with the longer Editors’ Choice list from which the Top of the List are selected is available at www.Booklist Online.com. Subscribers to the database can read the original full-length Booklist reviews of the selected titles. The editors also talk about what they read for fun in an AL Focus video

0308_NewsALA.indd 16

2/19/2008 2:47:32 PM

ALCTS Blue PMS 286

Investing in the next 50 years The Association for Library Collections and

Donations are being accepted for the Robert L. Oakley Memorial Scholarship Fund, in memory of the late professor and law librarian who died in 2007. Oakley’s widow, Barbara Oakley, establishing the fund in collaboration with ALA and the Library Copyright Alliance. The scholarship is designed to support research and advance study for librarians in early to mid-career who are interested in the fields that Oakley was expert in—public policy, intellectual property, copyright—and their impacts on libraries and the ways libraries serve their communities. Send donations to: Robert L. Oakley Memorial Scholarship, ALA Development Office, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611.

Technical Services celebrated its 50th an-

Children’s Book Day Celebrations to Begin

a commemorative article, “A Look at Fifty years of Library Resources and

centered on the theme “Commemorating the Past, Celebrating the Present, Creating the Future.” To honor one of the division’s most outstanding members, the first Ross Atkinson Lifetime Achievement Award was presented in June to Brian E. C. Schottlaender, Geisel University librarian, University of California at San Diego. Sponsored by EBSCO, the award, was created to celebrate Atkinson’s impact on the library community and ALCTS. A commemorative 50th-anniversary book, Commemorating the Past, Celebrating the Present, Creating the Future: Papers in Observance of the 50th Anniversary of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, was published last fall as a finale to the year’s celebrations. Edited by ALCTS President Pamela Bluh, the volume features articles by such division members as Michael Gorman, Janet Swann Hill, and Peggy Johnson. In addition, the ALCTS research journal Library Resources and Technical Services, edited by Peggy Johnson, celebrated its 50th anniversary with a special reprint of Volume 1, Issue 1, a cumulative 25-year index, and Technical Services,” by Tschera Harkness Connell of Ohio State University, in the October issue. In 2006, the American Society of Association Executives published the study “7 Measures of Success: What Remarkable Associations Do That Others Don’t,” based on Jim Collins’s work. Over the next months, ALCTS leadership will be analyzing results of its own December 2007 survey based on these measures. The results will provide benchmark comparisons goals upon which we can judge our progress to becoming a remarkable association. Moving ALCTS forward requires dedicated member volunteers. Are you ready? If so, ALCTS has a place for you. Visit www.ala.org/alcts.

Each month the Association’s Associations spotlights the activities and agenda of one of ALA’s divisions. Next month: Association for Library Service to Children

cultural and linguistic background. In related news, the Broward County (Fla.) Library is the 2007 recipient of the Estela and Raul Mora Award, which recognizes outstanding Día events. The library’s Broward Festival de Libros para Niños drew more

than 7,000 attendees from three branches, who received 2,200 free books. The $1,000 award, established by Pat Mora in honor of her parents, is presented annually in partnership with the ALA affiliate Reforma. z

march 2008

—Charles Wilt, executive director

To support the festivities that will be held nationwide April 30 in celebration of El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day ), the Publishing for Latino Voices Task Force of the Association of American Publishers and ALA’s Association for Library Service to Children have partnered for the first time to create a recommended reading list of children’s books in both English and Spanish designed for parents with children from infancy to age 14. The bibliography (available at www. publishers.org/main/Latino/Diabibliographylist.htm) features 24 titles published by AAP members and selected by ALSC’s Quicklists Consulting Committee. Officially recognized each year on April 30, Día was founded by children’s book author Pat Mora in 1996 to highlight the importance of literacy in children of all ages and of every

niversary last year with many gala events

Oakley Scholarship Funds Sought

The Association’s Associations: ALCTS

american libraries

the Plate @ your library” literacy program, asked librarians to describe how they used baseball to enhance literacy or library service.

0308_NewsALA.indd 17

2/19/2008 2:28:07 PM

NEWS | U.S. & International

Grassroots Group Grows School Library Support

Sen. Tracey J. Eide (D-Federal Way) introduced a companion bill January 22 that would codify through a per-pupil formula how many credentialed school library media specialists should be employed by each district. SB 6380, revised to offer $12 per student “to maintain and improve library materials, collections, and services,” passed the state senate unanimously February 13 and moved on to the house. “What an incredible moment to hear senators speaking passionately, earnestly, and profoundly about school libraries, librarians, and how important they are,” Brunkan blogged after the vote. The praise of qualified school librarians in both bills echoes the language of the federal SKILLs Act, introduced in June 2007 (AL, Aug. 2007, p. 15) as an unfunded amendment to the No Child Left Behind Act. Comprising some 60 members of the Washington school library media community, the summit featured speakers such as educator Jamie McKenzie; researcher Gary Hartzell; Michael Eisenberg, founding dean of the University of Washington School of Information; Washington State Librarian Jan Walsh; ALA President Loriene Roy; and Sara Kelly Johns, president of ALA’s American Association of School Librarians. —Marci Merola, ALA Office for Advocacy

Rain didn’t stop some 100 advocates from rallying for school libraries on the steps of the Washington state capitol in Olympia February 1. The rally and an all-day summit were the culmination of the work of a group of concerned Spokane mothers.

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ore than 100 people gathered in the rain at the state capitol steps in Olympia, Washington, February 1 to rally for school libraries despite cold winds and a storm in the eastern half of the state that prevented many from attending. Gov. Christine Gregoire later declared a state of emergency for 15 counties. The rally, as well as all-day summit, was the culmination of the work of a “What an incredible group of concerned Spomoment to hear senators kane mothers. Their effort began last spring when speaking passionately, Lisa Layera Brunkan, Denearnestly, and profoundly ette Hill, and Susan Mcabout school libraries, Burney, troubled at the cuts to school library melibrarians, and how dia programs in Washingimportant they are.” ton and determined to fundourfuturewashington.org strengthen them statewide, began a grassroots movement to combat the Spokane school board’s decision to close part of a $10.8-million deficit by halving the hours of the 10 full-time, K-8 teacher librarians still employed by Washington’s second-largest district. Noting that her daughter’s school library is closed three days a week this academic year, Brunkan told American Libraries that Spokane’s cut “relegates kids to a supermarket system” of library materials being checked in and out. The three moms named their group the Washington Coalition for School Libraries and Information Technology, and partnered with the Washington Library Media Association, Washington Library Association, and other key groups to establish a website that has attracted the attention of school library boosters in several other states: fundourfuturewashington.org. The inclement weather at the rally may have ultimately resulted in the “perfect storm” of events, forcing the cancellation of many committee meetings and enabling members of the state house to call to the floor a bill that would give school districts extra discretionary funds that they could spend on hiring more teacherlibrarians and counselors. Introduced January 17 by state Rep. Don Barlow (D-Spokane), HB 2773 was sent to the Appropriations Committee February 5.

0308_News.indd 18

2/19/2008 1:32:36 PM

Minneapolis Public Library Merges with Hennepin County Library

2006 due to MPL’s budget problems. It is believed to be the largest public library consolidation in North America since the 1997 amalgamation of five suburban systems into Toronto Public Library. “This merger is a big win for all residents of Hennepin County,” HCL Director Amy Ryan told American Libraries. She said the combined system is currently running the libraries as it did before the merger, but is examining ways to improve services. “Public services won’t change,” she said. “We’re looking at consolidating human resources, communications, and other services, but that won’t happen overnight.”

“This merger is a big win for all residents of Hennepin County.”

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Marvin McCoy performs on the alphorn at a merger celebration at the Minneapolis Central Library January 2.

Ryan noted that the agreement includes a provision that none of the 800 staff members will be laid off, and no library closures are planned. “We’ve got an aggressive capital project to build new libraries and remodel others,” she said. The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners has already approved $15 million to replace the Webber Park facility, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported December 19, and discussions are underway for upgrades to Walker Library in Minneapolis and the suburban Excelsior Library. As part of the merger agreement, the library board expanded from seven to 11 members, with three seats re—Amy Ryan served for Minneapolis residents. The new seats were not filled in time for the merged board’s first meeting January 23; appointed to the board January 29 were former Minneapolis library trustee Kathleen Lamb; Roger Hale, who chaired a library study group that supported the merger; John Pacheco Jr., director of Xcel Energy Foundation; and Jill Joseph, a library volunteer from suburban Eden Prairie. The separate Friends groups both remain active, and the two systems’ separate cataloging schemes—Library of Congress Classification for MPL and Dewey for HCL— also remain in use. “That’s tied into the holistic integrated library system, and we’re not in a hurry to change that,” Ryan said. Minneapolis library trustees and Hennepin County commissioners approved the merger in March 2007, but it also required city approval and state legislation. In addition, numerous details arose that threatened the deal—most recently concerns in December over who would pay for the cleanup of soil or groundwater contamination at eight Minneapolis libraries should those branches ever be razed or moved. A city-county agreement reached December 13 protects Hennepin County from any costs resulting from existing pollution at Minneapolis library sites, according to the Star-Tribune. —G.L.

early a year after their boards initially approved the merger, Minneapolis Public Library joined the Hennepin County Library January 2. The merger combines Minnesota’s two largest public library systems into a 41-branch operation with more than 5 million items and 1,600 computers. All 15 of Minneapolis’s libraries joined HCL, including the Roosevelt, Webber Park, and Southeast libraries, which reopened January 3 after being closed in December

american libraries

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2/19/2008 1:32:57 PM

NEWS | U.S. & International Bush’s FY09 Budget Boosts Libraries

Although much discretionary spending was cut and many programs eliminated in President Bush’s fiscal year 2009 budget, released February 4, the Library Services and Technology Act saw several key increases, including: n $171.5 million for state grants, an increase of $10.6 million over FY 2008; n $12.715 million for the National Leadership Grants for Libraries, an increase of $556,000; n $26.5 million for the Recruitment of Librarians for the 21st Century, an increase of $3.16 million; n $3.717 million for Native Americans Library Services, an increase of $143,000; and n $3.5 million for library policy, research, and statistics, an increase of $1.54 million. For school libraries, the president requested level funding for the Improving Literacy through School Libraries Program. “This budget is fantastic news for library users across the country,” said ALA President Loriene Roy. “LSTA is a vital funding source for American citizens, especially children. LSTA monies go toward help-

ing people of all backgrounds achieve literacy, including those with disabilities.” The president’s budget proposal is expected to be altered substantially when the Democrat-controlled Congress takes up the package later this year.

Fla. Awaits Effects from Latest Tax Cuts

A constitutional amendment overwhelmingly approved by Florida voters January 29 will cut property taxes by some $9.3 billion over its first five years, with dire consequences likely for libraries already reeling from previous tax rollbacks. Amendment 1, which passed by a 64–36 margin, increases the homestead exemption by an average of $15,000, allows homeowners to transfer up to $500,000 in their tax savings to a new house under the 3% “Save Our Homes” assessment cap, and gives new tax breaks to businesses, the Miami Herald reported January 30. “At this point we don’t know the effect, because county and city governments are just now having their discussions,” Florida Library Association Executive Director Ruth O’Donnell told American Libraries

January 31. “But based on the last round of cuts, they will be severe.” Last year the legislature passed a measure that went into effect October 1 requiring cities and counties to roll back their annual tax rates to 2006–07 levels and mandating additional cuts (AL, Sept. 2007, p. 21). O’Donnell said the impact of the cuts would not become clear until municipalities set their budgets for the next fiscal year. But already Leon County commissioners have tentatively slashed $13 million from their upcoming budget, with libraries likely to see a 19% cut, the Tallahassee Democrat reported January 31. Broward County Commissioner Kristin Jacobs said in the January 29 Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel that the county will have no choice but to make drastic cuts in libraries and other services. Palm Beach County government expects to lose $35 million in revenues the first year the amendment takes effect, with libraries losing $3 million, the Palm Beach Post reported January 30.

New Jersey Tax Cap Threatens Libraries

The New Jersey Library Association got major support from library users in January with its campaign to send

A roadside historical marker now stands before the Adams Center, New York, birthplace of Melvil Dewey. The creation of the marker, which indicates Dewey’s lifespan as 1851–1931 and recognizes him as a “librarian and educator” as well as the “creator of the Dewey Decimal System,” was spear-headed by the Chi Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an honorary educational society for women. The Adams Revitalization Committee included the unveiling during a walking tour of the town, and the Adams Center Library Board placed a memorial plaque on the front door of the house.

american libraries

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DEWEY’S DEDICATION

0308_News.indd 20

2/19/2008 1:33:13 PM

Apt adapters

The author and screenwriters of No Country for Old Men received the Friends of the University of Southern California Library’s 20th annual Scripter Award for the best film adaptation of a book February 2. At the ceremony, Schindler’s List screenwriter Steve Zaillian (left), who won the inaugural Scripter Literary Achievement Award, poses with USC Libraries Dean Catherine Quinlan, No Country coscreenwriter and codirector Joel Coen (who shared the award with collaborator Ethan Cohen and novelist Cormac McCarthy), and emcee Jason Alexander.

BY THE NUMBERS

200 Number of applicants the

Bay County (Mich.) Library System received for 19 part-time page jobs in January. While the jobs usually

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$1 million

Value of the insurance policy needed to return an 8½-foot, 350-lb. nutcracker to Belleville (N.J.) Public Library. Displayed during the past two holiday seasons, it was removed by town officials in 2007 over concerns that it could topple and injure someone. Creator Michael Perrone argued the removal was political, saying, “The one thing people who are nuts hate more than anything are nutcrackers.”—Newark StarLedger, December 21, 2007.

Sunday achieved by Toronto Public Library’s elimination of Sunday hours between September 9 and October 21, 2007, at 16 branches. The library anticipated a total savings of nearly $165,000 from the move, but an arbitrator ruled that it violated the library’s collective agreement and required the library to pay more than $150,000 in back wages to affected employees.— National Post, December 15, 2007.

are filled by teens and college students, many applicants this round are in their 40s, 50s, and 60s.—Bay City Times, January 24.

american libraries

$125 Savings per branch per

thousands of postcards to legislators opposing any efforts to weaken local library funding. Volunteers, Friends, and trustees made themselves available in many city public libraries to help patrons fill out the cards and draft a personal message to Gov. Jon Corzine. The campaign focused on a bill that targeted a dedicated library funding formula in place for more than 120 years. NJLA Executive Director Patricia Tumulty told American Libraries that more than 25,000 people signed the cards over a two-week period. In April 2007, Gov. Corzine signed landmark property-tax reform legislation designed to reverse the state’s cycle of steep annual tax increases (AL, Sept. 2007, p. 26). Part of the package included a 4% annual cap on property-tax hikes used to fund school districts and local government services. Unlike similar tax-cap legislation in other states, New Jersey has a law that mandates dedicated funding for municipal libraries. Enacted in 1884, it ensures that 33 cents of every $1,000 in assessed property values will go to local public libraries. But mayors and city officials have expressed concern because in some communities this fixed amount takes up a significant portion of the 4% increase allowed, forcing police, health, youth, and senior services departments to compete for dwindling funds. One bill before the state legislature threatens to handicap the dedicated library funding, while another would allow city libraries to transfer excess funding to help cities pay for essential services. A1567 would limit annual increases in fixed library revenues to 4%, down from the 15% cap in place. A1265 allows trustees to donate surplus revenue to municipalities, under certain circumstances and subject to approval by the state librarian. The latter bill was approved 73–2 by the state Assembly February 7; the Senate was considering a companion bill.

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NEWS | U.S. & International

A Case of Art

getting libraries out of cap,” but it never went for a vote. NJLA hopes the postcard campaign will send the message that it’s time to try again.

Archivist Charged with State Library Thefts

Artist Chanika Svetvilas, whose work appears in the exhibit “Cost of Living” at the Queens (N.Y.) Library through April 14, transforms suitcases using found objects, text, and mixed media to critique cultural consumerism. Also appearing in the exhibit is the “Popular Pastoral” series of ink drawings by Swati Khurana.

Truckful of Materials Recovered from Home

An Akron woman faces felony charges of theft and receiving stolen property after police hauled more than 1,000 missing books, movies, music, and toys belonging to Akron–Summit County (Ohio) Public Library, some of which had disappeared as early as 2000, from her home in a pickup truck in mid-December. Tammie Ware obtained 34 library cards by creating accounts for her four children under varying aliases, with herself as guardian, at different library locations, the Akron Beacon Journal reported December 20. The recovered items were not limited to children’s materials, however; among them was the Ohio Criminal Law Handbook. The accounts were discovered when a circulation staffer, Sandy Brown, recognized the family. “Something clicked in her mind and said, ‘Something isn’t right,’” Marketing Director Carla Davis told NBC-TV affiliate WKYC December 19. “She started searching the records and seeing that there was this convergence of all these fictitious names at one address.” Davis said the library has formed a task force of circulation staff from the main library and its branches to review its card policies and security measures. “We’re looking at software functions that will look at multiple uses of addresses or phone numbers,” she told American Libraries.

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NJLA is strongly advocating for a third bill, A1139, which would keep dedicated library revenues out of the 4% tax cap. The association’s argument is that since municipal libraries were created by popular referendum, their revenues should not fall under the cap. “With a similar proposal last year,” Tumulty said, “we believed we were very close to

A New York state archivist has admitted stealing hundreds of historical artifacts beginning in 2002 from the New York State Library in Albany that he sold on the internet to pay for household repairs and his daughter’s $10,000 credit card bill. Daniel Lorello, accessioning and special project coordinator at the State Archives, was arraigned in city court January 28 on charges that included grand larceny and processing stolen property, the Albany Times Union reported January 29. He was released with bail and suspended with pay from his job. Lorello admitted selling two copies of Davy Crockett’s Almanack, from 1835 and 1837, for around $3,200 and $2,000 respectively late last year, and a copy of Poor Richard’s Almanac for $1,001 around the same time. His scheme was uncovered when an 1823 letter from Vice President John C. Calhoun that he tried to sell on Ebay was noticed by Virginia attorney and history buff Joseph Romito, who dis-

covered it belonged to the state library and alerted authorities. In a statement, Lorello said he took more than 300 items in 2007 alone. He added that he “particularly liked” artifacts associated with the Revolutionary, Civil, and Mexican wars, World War I, black Americana, and “anything related to the Roosevelts and Jewish items.” State library staffers have thus far recovered 263 items.

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2/19/2008 3:49:21 PM

Indianapolis Opens Tangled in Fiscal Woes

A splendid new central library opened in downtown Indianapolis December 9, amid ongoing controversy over who is responsible for $50 million in construction cost overruns and how a frozen operating budget will support a facility that has essentially doubled in size. Indianapolis–Marion County (Ind.) Public Library CEO Laura Bramble told American Libraries that IMCPL is “currently in litigation and mediation,” so she was reluctant to go into detail but said, “We’re still hoping it might not have to go to trial.” An $18 million settlement was announced February 13, with $32 million to go. Bramble also said that the library’s 2008 materials budget has dropped from $6.5 million to $6 million. She explained that the FY08 budget is “unclear” and will be for some time, “so we are watching our cash flow carefully.” Asked about charges that

the library had replaced librarians with nondegreed professionals, Bramble acknowledged that the library was using what it calls “pub lic service associates” with bachelor’s degrees to replace some branch librarians. She also said that the Central Library is now “adequately staffed” at a level comparable to 2002, before a hiring freeze caused major shortages and former director Linda Mielke stepped down after declining a pay raise because the library was cutting spending and eliminating planned salary increases for other staff (AL, Feb. 2007, p. 15). On the plus side, the new facility has been hailed by architectural critics as stylish and stunning, “beautiful on the outside, dramatic inside in places where theatrics don’t sabotage its practical mission,” said Lawrence W. Cheek in the December 9 Indianapolis Star. Heralding the opening as “A Community Celebration,” trumpeters led a procession of offi-

cials onstage for the dedication, attended by upwards of 5,000 people. Locals then got their first look at such features as the high-tech Learning Curve area for children and families, the restored Simon Reading Room in the renovated 1917 Cret Building, a Computer Training Lab, and a collection of over 700,000 books and audiovisual materials. To get the library back on course fiscally, officials announced December 13 that former Purdue University president Martin C. Jischke and Patty Jischke will cochair a new strategic planning committee charged with identifying service and programming priorities as well as funding capabilities for IMCPL over the next five years. “Libraries are on the cutting edge of personal education and an essential element to a thriving, successful community,” the couple stated in a press release. “The better the public library, the better the community.”

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A young patron of the Lee County Library System in southwest Florida receives some impromptu helicopter training January 4 from a representative of the state’s Division of Forestry as part of the library’s “Extreme Heroes” program. About 60 children and their parents attended the three-day event, which invited children to dress up in firefighter gear and climb aboard aircraft in order to teach them about wildfire safety.

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STAINLESS STEEL BOOK DROPS

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2/19/2008 1:34:34 PM

NEWS | U.S. & International

Penguins on the Brain At the January 6 grand opening festivities for Champaign (Ill.) Public Library’s new Main Library, a black-andwhite dress code for staff encompassed penguin hats donned by children’s staffers Molly MacRae and Mike Rogalla. The 122,600-square-foot space is three times the size of the facility it replaces.

The last strategic plan for IMCPL was conducted in 1996 and resulted in the construction of six new library branches that replaced older, smaller branches, the expansion of the Pike branch, and the renovation and the Central Library expansion. A Q&A on the library’s website says the IMCPL must work out a solution to the operating budget shortfall, which was created by the state legislature and the City-County Council’s decision to freeze property tax rates. Officials estimated that there would be a $3.3 million shortfall in the 2007 budget, and in 2008 (the first full year of operating Central) the shortage would be $6.3 million. The estimated

A reconsideration committee for Bangor Area (Pa.) Middle School unanimously voted to keep Todd Strasser’s Give a Boy a Gun on library shelves over a student’s aunt’s concerns over the book’s depiction of school violence. School board members agreed January 21, deciding against tweaking materials selection policy. Kathryn Ann Frangos, whose nephew is an 8thgrader at the school, argued in the January 22 Easton Express-Times that school violence would be better addressed in a group than with a school library book. Published in the aftermath of the Columbine High School shootings, Give a Boy a Gun is a novel in which two students hold classmates and teachers hostage at a school dance. Each of the reconsideration committee’s nine members was disturbed by passages described as “vivid, distressing, and all too real” on a review on the book jacket. “If a teenager has a question he feels uncomfortable asking an adult, he has to be able to find the answers somewhere.” said Pam Nelson, who oversees the district’s libraries. “Any kid who’s going to pick up a gun and shoot in schools is not going to pick up the idea in my book,” Todd Strasser agreed in the ExpressTimes.

Golden Compass Spin Slows The Calgary (Alberta) Catholic School District has returned Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass to its library shelves two months after ordering its removal in November (AL, Jan.-Feb., p. 20). Calgary was among several Catholic school systems in Canada that pulled the fantasy

novel, which detractors have accused of antireligious content. After reconsidering the book, school board officials decided its themes should be used as a teaching opportunity, the Calgary Herald reported January 24. The review recommendations urge teachers to use instructional guidebooks uncovered in the board’s investigation that interpret the novels with a Catholic focus. At least one Catholic school in the United States was also caught up in the controversy over the novel and its two companions in the “His Dark Materials” trilogy. Librarian Mindy Wandling pulled the book from shelves at Ortega Middle School in Alamosa, Colorado, in November over concerns about its age-appropriateness after consulting with principal Neil Seneff. Alamosa High School librarian Mark Skinner soon found out about the removal and protested to district Superintendent Henry Herrera, who convened a meeting with school principals and librarians on December 3. Within two days, The Golden Compass was back in the Ortega collection, according to the December 11 Alamosa Valley Courier. A public school system also became embroiled: A challenge by the parents of a Lubbock, Texas, middleschool student was resolved December 19 when Shallowater Independent School District Superintendent Phil Warren stated the book would be retained. School board President Martin Nowlin told the December 20 Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that he agreed with the sentiment expressed in a letter sent to the district by the National Coalition Against Censorship, which urged officials “not to allow one group of parents to impose their religious views on others or to demand that the library policies reflect their personal preferences.”

american libraries

march 2008

Give a Boy a Gun Triggers Challenge

Photograph by Nick Burchell

Censorship Watch

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2/19/2008 1:34:46 PM

BLACK HISTORY ON DISPLAY

Protesting Librarians Shut Down Victoria PL

Members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 410 did not report to work for three days, effectively closing the nine branches of Greater Victoria (B.C.) Public Library January

16, 18, and 21, in a recent skirmish in its labor dispute over pay equity. “We were out on Wednesday in solidarity with one of our members who was suspended for a day,” union president Ed Seedhouse said in a January 18 e-mail to American Libraries. “That same member has now been suspended for two days so we will be out in solidarity with her on Friday the 18th and Monday the 21st.” The suspension was fallout from a dispute over a holiday food-for-fines program the union launched as a protest in November. “To [waive fines] is to interfere with the contract between the public and the library and contradictory to library board policy,” library CEO Barry Holmes wrote in an e-mail to the union, the Victoria Times Colonist reported November 30.

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reading,” Billington said in the January 3 Washington Post. Based on his contribution to young people’s literature and his ability to relate to young readers, Scieszka was nominated by a five-member committee of children’s literature experts, and Billington confirmed the decision. Scieszka, who will receive a $50,000 stipend for his service, also runs Guys Read, a nonprofit program that encourages boys to become readers.

Popular children’s author Jon Scieszka was appointed by the Library of Congress January 3 as the first National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Scieszka, the writer of The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs and the Caldecott Honor– winning The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, will use his two-year term to promote reading and to reach out to reluctant readers through the media, personal appearances, and project development. Modeled upon the U.K.’s Children’s Laureate position, the program was created by LC’s Center for the Book and the Children’s Book Council (CBC), a publishing trade association. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington observed that this is a crucial time for creating young readers, noting the recent National Endowment for the Arts study “To Read or Not to Read,” which highlighted the decline in American reading habits and proficiency. “We think it’s very important to have an evangelist for

Scieszka Named Ambassador

An autographed 1961 Dr. Martin Luther King tribute program from Carnegie Hall in New York City and a 1773 first edition of poems by former slave Phillis Wheatley were among the items in a Sacramento (Calif.) Public Library exhibit in February for Black History Month. The rare documents were loaned to the library from the personal collection of Sacramento Kings basketball player Chris Webber.

american libraries

shortfall for the three-year period since the freeze is 2% in 2006, 9% in 2007, and 14% in 2008. “Clearly, the library cannot continue at its present pace,” says the Q&A. “We’re getting a lot of positive feedback on collections and services,” Bramble noted about the new library. “More of the collection is out and visible. Use has already gone up in the last couple weeks, and I hope we can move on and start our strategic plan and get the lawsuits behind us and provide the good library service that Indianapolis is used to.” Meanwhile, Cheryl Wright will stay on as interim director “until the planning process is complete in July,” said Bramble, explaining that a decision about how the position will be filled “will come through the plan.”

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2/19/2008 1:34:59 PM

NEWS | U.S. & International Library management said that the fine-amnesty program would continue but would be operated by library managers only. Helen Hughes, a union member and supervisor of circulation at the central branch, waived a fine after this

declaration, leading to the shutdown action. In response, the library board voted February 13 to lock out unionized employees at all nine branches beginning at 5 p.m. February 17. The union had voted in July to au-

thorize a strike, and since then has taken several actions, shutting down service at all branches for three days in October, staging rotating walkouts at branches in November, causing noon-hour closures, and suspending programs and internet service. z

Global Reach SPAIN

A small-town Spanish mayor 4 5 concerned about a high drop1 8 7 out rate in local schools has devised a way to keep kids studying—pay them. Agustín Jiménez Crespo, Socialist may6 or of the central agricultural town of Noblejas, is recommending the town’s children be given a euro ($1.50 U.S.) for every hour they spend reading in the public or school library. A recent European Commission study showed that students in Spain had more difficulty reading than those in other countries.—Associated Press, Feb. 4.

UNITED KINGDOM

More than 20,000 “Love Your Library” jute bags have been sold in Norfolk county libraries since they were introduced last year as an alternative to environmentally damaging plastic bags. County Library Head Jennifer Holland said: “As well as looking great, the bags are sturdy, long-lasting, and easy to pack, and we’re delighted that they are being so widely used.” The Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library was the busiest library in England in 2007, with more than 1.5 million visits.—Norfolk Evening News, Jan. 18.

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SOUTH AFRICA

A survey of high school libraries in townships outside Cape Town shows that 90% are either permanently locked, have no books, or do not exist at all. Although most schools in these populous urban townships technically have library space, the areas are often used for storage. The schools also lack funds for hiring full-time library technicians.—Cape Town Independent Online, Feb. 1.

IRAQ

The Danish Royal Library is trying to acquire the original drawings of the 12 controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that were published in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper September 30, 2005, leading to protests across the Muslim world. Most of them still belong to the artists. Library spokeswoman Jytta Kjaergaard said there were no plans to exhibit the cartoons if they were successfully acquired.—Der Spiegel, Jan. 30; Daily Telegraph, Jan. 30.

The Hoover Institution, a public-policy think tank at Stanford University, signed an agreement January 21 to house for the next five years about 7 million pages of records and other artifacts from Saddam Hussein’s tenure as Iraqi president. The Iraq Memory Foundation, a nonprofit group that has had custody of the documents since April 2003 when they were discovered in the basement of the Baath Party’s headquarters in Baghdad, said it had permission for the deal from the office of Prime Minister Nouri alMaliki. However, Iraqi National Library and Archive Director Saad Eksander has called for their immediate return to Iraq.—Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 23.

FRANCE

TAIWAN

DENMARK

The Bibliothèque Nationale is exhibiting its collection of erotica through March 22. “Hell at the Library, Eros in Secret” offers to the public its first opportunity to view more than 350 sexually explicit literary works, manuscripts, engravings, lithographs, photographs, film clips, calling cards, postcards, and cardboard pop-ups held in the closed stacks the library calls “L’Enfer” (Hell). No one under 16 is admitted to the exhibit.—New York Times, Jan. 16.

GERMANY

A manuscript found in a German library has shed new light on the true identity of the woman that Leonardo da Vinci painted as Mona Lisa. Heidelberg University library confirmed January 11

Pop singer and actor Richie Ren inaugurated a library for visually impaired children January 2 in Taipei. At the opening ceremony, Ren conducted a storytelling session in which he challenged his vocal abilities by impersonating different characters simultaneously.—People’s Daily, Jan. 3.

AUSTRALIA

The government has returned a 15th-century map by Claudius Ptolemy to the National Library of Spain after recovering it from a Sydney art gallery. The map was one of two taken from an atlas by a thief last August. Uruguayan-born researcher Cesar Gomez Rivero has been charged in the theft.—Melbourne Age, Feb. 5.

american libraries

that manuscript expert Armin Schlechter had discovered dated notes scribbled in October 1503 in the margins of a book by its owner, Florentine city official Agostino 9 Vespucci, proving once and for all that Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Francesco del Giocondo, was indeed the model for one of the most famous portraits in the world.—Reuters, Jan. 14.

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2/19/2008 1:35:10 PM

Following a preconference day in which deans, directors, and program chairs heard the results of research on the future of the LIS profession and distance-educators shared best practices, the conference opened with a keynote by Yvonna S. Lincoln of Texas A&M University’s Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development. Well-known for coauthoring The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research, Lincoln quietly reminded attendees that “research methods have enormous built-in political and moral dimensions.” Referring to research on the digital divide, she stressed that the gap was about much

Photograph by Andrew B. Wertheimer

Leave your comfort zone

ond Life in LIS education, the Intermore than technology, and she ennet Public Library, and Web 2.0. couraged listeners to move out of A conference highlight was the their comfort zone to devote their human resources to new forms of so- awards reception on Thursday evening. Catherine Sheldrick Ross of the cial inclusion. University of Western Ontario and The second keynoter, Jean J. Schensul, founding director of the In- Linda Smith of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign were stitute for Community Research, exhonored for their Professional panded on Lincoln’s emphasis with a presentation on Community-Based Research (CBR). She said CBR is about “democratizing science” by using both tools and the results of research to generate “community-based knowledge” in order to reduce disparities, “enhance community growth, deepen history, build community.” In a subsequent session, she reiterated, “It’s about social justice.” The work of LIS schools and faculty members in CBR Catherine Sheldrick Ross, Christine Jenkins, and Linda Smith (L–R) were among the honorees at the ALISE and social justice activities awards reception. was featured in many sessions, from Michele Cloonan’s preContributions to LIS Education. Ken sentation on Simmons College’s work Haycock of San Jose State University, with Iraqi librarians to ALA President was honored for his service to ALISE. Loriene Roy’s focus on service learnChristine Jenkins, University of Illiing. Bharat Mehra of the University of nois at Urbana-Champaign, received Tennessee told of his students’ work the award for Teaching Excellence, with community agencies to meet and the entire faculty of San Jose State technology needs, and Jamie CampUniversity was accorded the Prattbell Naidoo of the University of South Severn Faculty Innovation Award for Carolina related his students’ work on their distance learning program. library services to Latino youth. The The program drew to a close University of Arizona’s Patricia Monwith the induction of incoming presitiel Overall was all over the program, dent Michele Cloonan of Simmons with sessions focusing on cultural College and the announcement of the competency and diversity. election of UIUC’s Linda Smith as inEngagement with interactive techcoming vice-president/presidentnologies was featured in programs on elect. —Louise Robbins, University of virtual communities, the use of SecWisconsin SLIS

american libraries

ore than 400 current and prospective library and information science educators gathered in Philadelphia January 8-11 for the annual conference of the Association for Library and Information Science Education. ALISE President Connie Van Fleet of the University of Oklahoma convened a rich program focusing on the theme “Community Engagement: Integrating Learning, Research, and Practice.” Indeed, engagement reverberated throughout an array of some 60 plenaries, papers, panels, and interest group presentations, with a particular focus on two areas: students and library 2.0 technologies, and faculty and students forming communities through learning, research, and service. In addition, more than 65 candidates interviewed for over 60 positions with 30 employers, mostly ALA-accredited schools

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LIS Educators Meet to Further Community Engagement

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2/19/2008 1:35:22 PM

NEWS | U.S. & International

Girls Raise Cash for Kenya

Danielle Rodriguez and Megan Adams are selling Tumaini dolls to raise money to build a library in Thika, Kenya.

Rodriguez says that a library built in Kenya in 2004 was instrumental in educating people about AIDS and decreasing the local infection rate. “There is a lot of attention in Africa right now with the AIDS crisis,” she notes. Adams sums up the reason for their work: “You don’t really think that the gift of literacy can actually save lives, but things such as health, nutrition, and community conflict are subject to literacy. You don’t realize how much your life is based on reading.” The girls have been able to confirm through contact with the AFK that “the beginning structure of our library is intact and the building progress has not been delayed. This is mainly due to the fact that it is located in the Central Province where there has been no violence or unrest. This land is where the Kikuyu Tribe resides and it is heavily protected by government forces. The Kikuyu tribe is Kenya President Mwai Kibaki’s tribe so there is no ethnic strife and therefore this is one of the safest places to be in Kenya. We are grateful for this.” —Bart Birdsall, Greco Middle School, Temple Terrace, Florida Read more at www.literacyleadstohope.com

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anielle Rodriguez and Megan Adams believe Gandhi’s words: “We must become the change we want to see in the world.” They know that literacy saves lives and gives hope, so they started Literacy Leads to Hope, a fundraising initiative to support the American Friends of Kenya (AFK) organization. Since their project began, political violence has threatened their goal of raising enough money to build and set up a library in Thika, but the dire situation in Kenya has only strengthened their resolve. The pair reported on their website, “It is with great sadness that we open our first newsletter of the year with such tragic news from Kenya. “The political unrest The political unrest and violence that is occurring and violence that is in Kenya is especially to us now that we occurring in Kenya real feel so personally connected with its people. is especially real We are fortunate to get to us now that we real updates that are not tainted with the media feel so personally gag order, through the director of AFK.” connected with its As 16-year-old high people.” school juniors at the —High-schoolers Danielle Rodriguez Academy of the Holy and Megan Adams on their Names in Tampa, FloriLiteracy Leads to Hope website da, both girls have taken part in other community service projects, but say they wanted to truly make a difference in the world instead of simply accumulating community-service-hour points for college. Having raised $40,000 from a benefit fundraiser and $35,000 from a Canadian Baptist church, the girls hope to raise a total of $120,000, the estimated cost of construction. Desks, books, a computer, and shelves are in storage waiting for the building. Recently, the two met with Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio who had declared November 13 “Literacy Leads to Hope Day” in the city. They are now reaching out to schools, trying to raise more money through the sale of T-shirts and Tumaini (Swahili for “hope”) dolls that they have created. All the money they raise will go to the American Friends of Kenya organization, earmarked for the library.

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Technology | Tech News

LC Teams with Flickr

The library also hopes to use the public to enhance he Library of Congress announced January the collection’s utility. As LC Director of Communica16 that it has teamed with the photo-sharing tions Matt Raymond said website Flickr to broaden on the library’s blog, public access to the 14 million “The real magic comes photographs and other visual when the power of the items in LC’s collections. Flickr community takes The pilot project is beginning with over. We want people to 3,000 photos from two of the lbrary’s tag, comment, and make most popular collections—the notes on the images, just George Grantham Bain Collection, like any other Flickr featuring the photographic files of photo, which will benefit one of America’s earliest news picnot only the community ture agencies, mostly dating from the but also the collections 1900s to the mid-1920s, and Farm This photo of the Washington Senators’ Herman themselves. For inSecurity Administration/Office of A. “Germany” Schaefer turning the tables on stance, many photos are War Information photos of rural and press photographers during his team’s April 1911 visit to play the New York Highlanders is among missing key caption infarm life and World War II mobilizathe Bain Collection images on The Commons. formation such as where tion taken between 1939 and the photo was taken and 1944—that have been placed in an who is pictured. If such information is collected via area of Flickr designated as The Commons (www.flickr. Flickr members, it can potentially enhance the quality com/commons). The project includes only images for which no copyright restrictions are known to exist. of the bibliographic records for the images.” —G.F.

NISO Publishes RFID Best Practices

Bringing color, video to e-Books

The National Information Standards Organization has issued RFID in US Libraries, a free report of best practices for the implementation of radio frequency identification for books and other library materials. NISO’s recommendations include allowing RFID tags to be installed as early as possible and used throughout an item’s life cycle; interoperability among libraries regardless of tag suppliers, hardware, or software; protecting individual privacy; and extending standards globally. Download the report at www.niso.org/standards/resources/ RP-6-2008.pdf.

Writing in the January/February issue of Technology Review, the magazine’s chief correspondent, David Talbot, observes that while Sony Reader, Amazon Kindle, and other ebook readers attempt to reproduce the experience of ink on paper, laboratory advances from E Ink of Cambridge, Massachusetts, are pushing e-paper technology into color and video. But commercialization is still a few years off, he notes.

tips for Google Calendar . . . Christina Laun published “50 Tips, Tweaks, and Hacks to Make the

Most of Google Calendar” at the VirtualHosting blog (www.virtualhosting.com/blog) January 14. Her techniques cover Facebook integration, remote access via cell phone or IM, synchronizing Google Calendar with other calendar programs, and cheerful and pessimistic skin options to let the calendar suit your mood.

. . . And Google Search Gina Trapani posted “10 Obscure Google Search Tricks” at Lifehacker (lifehacker.com) January 2. Included are methods to show only faces in image searches, find alternatives by using the “better than” and “reminds me of” keywords, and access blocked sites by using Google’s cache.

american libraries

march 2008

TECH BRIEFS

0308_Tech_News.indd 30

2/19/2008 1:36:25 PM

Microsoft vs. Google in Digital Derby M

ing its dominance through acquisition,â&#x20AC;? Microsoft said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Together, Microsoft and Yahoo can offer a credible alternative.â&#x20AC;? Columbia University reached an agreement with Microsoft January 29 to digitize public-domain books from its libraries and make them available through Microsoftâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Live Search Books. Scanning will be done with the support of the Open Content Alliance. Columbia also joined the Google Library Project in December, making it one of a small number of universities working with both initiatives. Microsoft joined the Open Content Alliance at OCAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s start in 2005, and a year later added a restriction that prohibits a book it has digitized from being included in commercial search engines (namely Google) other than Microsoftâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s; other search engines are free to point users to the material but not to offer full-text searches. In addition, unlike the Google Books digitization project, there are no restrictions on the distribution of the Microsoftscanned copies for academic purposes across institutions.

icrosoft went public in February with an aggressive bidding war, expected to exceed $50 billion in cash and stock, to acquire Yahoo. By mid-month, an initial offer of $44.6 billion had been rejected, and the race with Google for web dominance and global digitization continued. Following on the heels of Microsoftâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recent forays into digitization partnerships with libraries, the bid for Yahoo suggests that the competition with Google is far from over. Among those partnerships: a cooperative agreement with the Library of Congress to support new interactivity for users, a year-old deal with the British Library to scan some 100,000 19th-century books, and charter membership in the Open Content Alliance, a consortium of nonprofit and for-profit groups (including Yahoo) committed to building a free archive of digital text and multimedia. Microsoft didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mention Google by name in its announcement, but it did indicate that its acquisition bid was aimed squarely at its rival: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Today, the market is increasingly dominated by one player, who is consolidat-

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technology | Tech News

Techy textures

Self-checkout machines, 24-hour pickup lockers, and a high-tech look greeted 6,000 opening-day visitors to the new Medina (Ohio) Library January 12, a doorcount record. Completed in 29 months at a cost of $20.4 million, the sleek new library incorporates the 1907 original and a 1976 addition. The facility is the fifth to open as part of a Medina County District Library construction and expansion project funded through a $42-million bond issue.

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march 2008

Announced January 10, the Library of Congress agreement gives Microsoft, as Librarian of Congress James H. Billington put it, a unique opportunity “to put a vast array of the library’s unparalleled educational resources literally at the fingertips of students and lifelong learners alike, both on-site at the Library of Congress and virtually, through the Web.” Key to the LC project will be interactive presentation software at library kiosks, using Microsoft Web and content-management software that will offer what the library calls “incredible fidelity between the on-site and online experiences.” A new “Passport to Knowledge,” with a unique barcode linked to an online account, will allow visitors to bookmark areas of interest that can later be accessed and explored in depth at the myloc.gov website, scheduled to launch in April. Knowledge Quest, a gamebased learning activity, will send visitors to the library and online searching for clues in LC’s collection. Teachers will also have access to new educational resources. LC said in a statement that the agreement with Microsoft is “part of a larger effort to transform the public spaces of the library’s Thomas Jefferson Building into an experience that combines unique artifacts with cuttingedge technology and invites visitors to explore the collections in engaging new ways.” —L.K.

0308_Tech_News.indd 32

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TECHNOLOGY | In Practice

Open Everything Embracing Web 2.0 in the City of Brotherly Love

march 2008

Open

someone like me to standards summed up in one word, it would be “open.” While be covering it all. allow us to most of the major ILS venThe term Web 2.0 dor executives discussed was on the lips—and pick and in the press releaschoose components the differences between es—of many vendors being a family-owned business and part of a priin Philadelphia. For from each vendor. vate equity group, the big the past few years, librarians have been lobbying for topics centered around openness: open standards, open source, and more interoperability, openness, web-scale presence, and tools that al- open APIs (application programing interface). low patrons to add content to library Open standards lead to greater systems. Finally, we’re starting to see results. software interoperability, allowing If the discussion at RMG’s 18th An- libraries to pick and choose the components they want from each vendor. nual Presidents’ Seminar could be Standards compliance also helps systems extract data from diverse content providers, leading to products like Serials Solutions’ 360 Counter and Innovative Interfaces’ ERM, which pull usage data from each electronic content provider and export the aggregated data in a form librarians can use. On the RMG panel, Vinod Chakra of VTLS argued that good software fosters partnership and that the lines between users and creators should be blurry. This blurring of lines is often achieved through APIs. An interface that allows two programs to interact, an API lets users build additional functionality onto a system or use functionality from one system in another. This gives librarians with programming skills the ability to build applications onto the ILS and the vendors can then capitalize on the talent and initiative of their customers by With open arms, Ina Stern of Workman Publishing/Algonquin Books welcomes the making those new applications availAvalon String Band Mummers and the ALA Midwinter-goers close behind into the Exhibit Hall at the Opening Reception. able to their entire customer base. A

was a bit apprehensive when first asked to write about the exhibits at Midwinter for American Libraries this year. Andrew Pace had covered the exhibit hall brilliantly for the past four years, bringing his deep knowledge of library systems and his wit to everything he wrote. While I know the difference between a link resolver and a federated search tool, Web 2.0 technologies and open source are more my bailiwick. After visiting the exhibits, however, I realized that this was the perfect time for

american libraries

by Meredith Farkas

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2/19/2008 1:39:30 PM

In 2006, the Pew Internet and American Life project found that 35% of online adults and 57% of teens were adding content to the Web. The benefits of users adding content to your system include increased (if not improved) data and a population that is engaged with your system. Features that allow patrons to be participants are so in demand that several libraries have built the functionality into their catalog themselves. OCLC’s WorldCat Local was the first library product to allow users to add reviews and other information to the catalog, but suddenly we’re seeing similar features in a number of vendor offerings. Auto-Graphics’ web-based ILS, AGent Verso, has incorporated a number of Web 2.0 tools, including RSS feeds and user tagging. Also of note is its geolocation IP authentication technology, which lets users authenticate into library resources without having a library card. Since employing this technology instead of requiring a library barcode, New Jersery’s statewide virtual reference service has increased usage by 25%. Ex Libris’s contribution to the discovery platform market, Primo, allows users to rate, review, and assign tags to materials in the catalog. In addition to faceted search results and spelling suggestions, Primo offers a single interface for searching all of the library’s print and electronic materials, including locally digitized resources and online databases. Innovative Interfaces recently released its discovery platform, Encore. Instead of user tagging, Encore displays a weighted tag cloud of related LC subject headings along with the search results. The developers plan to incorporate user tagging into the sec-

march 2008

Patrons as providers

EBSCO Vice-President of Corporate Communications Joe Weed (center) basks in the accolades of ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels and President Loriene Roy during a reception for ALA Library Champions. Weed accepted glass bookends (held by Fiels and Roy) in acknowledgment of EBSCO’s support of ALA and the profession.

hosted solution allows libraries to choose any federated search interface (or build their own) and benefit from the translators developed by WebFeat and Index Data.

Windsor, as well as the Michigan Library Consortium and Indiana State Library, all working towards implementation. The three Canadian libraries are working on an acquisitions module that will benefit everyone using Evergreen. Also difficult to miss were the lime-green shirts of the VuFind developers at the PALINET booth. VuFind, developed at Villanova (Pa.) University, is an open source discovery platform that can go on top of an already existing ILS. It includes faceted browsing, user tagging and commenting, and several other exciting features. PALINET has teamed up with VuFind to market the software and support member libraries in implementation. In other open source news, CARE Affiliates has partnered with WebFeat and Index Data, using their proprietary and open source translators that allow communication with databases for federated search, to create Open Translators. This

american libraries

number of ILS vendors already make their APIs available to libraries. At Midwinter, OCLC launched the WorldCat Grid Developer’s Network to make their web services available to library developers and to support a community of developers outside of OCLC. There was no avoiding the topic of open source this year, and not just because of its growing presence in the exhibit hall. LibLime’s huge ceilinghigh sign could hardly be missed, nor could the news that 15 academic libraries in New York’s WALDO (Westchester Academic Library Directors Organization) Consortium had chosen LibLime’s Koha ZOOM ILS. WALDO has also commissioned LibLime to make Koha better meet the needs of academic libraries. The other major open source ILS on the block, Evergreen, has also hooked some big fish, with Ontario’s Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, McMaster University in Hamilton, and the University of

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TECHNOLOGY | In Practice adding content, a social software There seemed to pulling from a cenadd-on for the be a more hopeful tral repository adds popular Aquavalue to every Browser, which lets atmosphere. Perhaps library’s catalog. In patrons tag, rate, it was all the new addition, libraries and review items in can choose to prethe catalog. Unlike product releases and populate their cataany of the other improvements, but I think log with systems, user- generated content it also had to do with the LibraryThing tags. Some content from each library is increased openness from providers are also stored in a central jumping on the Web repository of all our vendors. libraries using the 2.0 bandwagon. Last product. Since the value of any social fall, Elsevier released 2Collab, its own social bookmarking tool. 2Coltechnology is in the number of users lab users can easily bookmark and tag materials from Elsevier’s online collections as well as material from the Web. Readex, known for its online historical collections, announced the release of Crossroads, a social networking tool that allows scholars and students to connect online around Readex’s collections (disclosure: I am a member of its advisory board). Users can create profiles in Crossroads and can tag, annotate, and create custom collections of historical material. This can MARCIVE is your ultimate resource for be done privately, as part of a projcataloging recipes, tips, and ideas. ect group, or publicly.

ond version of their discovery tool, as well as better features for material delivery. Both Primo and Encore can work atop a different vendor’s ILS. Two new products that incorporate user-generated content are TLC’s Indigo and Medialab’s My Discoveries. I got a peek at the still-in-production Indigo and was impressed with its adoption of long-sought Web 2.0 features: faceted browsing, visual browsing of book jackets by genre, user tagging and reviews, the ability to create booklists, and the ability for libraries to pull in timely RSS content from the Web. My Discoveries is

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Students today have no trouble finding Facebook or Wikipedia, but ask them to find their library’s website and you may discover that many have never used it. A growing focus of library web design has been on making library resources more portable so they can be embedded into the systems our users do frequent. OCLC recently announced that the upcoming release of its virtual reference system, QuestionPoint, is going to include a chat widget that can be embedded on any web page. This will allow librarians to post chat widgets in places users frequently have problems, such as the library catalog, and for patrons to get help at their point of need. Pro-

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march 2008

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march 2008

MEREDITH FARKAS is distance learning librarian at Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont. She blogs at Information Wants to Be Free and created Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki. Contact her at librarysuccess@ gmail.com.

Several database user interfaces have just received extreme makeovers. EBSCO has released its new Visual Search tool, which allows users to interact with subject areas and materials through a highly interactive drag-and-drop interface. The firm also offered a preview of the new basic interface for EBSCO databases, scheduled to be rolled out this summer. Ovid recently released its streamlined new search and discovery platform OvidSP, which features natural-language search, faceted browsing, and annotation of search results. Some vendors are looking beyond books and journal articles to develop strong collections of multimedia materials. ProQuest announced an agreement to distribute Critical Mention, which provides up-to-date and indexed TV and radio news content. It is also adding multimedia content to ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. LexisNexis previewed its new Statistical DataSets, whose interface makes it easy to create customized views of data and do sophisticated analysis. Ebrary is looking beyond publishers’ e-books by making its software available by license so libraries can host locally digitized content on the platform. Ex Libris is working with the National Library of New Zealand to develop a flexible, standardsbased Digital Preservation System for national and cultural institutions,

exhibit hall. Perhaps it was all the new product releases and improvements announced, but I think it also had to do with the increased openness we’re seeing from some vendors. From the possibilities of open source software to the interoperability that comes from using open standards, it all leads to more choices for the consumer. What could be more “2.0” than that? z

New search, new content, new markets

making Ex Libris a trailblazer in this largely untapped market. For the first time in a few years, acquisitions didn’t dominate the news at ALA Exhibits, with one exception: OCLC’s purchase of EZProxy. Used in over 2,400 institutions, EZProxy is one of the major software products for authenticating remote users. This acquisition puts the muscle of OCLC behind EZProxy’s development, which had been single-handedly run since 1999 by its founder. There seemed to be a more hopeful atmosphere at the Philadelphia

american libraries

Quest has developed a widget generator that gives librarians the ability to embed a search box on any web page, including online courseware. Librarians can enter their proxy prefix, specific search parameters, and can visually customize the widget. There are also Facebook applications that allow users to embed on their own profile search boxes for WorldCat and JSTOR.

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TECHNOLOGY | Dispatches from the Field

Ending the Status Quo The future of information organization

“She canna take it anymore, Cap’n!” —Chief Engineer Scotty to Captain James T. Kirk

tions for LC. Politically, LC must put observed that a library spends its resources into mass digitization. roughly 60–70% of its budget on Our infatuation with order, perpersonnel salaries and benefits in fection, and control does not work technical services, OCLC fees, and in today’s information environment. vendor OPAC fees in order to mainEvery librarian needs to read David tain a standardized, crossWeinberger’s book Evreferenced erything is Miscelladatabase that only We can’t neous. Digital disorder 10% of our cuskeep funding is the new model, and tomers are using. each user has the powIn every business something er to arrange, classify, model I know of, that today’s find, order, deconthat ratio spells users aren’t struct, and reconstruct bankruptcy and information and foreclosure. accessing. knowledge in any fash“Good enough” ion he or she wishes. is just fine for today’s users; there is no reason why the Trying to do it for them is a waste of time, resources, and people. data model currently in operation in The University of California conacademic libraries to continually fix, sortia has the opportunity, with their update, and localize bibliographic renew Melvyl interface that uses cords should be maintained. For exWorldCat Local, to transform their ample, the Library of Congress is not technical services operations away the Library of the United States—it is from multiple bibliographic records, there to serve members of Congress, to initiating new business models whose main goals are to get re-electthat leverage the one master biblioed. Cataloging isn’t sexy, but digitization of the LC’s holdings is, and that is graphic record. Will they have the one of the reasons why LC is getting strength and tenacity to take the risks out of the cataloging business. and challenges necessary to move toward new models for technical serInfatuation with order vices operations, or will the status The changes at LC should not surquo continue? Academic libraries are prise anyone; LC has been making it in a battle for survival in this new inclear for years the direction that it is formation age, and we must leverage headed. The Library of Congress where we can. z Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control is merely a BRADFORD LEE EDEN is associate university façade committee put together in librarian for technical services and scholarly communication at the University of California, order to placate those who were Santa Barbara. This article was adapted from caught off guard, and will not prothe Nov./Dec. 2007 issue of ALA’s Library Technology Reports. duce any major changes or direc-

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march 2008

aving spent my entire career moving up administratively in technical services, I have often come back to this quotation and wondered why we as a profession continue to bail out the sinking boat that is cataloging. The era of the library OPAC is over. Going above and beyond whether the library catalog is important or of value (it is), and going beyond the point that structured metadata, whether in MARC or something else, is important and of value (it definitely is), the reality from an administrative point of view is that libraries have limited resources with which to compete and position ourselves in the new information universe. Those who continue to decry the loss of the mythical “good old days” of data perfection have no concept of the larger political picture. For academic library administrators, monies from state coffers for higher education continue to dwindle and will eventually disappear; university provosts and presidents no longer throw money towards their libraries just because we say we need it; and increasing numbers of libraries must invest resources toward generating their own income. We can’t keep funding something that today’s users aren’t accessing. As a technical services administrator, I

by Bradford Lee Eden

0308_Tech_Dispatches.indd 38

2/19/2008 1:42:13 PM

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TECHNOLOGY | Internet Librarian

Mansell, Part Deux Librarianship’s newest tools inhabit a different conceptual universe

Newer tools inhabit a different conceptual universe. On the margins they can be spotty and superficial and sometimes downright wrong or even offensive; but they can also be more responsive, more interesting, and even—dare I say it?—more accurate and more authoritative. We have to live in both these domains—the quick/dirty/easy and the precise/detailed/deep, each where appropriate and best. We have to be able to assess not only sources but also situations, when to use what and for whom and why. Sometimes Wikipedia makes sense, other timesWorld Book, sometimes OED, occasionally Word Spy. As Samuel Swett Green said in 1876, “provid[e] every person who applies for aid with the best book he is willing to read.” Besides, there’s one simple solution if you’re unsatisfied with a tool such as Wikipedia: fix it. Think about it: With several thousand librarians in there fixing errors, citing sources, making it better, how great could it be? We all know there are errors and inconsistencies and things that just bug us in every tool we use. The idea of changing the venerable Mansell (or OED or AACR2 or MARC or whatever) used to be an example of hubris; now it’s part of the deal. As my father always said, if you don’t vote, you can’t bitch . . . but that’s another story. z Joseph Janes is associate professor in the Information School of the University of Washington in Seattle. Send ideas to intlib@ischool.washington.edu.

american libraries

march 2008

fter half a decade of body of knowledge about sources writing this column, I and tools and communities and clifinally touched a nerve: ents, and when What to Do seemed a The response to my lot more obvious. January/February column (p. 34) on the National Union Catalog Fear of flux Pre-1956 Imprints (“Mansell” to Now, of course, the tools are in trethe cogn oscenti) generated way mendous flux, and not just refermore response and e-mail than ence sources: Witness the huge any of my previous efforts. I was hoo-ha over RDA and the “death of quite surprised, especially by the cataloging” that’s being played out range of that response, which in the knowledge-organization came from world. Evlibrarians new erything Mansell connotes a and not-soelse seems new, people up in the time when we had who’d used air. Some of a much stronger it and loved our colcommon experience. it or just now leagues learned about seem perit, and folks fectly happy who’d only had to move it from and eager to live in a world where one building to another, a few everything changes every day—and huge volumes at a time, on a book they get to be a part of that change— truck in a rickety elevator with a and others just kinda don’t. surly undergraduate. (Thanks to Exhibit A: the whole “don’t use you all for writing, by the way!) Wikipedia” thing that rises up reguThis led me to wonder, of course: larly and even makes the media now and then. This masquerades as conWhy such a response? The easy, cern regarding the quality of inforknee-jerk reaction is nostalgia for mation, the importance of those good old days that Mansell evaluation and authority, and so on, represents, a time when we knew and no doubt there are genuine aswhat we were doing, when we were pects of that at work. comfortable and secure in our proIt also makes us look like idiots. fessional realm. And while at least a First of all, dismissing a complicatfew of the responses I got fell into ed source wholesale smacks of that category, that’s a little too simmindlessness. Secondly, the thing is plistic to be a satisfactory explanahugely popular, so it can’t possibly tion. be all that bad. For us to ignore or Mansell also connotes a time even prohibit it is ostrich- (and Cawhen we had a much stronger comnute-) like in the extreme. mon experience, when there was a

by Joseph Janes

0308_Tech_Inter_Lib.indd 40

2/19/2008 1:42:56 PM

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02/12/2008 2:58:57 PM

News | Interview NEWSMAKER: STEPHEN m. Kohn

ttorney Stephen M. Kohn of the

ly wanted, and it stated that I could not disclose information except as permitted under the U.S. Constitution—— so I signed it!

Washington, D.C., law firm of Kohn,

Kohn, and Colapinto is currently serving

Can the FBI issue National Security

as legal counsel for FBI whistleblower

Letters legitimately without specify-

Bassem Youssef, who appeared Janu-

ing either an individual or a location,

ary 12 at the ALA Midwinter Meeting

purely as a fishing expedition?

highest-ranking Arab-American FBI agent, had been warned by his superiors not to make a presentation that pointed out failures in the FBI’s counterterrorism program. Kohn advised him to appear anyway but to take questions from the audience instead of delivering his prepared speech. Kohn is president of the National Whistleblower Center and author of Concepts and Procedures in Whistleblower Law. He has represented numerous FBI agents, including Frederic Whitehurst (crime lab) and Sibel Edmonds (translator). This Q&A is excerpted from the Philadelphia program.

Why did you advise Bassem Youssef to go ahead and speak at the ALA

disciplined as a result of his answers, so we just have to be a little careful.

conference against the advice of the FBI?

Why did you decide to take on

This was the first time Mr. Youssef has actually spoken in a public forum. He has done a couple of media interviews, but he’s never really answered the public’s questions. I thought this was the appropriate place to do it, given the dedication of the American Library Association to freedom of speech.

Youssef’s case?

During your talk, there were a number of times when you whispered to

I had to ask him not to answer a question if it dealt with certain matters. Some of them I was permitted to answer because I can get access to information and I’m under no gag order. He is under a gag order. What would be the consequences of saying something the FBI found objectionable?

Athough he can answer questions, the FBI was quite clear that he can be

How were you able to obtain the documentation you needed?

I had to sign a nondisclosure form to get access to the investigation, but after a two-month battle with the Justice Department and with the assistance of Sen. Charles Grassley (RIowa), who made certain demands, my nondisclosure form read a little different from what the FBI original-

What can librarians do to help?

The National Whistleblower Center has a website, whistleblowers.org. It has an action program and we have an alert now urging that you write and ask the Attorney General not to retaliate against Mr. Youssef for speaking at the ALA conference. That would be the best place to go to figure out how to join with others to pressure the FBI and the Department of Justice not only not to retaliate against him, but to make positive changes. Senator Grassley and others on the Hill have been strong supporters, and working with other community organizations is absolutely critical. z

american libraries

march 2008

Youssef. What was that about?

When Mr. Youssef first came to my office in 2003 and told his story, I knew he was a remarkable person and that he had done things for the United States and for our security that were extraordinary and awardwinning. As I got into the case and read about what had happened and talked to people with absolutely impeccable credentials, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing—a bureaucracy steeped in retaliation.

You may have read about the concept of the community of interest, which means they can get a legal search, warrantless or otherwise, on one phone number but then do searches on all the numbers calling in and out of it, many of whom would obviously not be terrorist related, like the local pizzeria. I also know that there are major issues of blanket NSLs or NSLs on targets and major discussions going on about whether you can essentially misinterpret that law in a way that would open it up to widespread abuses. What’s very clear from what I’ve seen is that the failure of the Office of General Counsel of the FBI to understand this area of the law and to have the necessary subject matter expertise, combined with the diffused nature of the authority, has created the problems that we’re seeing.

Photograph: George M. Eberhart

in Philadelphia (see p. 54). Youssef, the

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How far have we come in this decades-old war? Learn from lives touched by cancer in the PBS documentary Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 9pm on Followed by TAKE ONE STEP: A Conversation About Cancer with Linda Ellerbee

check local listings

Visit pbs.org/takeonestep for additional information about living with cancer and managing the realities that come with a diagnosis.

©2008 wgbh educational foundation. all rights reserved. photo credits: clockwise from doctor, ©kevin dodge/corbis, ©mark duffield, ©wgbh/joshi radin, ©seshu photography, ©wgbh & jennifer taylor the truth about cancer is a carousel ﬁlm llc production for wgbh boston.

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funding for the truth about cancer is provided by the john wayne cancer foundation and susan g. komen for the cure. additional funding provided by the corporation for public broadcasting and public television viewers.

wgbh is working in collaboration with the american library association. outreach partners include national coalition for cancer survivorship, ymca of the usa, the john wayne cancer foundation, susan g. komen for the cure, and lance armstrong foundation.

02/05/2008 4:59:31 PM

Seaso All

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sons

&Reasons All

Lifelong learning involves the establishment of a continuum of library use that moves our patrons through a lifetime of learning, for every age at every stage, connecting every type of library

By Leslie Burger

american libraries

march 2008

e’ve all heard authors or other celebrities interconnected network of resources and staff that influat a library event begin their speech with ence people in countless ways throughout their lifetimes. an anecdote about how the library was a Libraries are there when you need them, in all seasons formative part of their early years. We and for all reasons, one of the few institutions that can listen attentively, applaud politely, and think quietly “Oh and do serve people from cradle to grave. sure, they probably have an opening line like that tailored to every group they address.” Getting started But then I think about my own first experience, remem- It all starts with the public library for most people. Young bering vividly how my trips as a 4-year-old to the Bridge- parents bring their children to story hours, toddler lap-sits, port (Conn.) Public Library’s North End Branch remains or a myriad of other programs for the very young to begin one of my earliest memories–the sound of footsteps fall- the socialization process but also to build the early literacy ing on the soft linoleum floors, the aroma of books filling skills that are so essential to ensuring that children are the space, the act of gathering armloads of Dr. Seuss books ready to read by the time they enter kindergarten. Children’s for my weekly fix of reading, and writing my name to get librarians throughout the country are blending tried-andmy very first library card: the key to the kingdom. This true techniques with new initiatives—every child ready to memory often came back to me and, ultimately shaped my read, prime-time family reading, books for babies, familycareer path. I often ask groups that I am working with to place libraries, and other early literacy programs to create share their first library expeexcitement and an early passion Although, public, school, academic, rience and earliest memories for reading and books and a as a way to gain insight into crusade for making reading a and special libraries operate the role libraries, of all types, family habit. independently, we have created an have played and continue to The effective public library interdependent and interconnected play in their lives. works hand in hand with the Libraries influence people school library media center network of resources and staff that in many profound ways and school curriculum planinﬂuence people in countless ways throughout their lives. Those ners to create the conditions throughout their lifetime. early positive memories, and to ensure that each child has occasional negative experithe opportunity for educaences, shape our lifelong relationship with libraries and tional success throughout his or her K–12 career. Increaslibrary staff. People who are active, high-profile library ingly, public librarians recognize the importance of users and supporters or those who are occasional and offering children a safe haven in the hours after school tangential users find that libraries provide a continuum when many parents are working and children might othfor lifelong use that is unique in our society. And although erwise be home alone, offering after-school homework public, school, academic, and special libraries operate help with paid or volunteer tutors, sponsoring after-school independently, we have created an interdependent and programs, and providing staff who are willing to listen.

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The library becomes the place where democracy happens, where people of all ages engage in civil discourse and explore new ideas.

siege as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act, strong school library media centers are key partners in student learning. A wellstocked, professionally staffed school library media center teaches children the information literacy skills they need to prepare for higher education and to succeed as adults in an information-based society. The introduction of the SKILLs Act in Congress and parent-group movements to strengthen school libraries are important steps in the right direction (see p. 18). The next step Information-literate and tech-savvy students enter colAs children move along the library continuum into their elementary school years, the early literacy programs they lege well prepared to do the independent and team research encountered in their public libraries prepare them to bethat will enable them to have a successful undergraduate come successful learners. Research conducted by the experience. Students who arrive at college as skilled, indeColorado State Library’s Library Research Service indicates pendent information seekers and users are better able to the value of the information, reach judgment, and that when children have access to school libraries 6.5 xstaffed 4.375evaluate ALA ad by school library media specialists who collaborate with engage in independent study. If one accepts that the role of teaching staff, reading-test scores are 18% higher in the undergraduate education is to engage the mind, instill intellectual curiosity, and open the possibilities for a lifelong elementary grades and 10%-15% higher in 7th grade. Although school libraries have recently been under path of learning, then the role of the college library and

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Youth service staffs collaborate with their school counterparts to ensure that the materials needed for homework assignments and special projects are readily available in both school and public libraries and on the Web, that textbooks are readily accessible in the public library for those occasional times when a child forgets his or hers in school, and that teachers have the technological and physical resources they need to create an enriched classroom experience.

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library staff is to provide assistance to both students and faculty that allows them to become independent learners both while they are in school and after graduation. As today’s students move into the workforce, the need for information literacy continues to be an essential part of day-to-day work. The need to locate, evaluate, and utilize information effectively is pervasive in our economy regardless of the type of work one performs. The cumulative impact of a person’s own interaction with a public library, school library media center, and college or academic library can contribute to success in the workplace. Many of today’s workers will have the opportunity to interact with a special librarian or information professional as they move along the work continuum, relying on skilled information professionals to assemble, organize, and manage information resources in a way that fosters day-to-

Nikki iovanni G A LIBRARY (FOR KELLI MARTIN) a Library Is: a place to be free to be in space to be in cave times to be a cook to be in love to be unhappy to be quick and smart to be contained and cautious to surf the rainbow to sail the dreams to be blue to be jazz to be wonderful to be you a place to be yeah . . . to be From Acolytes, HarperCollins, © 2007 by Nikki Giovanni. Reprinted with permission from the author.

day decision-making and allows businesses to gain a competitive advantage. The information-seeking skills employees learned early in life at the public, school, or academic library will ultimately determine the viability of our economy. And, although corporate libraries may now be pushing information out to employees at their desktops and are less of a physical presence than in the past, the help that today’s knowledge workers receive from these skilled information professionals can determine the success or failure of business. Working-age adults move along the library continuum when they reconnect with public libraries once they begin their own families. New moms and dads may find themselves coming with their young chil-

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dren to story times, this time connecting with other inexperienced parents who may be seeking information about how to be the best parent possible. For many new parents, this reintroduction to the public library is a chance to reconnect with their own pleasant childhood memories and an opportunity to provide that same grounding and inspiration to their own children. In Chicago, where 52 full-service branches have opened or undergone total renovation in the past 17 years, public libraries have revitalized neighborhoods and created bustling business districts and a sense of hope where none existed before. Older adults, beyond their child-rearing years, may also be rediscovering the library. Whether they’re grandparents, empty-nesters, or retirees, this time they are using the library in different ways. Perhaps they live alone, having lost a spouse or lifelong partner, and are now rediscovering the library as a place for building new social connections, or a source for lifelong learning or personal growth, or a great resource for free-time entertainment. These adults are finding opportunities for intergenerational interaction by reading to children and helping them develop those ever-so-important literacy skills or providing one-on-one tutoring to get them through a rough patch with a school assignment. Older AmerLibraries_March08_MARA_4C.pdPage 1 1/4/2008 4:27:27 PM adults engage with other members of their community,

people of all ages, through book clubs and community forums on topics of critical importance to our time – the environment, human rights, immigration, and democracy. The library becomes the place, as they say at the Salt Lake City Public Library, where democracy happens, where people of all ages engage in civil discourse, explore new ideas, and create the “salons” of the 21st century. For new immigrants, the library can become the place where they can find a welcoming home regardless of their legal status, a safe haven where they can learn to speak English, understand more about their new country, get information to address a legal problem, or just sit as equals with everyone else in the community. For a newly diagnosed cancer patient the library can be a more humane and less threatening place to learn more about treatment options or even discuss them with an oncologist in a neutral, friendly setting. For an aging parent who can no longer read, the library can become a source of talking books that allow the pleasure of reading when that skill is gone, making the end-of-life journey just a little less difficult. Our libraries, our community’s living rooms, are open to all with welcoming arms, a unique and wonderful resource there to embrace us throughout our lives, as what the Chicago Public Library vision statement describes as “free and open space to gather, learn, connect, read and enjoy.” z

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Story Quilt lwa

Poems of a Place

A library’s social history project turns a community’s stories into homegrown poetry By Mary Cuffe-Perez

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ost days, you’ll find John Mechanik, 81, outside his family homestead in Galway, a tiny village in upstate New York, tinkering with his tractor, splitting wood, or making cider in his homemade apple press. If you catch him in the right mood, he might stop what he’s doing and tell a story about Galway in the old days, when it was 90% dairy farms. Where you wouldn’t expect to find John is at a poetry reading—he hadn’t read a poem since high school—but there he was on October 15, 2005, in the third row of the Galway High School auditorium, as poems from the Story Quilt were performed onstage. He even wore his brown corduroy sports jacket for the occasion.

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march 2008

| american libraries

PHOTOGRAPHS: MARY CUFFE-PEREZ

Mechanik was among in the area for 28 years, an audience of 150 of his but many who came to neighbors that night tell their stories had who had come to hear a lived here for generanew brand of hometions and to them, I was grown poetry, straight a newcomer. I didn’t from the memories and realize the powerful experiences of the draw the project would people of Galway themhave, especially for the selves. Each poem in older members of the the collection reprecommunity. They came, sented a “patch” of the ready to talk.” quilt that composes the By the end of the year story of Galway. In the over 100 poems had audience were retired been collected through farmers, like Mechanik, story harvests, perschoolteachers, chilsonal interviews, and dren, merchants, proby involving both young fessionals, tradesmen, A patchwork of images show Galway residents gathering to share their and old in the gathering at workshops and performances held in the town’s library, school newcomers to Galway, stories of stories. To help auditorium, and Town Hall. and those descended people turn their stofrom the town’s first ries into poems, a series Scottish settlers, who arrived back in 1774. of workshops was held by professional poets in the school The performance that evening was the culmination of and at the library. the first year of the Story Quilt, a social history project of But the test was the first performance of the poems at the Galway Public Library, funded through a grant from the school. The school auditorium is a big place. If it flopped the New York State Council on the Arts administered there, it would be a huge failure. But people came and the through the Saratoga County Arts Council. It had been a applause was thunderous. To see all those people in the year of challenges and revelations. The very uniqueness audience laughing, wiping away a tear, applauding their of the Story Quilt created a conceptual dilemma. It wasn’t hands off, we knew we had something special, and that we an actual quilt, but a collection of poems, or little stories, had only scratched the surface. comprising the symbolic quilt of the town’s collective history: People could write a poem or provide the mate- Poems of a Place rial for a poem; the poems were about the present as well A second grant was applied for and received, and the as the past; the poems would not rest quietly on paper or Story Quilt team dug deeper into the community for its be relegated to archives, but would be performed for the trove of stories. By the end of 2006, close to 300 poems had been collected, more workshops held, and readings entire community to share and celebrate. The two greatest challenges were getting people over and performances staged throughout Saratoga County and the hump of their poetry bias, then encouraging the town’s beyond. In 2007, 122 of the poems and artwork from local older residents to share their stories to be turned into artists were published in Story Quilt: Poems of a Place. The poems in Story Quilt cover the range of experiencpoetry. The library’s partnership with the Galway Preservation Society was key to gaining the confidence and es—from a wild ride with a milkman to an accidental participation of its membership. Through a story harvest, pumpkin harvest, ice storms, building race cars in a barn, jointly sponsored by the library and the preservation threshing days, creating a community playground, and a society, members of the society were invited to come World War II diary—that bring to life the distinct characshare their stories with members of the Story Quilt ter of one town, at a time when uniqueness is vanishing committee—a group of volunteers who had taken on the as quickly as the stone walls that once marked one task of recording their stories, then shaping them into farmer’s field from another’s. The community showed its support for the Story Quilt poetry. In many cases, the storyteller and the interviewer in another important way: Publication of the book was had never met. “I was certain that no one would be willing to sit down totally funded by contributions from individuals, busiwith me, a complete stranger, and share their story,” said nesses, and organizations in Galway. That allowed all Story Quilt committee member Rhonda Pray. “I had lived proceeds from sale of the book to be poured back into the

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library’s arts and literary programming fund. The Story Quilt won the 2005 Program of the Year award from the Southern Adirondack Library System and received the Joseph F. Shubert Library Excellence Award from the New York State Library on October 19, 2007. The Story Quilt may seem like an extremely ambitious project for a library as small as the Galway Public Library and a community just shy of 3,500 residents, but size and budget did not make the Story Quilt happen. “The initial funding for the Galway Public Library came from the community and the library operated entirely by volunteers for more than a year,” says Arlene Rhodes, president of the library’s board of directors and historical consultant for the project. “So it was not surprising to me that so many people joined “One of the most notable together in the Story Quilt achievements of the Story project.” Quilt is the lesson it can “One of the most notable achievements of the teach us about what is Story Quilt is the lesson it possible in some of the can teach us about what is smaller libraries in our possible in some of the smaller libraries in our state.” —Karen Smith state,” says Karen Smith, chair of the Shubert Award committee and professor of library science at Queens College, City University of New York. “It is important for my students to see what creative, innovative programs are happening in communities outside the metropolitan area.” The story now is the story of the Story Quilt. In addition to the many readings that Story Quilt committee members are asked to do, I have presented workshops on the making of the Story Quilt to the libraries within the Mohawk Valley Library System and at the annual conference of the New York State Library Association. Part of the original mission of the Story Quilt was to create a model for other communities from the lessons learned in Galway. The lessons are many: the power of cross-generational sharing of experiences, the latent talent in even the smallest community, the power of poetry to tell a story, and most importantly, that a sense of place is fundamental to us all. The concepts carry over to other communities, even those vastly different from Galway. Any community is a patchwork of people and experiences: those whose ancestors settled there, others who have moved there to capture something they may not even be able to articulate; those who couldn’t wait to leave as teenagers but who returned as adults; and those who came there by circumstance. Very often these people do not come together to share their experiences and to celebrate who they are, where they are. That’s what the Story Quilt does. z

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SPECIAL REPORT | Midwinter Meeting 2008

Speakers from NBA to FBI Attract 13,600 to Philadelphia Attendance reaches new high as a basketball legend, notable authors, and a whistleblower tackle issues of free speech, privacy, and literacy

added variety to the Association’s annual business meeting, foremost among them an appearance by FBI whistleblower Bassem Youssef at the Washington Office session. Despite a warning from his superiors, Special Agent Youssef appeared at the meeting with his attorney, cautiously explaining his dilemma and answering questions from the audience about problems with the FBI’s counterterrorism program. Another highlight of the meeting, attended this year by 13,601 librarians and library supporters, was the announcement of the Newbery and Caldecott medals, as well as other youth media awards

(see sidebar). ALA President Roy traveled from the conference to New York City to appear with the winning authors on the January 15 Today Show. Especially noteworthy was the fact that the Newbery winner, Laura Amy Schlitz, is a librarian at the Park School in Baltimore. Jazz violinist Regina Carter helped conferees take a format break with a concert at the 9th annual Arthur Curley Memorial Lecture. Legendary journalist Anthony Lewis spoke candidly about his career and key Supreme Court decisions on the First Amendment with Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression,

PHOTOGRAPHy: Curtis Compton, Cognotes

ALA President Loriene Roy presents keynoter Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with a plaque of appreciation, emblazoned with his American Libraries cover shot.

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ward-winning authors and books, a basketball superstar, and an FBI whistleblower were among the top attractions at the January 11–16 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia. Sports legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar delivered a heartfelt address at a program presented by ALA President Loriene Roy. The athlete-turnedauthor told a packed house, “I am not standing here as a basketball player but as a historian and book lover, all because of a library and librarians like you.” Discovering the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center while researching the Harlem Renaissance, he said, was a revelation that turned his life around. Roy, who is the first Native American president of ALA, said it was her love for basketball that prompted her to invite Abdul-Jabbar to speak, along with the fact that he wrote so eloquently about Indian basketball in his book A Season on the Reservation: My Sojourn with the White Mountain Apache: “The crowd liked the frenzy of the game more than anything else, perhaps even more than winning itself. These normally quiet people liked the chance to scream and stomp their feet for a while each week during the long winter on the reservation; they liked to give vent to the things they kept inside the rest of the time. Perhaps basketball, in its own way, had become a kind of catharsis and healing ritual.” Speakers and discussion forums

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Governance action

Mary Doria Russell and Geraldine Brooks share a laugh before their Exhibits Round Table–sponsored Author Forum.

stronger emphasis on systematic planning, student learning outcomes, assessment, and diversity. Six resolutions brought to Council by the Committee on Legislation were passed, including measures calling for no-fee access to federal government information, supporting tribal college memberships in the Federal Depository Library Program, opposing postal rate increases for small-circulation publications, and commending FBI whistleblower Youssef. Camila Alire, dean emerita at both the University of New Mexico and Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, and J. Linda Williams, coordinator of library media services for Anne Arundel County (Md.) Public Schools, candidates for the 2009–2010 ALA presidency, presented their platforms and took questions from

Watch video coverage of Midwinter at alfocus.ala.org

march 2008

The ALA Council (see p. 69) grappled with a number of governance issues, but bubbling to the top was a debate over whether or not divisions and other units of the Association, as well as individuals in positions of authority, should endorse candidates for the ALA presidency. The argument against endorsement was that it would stifle debate if special interests controlled the election. Proponents said restrictions against endorsement are a violation of free speech. In the end, the ALA Executive Board voted to create a special task force to further examine the issue. Among other actions, Council gave the nod to revised accreditation standards, encouraged accessible workstations at conference locations, and approved resolutions calling for an end to the crisis in Kenya and condemning the confiscation of documents from the Iraqi National Library and Archives. Council also approved changes to the 1992 Standards for Accreditation of Master’s Programs in Library and Information Studies to place

Midwinter-goers spent much of the conference attending some 2,000 meetings, many of them planning sessions for the forthcoming Annual Conference in Anaheim, California. Some 500 vendors the exhibition hall in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, enabling attendees to examine firsthand a wide variety of information-industry products. The Exhibits Round Table sponsored an Author Forum with Random House author Mary Doria Russell and the Penguin Group’s Geraldine Brooks, who touched on many hot-button issues. ERT also sponsored a Technology Showcase, where leading players in the information science and technology industry touted their latest innovations. Alexander Street Press’s customer breakfast featured 1960s activist Tom Hayden, who quipped, “Most days when I wake up, I’m living in the present.” He said he spent most of his time living a normal live, writing, and “trying to end the infernal war in Iraq.” But he also reminded the group that the 50th anniversary of “everything that happened in the ’60s” will soon be here and emphasized the need to record the stories of that period from the people who lived it. Ex Libris hosted perhaps the most splendid customer reception of the conference at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, with open access to the exhibitions, and ALA honored retiring EBSCO Vice President Joe Weed at the Library Champions reception. (Read an Exhibit Hall report from Meredith Farkas on p. 34.) The popular “Top Technology Trends” session spon-

american libraries

PHOTOGRAPHy: Curtis Compton, Cognotes

Authors lead the way

sored by ALA’s Library and Information Technology Association offered attendees an opportunity to discuss such hot topics as blogging, open access, and social networking. ALA’s Young Adult Library Services Association sponsored a gaming night for some 100 librarians, as Nintendo announced a donation of 21 copies of its Wii games (at a value of $250 each) to ALA and to the Free Library of Philadelphia, Alpena County and Ann Arbor District Libraries in Michigan, New York Public Library, and Pasco County (Fla.) Public Library to promote library gaming initiatives.

in a fundraising session sponsored by the Freedom to Read Foundation. Asked if the pendulum has swung today in favor of too much press freedom, Lewis noted that “the press can be abusive of privacy.”

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the audience at a forum moder ated by Immediate Past President Leslie Burger (see p. 66). The Midwinter ALA Store’s central location benefitted from continual

traffic as conference-goers hiked from one end of the convention center to another, with sales of $57,000— topping the Seattle store by $4,000 Popular new ALA Graphics items

Helping New Citizens Acculturate t a January 14 adjunct meeting at the National Constitution Center arranged by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), 14 representatives of the library community met privately with the Task Force on New Americans to discuss how libraries can contribute to the integration of new citizens into civic life. Moderated by Office of Citizenship Chief Alfonso Aguilar (AL, Jan./Feb., p. 38), the discussion centered on identifying current library programs and initiatives that can partner with the USCIS. “Immigration is the issue of the day,” Aguilar said, but “the media tends to focus on undocumented immigrants. This country is also admitting legal immigrants in record numbers” and they are the focus of USCIS programs, which are aimed at three fundamental areas: 1) learning English, 2) learning about the American system of government, and 3) understanding U.S. history. Although there was general agreement that library programs are effective, Jaime Greene, representing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, articulated best the group’s response to Aguilar’s urging that libraries reach out to new citizens. “There are already lines to get into these programs, so it’s not a question of getting people in,” she said, “these programs need support.”

Representing ALA, Dale Lipschultz of the Office for Literacy and Outreach Services and Emily Sheketoff of the Washington Office voiced the Association’s willingness to work with the USCIS but also told Aguilar that ALA would never take an official position that new citizens must learn English. Lipschultz pointed to ALA’s “The American Dream Starts @ Your Library” toolkit for librarians serving English-language learners, and Sheketoff emphasized ALA’s opposition to a proposed national ID card. The results of the discussion will be captured in a report from the task force to President Bush this spring. The task force has conducted similar round table discussions with representatives from think tanks, the private sector, community and faith-based organizations, and state and local governments. Other participants representing the library community were: Carol Brey-Casiano, El Paso (Tex.) Public Library; Fred Gitner, Queens Borough Public Library; Martín Gómez, Urban Libraries Council; Susan Hildreth, California State Library; Melanie Huggins, St. Paul (Minn.) Public Library; Marilyn Mason, WebJunction; Homa Naficy, Hartford (Conn.) Public Library; Theresa Ramos, Free Library of Philadelphia; Peggy Rudd, Texas State Library; and Mary Jane Vinella, King County (Ore.) Public Library.

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included the Celebrate Black History poster and bookmark, by awardwinning illustrator Jerry Pinckney, and character posters and books featuring Babymouse, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and Duck for President. New titles, as well as bestselling backlists, from ALA Editions were warmly received, including FRBR: A Guide for the Perplexed by Robert Maxwell and Strategic Planning for Results by Sandra Nelson for ALA’s Public Library Association. In concert with the Gaming Spot near the registration area, Eli Neiburger’s book Gaming . . . In the Library?! was also popular in the ALA Store, as were a variety of ALA Tech Source’s Library Technology Reports issues on gaming, Web 2.0, and technology training for library professionals. Titles published by other ALA units that sold well included the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Library 2.0 Initiatives in Academic Libraries and Information Literacy Programs in the Digital Age, edited by Alice Daugherty and Michael F. Russo. The “Sunrise Speaker Series” drew a sizable number of early birds to three morning sessions. “Celebrate Your Dreams at America’s Most Famous Steps,” with author Michael Vitez and photographer Tom Gralish, focused on their book Rocky Stories, which tells the stories of people who come from all over the world to run the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art just like Sylvester Stallone in the movie Rocky. “A Morning with Aaron Lansky,” whose mission it is to rescue the world’s Yiddish books. His National Yiddish Book Center has now recovered nearly 1.5 million volumes and is still going strong. The series concluded with “Books Build Friendships,” featuring authors Shireen Dodson, Carol Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Noble, and Victoria Lustbader.

PHOTOGRAPH: Curtis Compton, Cognotes

SPECIAL REPORT | Midwinter Meeting 2008

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photographs: Curtis Compton, Cognotes

own people’s history to see what Center “was a greatness has been achieved and portal through to realize what greatness you are which I could see the real world, not capable of; 2) educate yourself— just the one I had not just by mimicking what your been shown in teachers or leaders say, regardless carefully edited of their color, but by honing your books. Every day I mind to think critically; 3) dedicate spent there, I felt yourself to your community so that when one member moves ahead, lighter, as if some we can all move ahead together; 4) unknown burden maybe the most important of all: was being eased sing, dance, and laugh. The Harlem off of me. When Jazz violinist Regina Carter shares her musical talents as featured guest at the 9th annual Arthur Curley Memorial Lecture that Renaissance was born out of severe I stepped out of honors the former Boston Public Library director and ALA repression and hardship,” he said, that building, I president. Carter mixed music and stories in her presentation was energized and “yet it produced some of the most lively, joyous music ever heard.” inspired. SeeBasketball Legend Followed by a generous sesing all that had been accomplished Speaks from the Heart before me, I felt I could do no less.” sion of questions and answers, the speech ended with Abdul-Jabbar Following a presentation of a wamThird, “what I learned from stating, “We are part of a larger pum disk necklace and a medallion that summer was the power of community that extends beyond by the American Indian Library words. The ability to clearly, logineighborhoods, beyond borders, Association in thanks for his work cally, and passionately articulate and, thanks to libraries and librarwith Native American children, ideas goes much farther in afians, beyond time. And that’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spoke elofecting long-lasting change than why I’m standing here today.” quently about his passion for histossing a brick through a Circuit The Black Caucus of ALA honored tory. Writing his most recent title, City window. Dr. King’s ‘I Have a On the Shoulder of Giants: My Journey Dream’ speech opened more hearts Abdul-Jabbar by pledging to distribute 100 copies of his book to teen Through the Harlem Renaissance, and doors than any burning car.” centers in public libraries throughled him to reexamine his experiHe also identified the guiding out the Southeast, and Abdul-Jabbar ences as an African American principles of the Harlem Renaisman and to describe encounters, sance and noted that they “are more was introduced to BCALA founder and past ALA president E. J. Josey. imagined and real, with the literimportant than ever: 1) Study your ary and civil-rights giants who profoundly influenced his life. Looking back on the summer of 1965, Abdul-Jabbar said he had learned three life lessons from that tumultuous period in American history, “lessons I’ve been able to apply throughout my life.” First, it isn’t enough just to read history. “As Zora Neale Hurston said, ‘Learning without wisdom is a load of books on a donkey’s back.’ What’s really important is what we do with the information we discover, how we use it to motivate ourselves into some form of action to better our own lives and the lives of those in our community.” ALA presidents aplenty at the Library Champions reception: From left, Leslie Burger Second, “I learned the value of 2006–07, Barbara Ford 1997–98, Loriene Roy current, Betty Turock 1995–96, Patricia educating myself.” The Schomburg Glass Schuman 1991–92.

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SPECIAL REPORT | Midwinter Meeting 2008

FBI Whistleblower Answers Questions Despite a warning from his superiors, FBI Special Agent Bassem Youssef appeared at a January 12 session with his attorney and an-

swered questions from the audience. Although in October the FBI had approved his request to give a speech on the bureau’s counterterrorism program, Youssef received an e-mail January 3 that said his talk could threaten the fight against

terrorism and required clearance, a process that could take weeks. The message was accompanied by a 12-page document, explicitly marked as confidential, that contained directives on bureau secrecy. Youssef, who is the highest-

Youth Media Awards inners of ALA’s Newbery and Caldecott medals honoring children’s literature and sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children, were announced January 14 at the Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia. The popular youth media awards presentation was webcast for those who could not attend. Laura Amy Schlitz, a librarian at the Park School in Baltimore, earned the John Newbery Medal for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, published by Candlewick Press. In introducing readers to 21 young inhabitants of a medieval English village and manor—from Hugo, the lord’s nephew, to Nelly, the sniggler—the author draws back the curtain on the period and offers explanatory interludes that round out this historical and theatrical presentation. Brian Selznick took the Randolph Caldecott Medal for the more-than 500-page interplay of wordless double-page spreads with pages of text to tell the tale of The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Published by Scholastic, the groundbreaking picture book follows the quest of the 10year-old title character, an orphan who secretly lives in the walls of a Paris train station, as he labors to complete a mysterious invention left by his father. Christopher Paul Curtis, author

of Elijah of Buxton, and Ashley children’s books; Bryan, who illustrated and wrote • Mo Willems, winner of the Let It Shine, earned Coretta Scott Theodor Geisel Award for most disKing Awards recognizing Africantinguished beginning reader book, American authors and illustrators of for There Is a Bird on Your Head!, outstanding books for children and published by Hyperion; young adults. Curtis’s book, pub• Geraldine McCaughrean, winlished by Scholastic, tells the story ner of the Michael L. Printz Award of 11-year-old Elijah and the Canafor excellence in literature written dian community of escaped slaves for young adults, for The White in which he lives. Bryan’s meticulous Darkness, published by HarperTemattention to detail in Let It Shine, pest, an imprint of HarperCollins; published by Atheneum, is evident • Orson Scott Card, winner of in the accuracy of the musical notathe Margaret A. Edwards Award for tions for each of three spirituals lifetime achievement in writing for for which he created double-page young adults, for his novels Ender’s spreads of collage figures from Game and Ender’s Shadow; bright-colored paper. A complete list of ALA awardOther awardees: winning books published during • Margarita Engle, author of The 2007 can be found at ALA’s Public Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Information Office website. Juan Francisco Manzano, published by Holt, and Yuyi Morales, illustrator of Los Gatos Black on Halloween, written by Marisa Montes and published by Holt, the respective winners of the Pura Belpré Award honoring Latino authors and illustrators Holding award-winning books for youth at Midwinter whose work best in Philadelphia are (from left): YALSA President Paula portrays, affirms, and Brehm-Heeger, Coretta Scott King Book Award Committee Chair Deborah Taylor, ALA President Loriene celebrates the Latino Roy, and ALSC President Jane Marino. The awards are cultural experience in administered by ALA’s children and youth divisions.

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PhotographY: curtis compton, cognotes

Schlitz, Selznick Win Newbery, Caldecott Medals

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es in nonexigent circumstances,” Asked about the Kohn said. “If the person signing the FBI’s use of warNational Security Letter has no real rantless National basic understanding of terrorism or Security Letters the Middle East—no expertise, no to conduct investraining, no language, no anything— tigations, at least what gives them the qualification one instance of for signing warrantless searches which involved a library organizaon thousands of Americans?” tion, Youssef began Youssef did say that he was an to answer but was “eternal optimist. I hope that the advised by his atAmerican public will realize that this torney that this has to change. The FBI stands for FBI whistleblower Bassem Youssef fields audience questions. was an area that lofty goals and I want it to succeed.” he should avoid. When asked by an audience memranking Arab-American FBI “The FBI was quite clear that he ber where he found hope, Youssef counterterrorism agent and who said he was a “strong believer in a could be disciplined as a result of won a medal for penetrating the righteous God. If we put our trust his answers,” Kohn explained. network of Islamic terrorists reKohn, who was not under a gag or- in him and follow his laws, we will sponsible for bombing the World der, answered for Youssef, explaining succeed. Jesus Christ is my savior Trade Center in 1993, said during and I live for the Lord.” Kohn told that in hundreds of cases, under the the question-and-answer session AL after the program that Youssef guidance of FBI lawyers, NSLs were that he was speaking as a “citizen was a Coptic Christian, although issued under “exigent circumstancand library user, not as an FBI offies,” which by definition means a life- his colleagues in the Bureau ofcial.” Youssef’s attorney, Stephen M. threatening, immediate emergency. ten assumed he was a Muslim. Kohn, noted that the FBI’s method Youssef has a federal discrimina“But the policy approved by the FBI of intimidating its employees often in writing permitted exigent search- tion suit pending against the Bureau, works within the framework of the First Amendment, but the bureau “can’t figure out how to censor spontaneous answers to questions.” In 2002, Youssef blew the whistle to the director of the FBI and ConFriends of Libraries gress that discriminatory practices USA dedicated Philawithin the bureau were undermindelphia’s American ing the effectiveness of America’s Philosophical Society counterterrorism efforts. Speaking Library January 14 as publicly for the first time on the a Literary Landmark. subject, the Egyptian-born Youssef The honor celebrates said that FBI officials consider that the library’s Colonel “cultural understanding of the MidRichard Gimbel Coldle East and radical Islamic groups, lection of Thomas as well as the Arabic language, Paine Papers. was unnecessary” in conducting Paine, a radical reStanding with a bust of Thomas Paine are (left to counterterrorism investigations. publican theorist, right) FOLUSA’s Rocco Staino and Sally Reed, and Although the FBI has claimed to be Martin Levitt of the American Philosophical Society. political writer, and “working hard to get Arabic-speakleading figure of the ing agents,” Youssef said he has been American Revolution, was the author of such major works as Common Sense completely sidelined since the Sep(1776), The Rights of Man (1791), and The Age of Reason (1794). Previous tember 11 attacks. Kohn added that honorees include locations associated with Tennessee Williams, William the FBI actually prohibits Youssef Faulkner, Dashiell Hammett, and Charles Dickens. See a video of the dedicafrom using his Arabic-language tion ceremony at alfocus.ala.org. expertise to question informants.

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photographs: Left: George Eberhart; right: Daniel Kraus

paine’s papers

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SPECIAL REPORT | Midwinter Meeting 2008

Listen to Youth’s Voice, Value, Vision

focused on youth civic engagement. Holdsman is senior program officer and director of youth civic political engagement at the Academy for Educational Development, a global social change organization based in Washington, D.C., and New York City. He told the group, led by ALA past president Nancy Kranich, that there are many ways that young people are engaging around the country. “Our work is about developing the whole child, about the civic nature and public purpose of school, and about citizenship education that, regretta-

ALA staffer and gaming aficionado Jenny Levine and Executive Board member Terri Kirk get down at the popular Guitar Hero station at the conference entrance.

bly, have been crowded out in a huge way in the public education system, yet flourishing in independent and suburban areas where parents, as consumers, want this work as part of their child’s education,” he said. Holdsman provided several examples of how youth are engaged in civic activities: the formation of the San Francisco Mayor’s Youth Commission and the Superintendent’s Advisory Councils in Portland and Chicago; a Hampton, Virginia, group that receives $100,000 from the city council to provide grants for designated causes; and the 30-member State Farm Youth Advisory Board, which handles $5 million in grants for service-learning projects in the areas of minority access to education, disaster preparedness, teen driver safety, and financial literacy. “Young people convene themselves in places that can be youth-directed and are youth-friendly, where they have allies that are not patronizing and paternalistic,” Holdsman said regarding how library teen groups could be used to bolster civic efforts in their individual communities. “Teens need places where they can be themselves, let their hair down, and not feel under pressure to conform to whatever the institutional standard is.

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“Young people, particularly those from underrepresented and disempowered communities, must be given opportunities for greater voice, visibility, and value in their schools and communities,” argued Kenny Holdsman, guest speaker at the Libraries Foster Civic Engagement Membership Initiative Group session that

The Avalon String Band Mummers lead the way into the Exhibit Hall opening reception..

Photographs: Curtis Compton, Cognotes

a step he was prompted to take in 2004 after being passed over for several promotions and hearing implied threats against him by other agents, one of whom said that whistleblowers should be hung. Kohn said that for Youssef to “come here and talk to you is extraordinary,” but it was an “indication of the severity of the problem.” “Since 1986 when I was recruited by the FBI,” Youssef said, “all I’ve ever wanted to do is to be a good FBI agent and arrest terrorists.” He added that “civil liberties and national security are not at odds with each other.” ALA outside counsel Tom Susman said he intended to file a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the confidential multipage document that the FBI sent to Youssef prior to the meeting.

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had a dream that one day I as “beacons” of the green movewould stand in front of you— me ment, in the forefront of saving in my sari, my hair in a bun, with our plant from man-made ecomy hearing aid, advanced years, logical disaster, and exerting their a brown-skinned Indian woman, influence and energy to protect an ideal candidate to apply for individuals from “the stranglehold affirmative action on all—giving a of supranational oligopolies.” speech and nobody would find it “By their steadfast adherstrange,” said Ganga B. Dakshinaence to nonviolent techniques, murti, librarian at the Albert Cohen Ghandhi and King have shown us Management Library, Asper School the power of Satyagraha—truth of Business, University of Maniand nonviolence—in overcomtoba, Canada. ing aggression,” Dakshinamurti She delivered the keynote explained. “Are we ready to carry address during the 2008 Sunrise the torch that has been passed Observance Honoring Dr. Martin from Ghandhi to King?” Luther King Jr., “A Challenging InIn addition to remarks by ALA spiration Lighting Our Way: From President Loriene Roy and ExecuGhandhi to King Jr. to Us.” tive Director Keith Michael Fiels, a Dakshinamurti said she has the special musical presentation was “legacy of individual freedom” due provided by soprano Julie-Ann to the work of Mahatma Ghandhi Whitely Green, who made her New and King, who were “far apart geoYork solo debut at Carnegie Hall graphically, and yet kindred in spirin 1992. The annual event is sponits and actions. Both men held that sored by the Social Responsibilities there are not categories of deservRound Table’s Dr. Martin Luther ing and undeserving people—that King Jr. Holiday Task Force and the we all share a common humanity.” Black Caucus of ALA, and is sup“In the history of human strugported by ALA’s Office for Literacy gle for freedom and equality, the and Outreach Services. World resounding successes to date are Book serves as corporate sponsor. only the ones waged using nonviolent means, starting with the Indian freedom movement against the British, led by Ghandhi,” she noted. According to Dakshinamurti, both King and Ghandhi would have similar Ganga Dakshinamurti (in sari) joins the circle with interests were they Constance Purcell (left) and others in singing “We alive today: serving Shall Overcome.”

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A well-attended RDA Update Forum began with Beacher Wiggins of the Library of Congress announcing that on January 9 LC’s Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control had recommended that development of the controversial new RDA: Resource Description and Access (AL, Oct. 2007, p. 66–67), hailed by many as the successor to the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, Second Edition (AACR2) and as the future of cataloging, be suspended. That said, Wiggins went on to tell the group of some 200 Midwintergoers that an “official response” to the working group’s recommendations was being formulated but that the work of the RDA Joint Steering Committee (JSC) will continue despite the recommendation. The LC Working Group issued the report after calling for suggestions from a wide range of organizations and individuals who read a draft version issued November 30. Characterizing itself as a “call to action,” the report recommends that developmental work cease until its “presumed benefits” are clearly demonstrated and FRBR [Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records, the metadata scheme and cataloging approach] has been fully tested. The LC Working Group was set up in November 2006 by LC Associate Librarian for Library Services Deanna Marcum as part of the library’s efforts to improve its ability to meet user needs for bibliographic access. John Attig, ALA representative to the JSC, talked about a new organization for RDA, the content of the draft section currently being reviewed, decisions by the JSC at a meeting in

From GhandHi to King to Us

Photograph: Curtis compton, Cognotes

Photographs: Curtis Compton, Cognotes

RDA Update Forum Leads to Questions

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sunrise service

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“Libraries philosophically and pragmatically can offer these elements to young people,” Holdsman maintained.

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SPECIAL REPORT | Midwinter Meeting 2008

COMPARATIVE Midwinter Attendance

2008 Philadelphia Registration: 10,533 Exhibitor: 3,068 Grand Total: 13,601 2007 Seattle Registration: 9,256 Exhibitor: 2,974 Grand Total: 12,230 2006 San Antonio Registration: 8,326 Exhibitor: 2,758 Grand Total: 11,084

October 2007, and next steps. “We’re trying to make RDA something that will last beyond 2010,” he said. “There has been a restructuring of RDA, the organization of it, and we feel that this brings RDA much more in line with the concepts that you find in FRBR,” said Marjorie Bloss, RDA project manager. She also noted that the audience response at the Update Forum had made clear “the hesitation and concern that libraries have about how this is going to roll out, what are going to be the next steps that are going to have to be put in place in order to implement RDA.” The JSC heard forum questioners’ concerns about the format that RDA is going to take, Bloss told AL. “Initially we were seeing this as a web-based online product, but we have heard numerous times the great desire for print, and so that is something we will be working with the publishers on,” she said. “The other

Pushers and Heroes “Everything that’s happened to me since 1956,” author Mary Doria Russell joked at the Exhibits Round

Table’s Author Forum, “is all your fault. I hope you’re proud of yourselves.” Russell, author of A Thread of Grace (Random House, 2005), blamed her lifelong reading habit on the librarians at the Helen Plum Memorial Library in Lombard, Illinois, who encouraged her with “Dr. Seuss, the gateway drug of book pushers.” Before too long, they hooked her on Nancy Drew, “the tobacco of literature. Just take a little puff—it will make you look older and more sophisticated.” Glancing around the room she intoned accusingly, “Don’t sit there looking innocent. I know you’re out there on street corners pushing Harry Potter on innocent children.” At age 42, Russell said, she started “cooking up my own crystal meth” by writing her best-selling first novel The Sparrow and its sequel Children of God. Although she tried to go cold turkey and stay away from the library for a year, she only lasted six hours. “By dinnertime that day I was involved in a new historical novel,” which turned out to be Dreamers of the Day (Random House, 2008), the story of the Cairo Conference, where Churchill and other British officials invented modern Iraq

Conference-goer John Stevenson of the University of Delaware checks out the new ALA website redesign concepts at a kiosk in the registration area.

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Midwinter attendance record: 2001, Washington D.C., 13,989

concern deals with the cost of the online product, and the publishers are looking for a variety of ways of pricing this out; so until we have signed a contract for the development software we cannot say for sure what the price is going to be like, but certainly there will be a variety of flavors.” Wiggins noted that the JSC is going to be taking back comments to the oversight Committee of Principles. “We have to worry about having the prototype ready for users to test to see how the language comes out when you are actually using the web tool.” Bloss promised the delivery of a new, more robust online prototype currently being tested by user groups. Audience respondents were somewhat supportive of RDA, but many expressed concern about the complexity of the cataloging rules, the need for clear examples that are, as one put it, “comprehensible to the average cataloger,” and the ability of smaller libraries to obtain the necessary training and afford online access.

Photograph: Curtis Compton, Cognotes

BY THE NUMBERS

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ed-apalooza

Two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Anthony Lewis appeared at the National Constitution Center on Independence Mall for a questionand-answer session sponsored by the Freedom to Read Foundation. Lewis discussed First Amendment cases with moderator Christopher Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, especially in areas where free speech intersects the right to privacy. “The press can be abusive of privacy,” Lewis said, citing the 1967 Time Inc. v. Hill case, which Lewis said the Supreme Court “decided wrong.” In 1952, James Hill and his family were held hostage in their home by escaped convicts, an incident that inspired a fictional book, play, and movie, The Desperate Hours. Although Hill tried to avoid publicity, Life magazine used photographs of Hill’s former home to illustrate an article. Hill sued for breach of privacy and won, but Time took the case to the Supreme Court, Sunrise Speaker Aaron Lansky speaks passionately about where the justices saving Yiddish books. reversed the lower

Reporting for American Libraries: George Eberhart, Meredith Farkas, Pamela Goodes, Leonard Kniffel, Daniel Kraus.

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Threats to Free Speech

court decision 5–4. A traumatized Mrs. Hill suffered a breakdown that psychiatrists attributed to having to relive the episode, and she committed suicide a few years later. “That was too high a price for this kind of case,” Lewis said, adding “If your life is ruined by the press, you should have some recourse.” Asked about civil liberties since the September 11 attacks, Lewis replied that although government suppression of free speech was not as severe as it had been in World War I, “hundreds of people were imprisoned merely for criticizing President Wilson”—warrantless wiretapping, illegal detentions, and a deliberate policy of torture are “very grave violations.” A question about the USA Patriot Act gave Lewis an opportunity to comment—“because I promised I would”—on the fate of the Cuban independent librarians thrown into prison in 2003 for disseminating anti-Castro literature. “Please don’t ignore the issue,” Lewis said, remarking that this was a case of “freedom for the thought that we hate,” the title of his book released in January. But Lewis refrained from “getting into internecine warfare” 15 minutes later when Robert Kent, of the Friends of Cuban Libraries, pressed the issue. “Don’t spoil it,” Lewis warned as many in the crowd began hissing at Kent. z

gadah to safety. Brooks quipped, “I knew if I wrote a book that had librarians in it, I’d get to come to the ALA conference—it worked.”

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at the Semiramis Hotel in 1921. Also on the podium was Australian-American journalist and author Geraldine Brooks, who had a different take on librarians. In her novel People of the Book (Viking, 2008), Brooks tells the story of the Sarajevo Haggadah, a 14th-century Spanish illuminated manuscript housed in the National Museum of Bosnia. She said her book was dedicated to all librarians, but especially those who risked their lives to save the Haggadah from destruction—including the Muslim librarian Dervis Korkut, who hid the manuscript in his trousers and smuggled it out of the museum in 1942 right past the Nazi general who had been sent to plunder it. Again, early in the Bosnian War in 1992 when the Serbs were shelling Sarajevo, another Muslim librarian, Enver Imamovic, risked his life by breaking into the museum vault under fire and taking the Hag-

Photographs: Bottom: Curtis Compton, Cognotes; Top: Pamela A. Goodes

Photograph: Curtis Compton, Cognotes

Doctoral students join ALA President Loriene Roy and facilitator Joe Sanchez at the fourth Forum on Education, “The Ph.D Experience: Research into Practice,” cosponsored by the ALA Committee on Education. The half-day program included presentations of individual research programs, poster sessions, and group discussions.

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ALA ELECTION | Campaign Statements

Camila Alire Candidate for ALA president

defend those rights and promote/support information policies that provide free access to information, such as intellectual freedom, fair use, copyright, and government information. Better funding and better salaries—I will work toward adequate funding and a well-trained, My work in academic, school, and well-paid, diverse workforce in all our libraries, including special libraries and in library aggressive recruitment of education brings a breadth of prospective librarians into strong LIS and school library experience to the presidency. media certification programs. Vision—In alignment with ALA As president of the ALA–Allied ProAhead to 2010, together we can acfessional Association, I will work to complish the following: improve our professional status and to Advocacy—Training more library improve salaries for library employees. employees to use their strong voices Diversity—Advocating for the to publicly promote all types of strong diversity we see in our comlibraries. I pledge to focus on stratemunities, workforce, and ideas, and gies that enhance our current advorespecting people’s differences, culcacy efforts. I will work with the ALA tures, and ideas is important for those Washington Office, the Office for we serve and for our fellow employLibrary Advocacy, and you, our memees. I will work to attract and recruit bers, to advocate for better funding more diverse individuals to continue for all types of libraries through a to change the color of ALA and of the strong legislative agenda and through profession. grassroots advocacy efforts. Equity of access—Understanding Intellectual Freedom—Defending that our country’s demographics are our First Amendment rights that are rapidly changing, access must be equiconstantly being challenged, I will table through aggressive outreach to

underserved groups. I will work with ALA to help libraries reach out to their diverse and often underserved communities. Literacy—Promoting all types of literacy skills (reading, technological, and informational) that are essential to the people we serve. By providing access to all types of information, and teaching how to find that information, we empower patrons to apply information to their specific needs. That’s why it is critical for children and youth to become early multiliterate users. I will aggressively support literacy efforts at all levels. Vitality—My energy level and engaging and contagious enthusiasm for the library profession will be used to empower/engage you as aggressive grassroots advocates for yourselves and your libraries. I will communicate and collaborate with all ALA members, reaching out to all ages and types of members and to all ALA units. Needing the best IT infrastructure at ALA, I will work to keep ourselves and our future leaders—our new librarians— energized and engaged in all aspects of our profession. Voice—Throughout my professional career and in various leadership positions, I have seen that strong marketing and advocacy works. My voice, as your next ALA president, will be a universal voice—advocating for all ALA members and for all types of libraries. Everyone must know that we are proud of who we are and what we do! I pledge to tell our story loudly and clearly by marketing the value of libraries, librarians, and library staff; I ask for your vote. Let’s imagine great libraries and a great library association. Together we can make it happen! Thank you for your support. Visit www.camilaalire.com. z

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magine great libraries! Imagine a great library association! As we approach the second decade of the 21st century, it is more crucial than ever that we use our unified voice within ALA to clearly articulate the value of libraries, librarians, and library staff to our public and the media. We are called upon to communicate the value of libraries as institutions that are vital to our democratic society and our value as librarians and library staff. Having served as an ALA division president, councilor, and Executive Board member, I have the skills, knowledge, and strategies required to communicate these values to others. My work in academic, school, and special libraries and in library education brings a breadth of experience to the presidency. I possess the vision, vitality, and voice to make things happen!

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J. Linda Williams

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n Take a leadership role in diversity issues and strengthen diversity initiatives; n Speak out on behalf of intellectual freedom and the right of privacy; n Work tirelessly for school libraries and school librarians to be included in the reauthorization of NCLB; n Strengthen the ALA–Allied Professional Association to enhance its work for pay equity and improved salaries for library workers; n Foster a variety of opportunities for engaging the divisions, round work to have school libraries included tables, and other ALA units to work as an essential program with certified together; school librarians under the federal n Create meaningful opportunities NCLB reauthorization. for participation and involvement by all My roots are in education, first as members; and a teacher, then as a school library men Engage new librarians in the dia specialist, as a member of a state Association to prepare a new generalibrary agency, and now as an administion of leaders. trator who provides instruction in The strength of the American information literacy. We need to Library Association is in its inclusive, actively increase our commitment to diverse, and talented membership. literacy and The ALA leadership and the organizaliteracy instruction. tional structure must Library and informa- The ALA leadership be ready to listen to tion services are and then respond and the organizational essential to enhance to the needs of the structure must be ready members. learning and to ensure access to Facilitating comto listen to and then information, preparmunication is the first respond to the needs of ing young people step in addressing the members. and adults to be concerns and acinformation literate complishing the chaland responsible citizens in our everlenges ahead. This changing global is where you, as a member, play the society. largest role, because it is from your As your president, I pledge to: voice that the Association receives n Advocate for all libraries to direction. I have a vision of all of us workcommunicate our essential roles in ing together to achieve our common today’s society; n Increase the promotion of all goals. I am asking for your vote in the forms of literacy, which are the key2008 election because I believe tostone of lifelong learning; gether we can achieve that vision. z

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ibraries are our foundation and our future. Our country was founded on the freedom of access to information and our future is secured by that same freedom. All libraries have a role in protecting this freedom. It is essential to speak out strongly on behalf of intellectual freedom and the right of privacy, to promote First Amendment rights, open access, and fair-use rights to reduce barriers to information access. As librarians, our libraries and the work we do are all interrelated— what happens to one of us affects all of us— regardless of our own specialty area of librarianship. We continue to face slashed budgets and closed libraries— we all have underserved populations. To remain strong, we need to join together, supporting and advocating for each other and collaborating with all stakeholders. Advocacy is a crucial component in obtaining support and understanding of the role of libraries and librarians. It is crucial that our advocacy efforts are strong and as proactive as possible. This would include advocating for a more diverse workforce. The diversity report stated that in order for libraries to be relevant to users, we need to reflect the diverse populations we serve. This report is compelling and should drive our initiatives and influence our work on behalf of our profession. Our school libraries are in a major crisis—40% of our schools are still without full-time certified librarians. Daily we hear of school libraries closing and school librarian positions being eliminated. I will continue to

march 2008

Candidate for ALA president

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ALA ELECTION | Candidates Forum

Presidential Candidates Answer Questions at Forum Midwinter Meeting session in Philadelphia prompts agreement on basics, including diversity, bilingual education, and professional engagement

MICHAEL GORMAN, 2005–06 ALA president: I would like to ask each of the candidates their ideas on the present state of and the future prospects for library education. CAMILA ALIRE: I’m a strong sup-

porter of library education and

continuing education, both for GLENDA THORNTON, library director, librarians and also for library Cleveland State University: Baby boomers are very concerned about the staff. I’ve sat on curriculum comprivacy of our information. But increasmittees where it’s very hard to get ingly I’m reading reports that the some things infused into the curyoung millennials don’t care about that riculum. How do you infuse diveras much. They put their information sity into the curriculum? I’m not out there on the internet. I would like talking about setting aside a speto hear both of you respond to that. It cial course on serving multi seems to me we are at a crossroads. cultural populations; I’m talking about in every course that they recWILLIAMS: We need to protect ognize and talk about some part of diversity as it relates to that course. everybody’s right to make their J. LINDA WILLIAMS: One of the own choice as to what they open up things that I would really like to see to the public and what they keep happen in library education is that private. I’m in a school system. We we develop core competencies that go by different rules. But when we everybody is went through responsible getting a new au“I’m of the belief for. In hiring tomation system, that regardless of people— one of the things dependall of my library what information ing upon media specialsomeone needs, what uniists agreed on what language, what versity they was that even come from, a teacher, even format, we need to serve where they a parent does them.” —J. Linda Williams receive their not have the education—I right to come can’t always rely on them having in and find out what those chilthe same background. I also hope dren have checked out, what that we get the word out about sources they have used, unless that child chooses to tell them. library education. Our profession is not necessarily one that people ALIRE: I have worked with some think about going into. It is a young librarians who have forced very important role for library me to put myself out there. I have education to continue and to build some concerns, but they have asand to support our profession in sured me that this is for the greater society. good; that is, the more information

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ominees for 2009–10 ALA president Camila Alire and J. Linda Williams shared their views with some 100 observers at a forum January 12 during ALA’s Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia. Made by the Nominating Committee, their nominations were approved the by the Executive Board (AL, Dec. 2007, p. 10.) No petition candidates have filed for this year’s race; ballots (both e-mail and paper) begin mailing March 17. To supplement the official candidates’ statements (see p. 64–65), which are published unedited in accordance with a 1992 Council directive, American Libraries provides here selections from the responses from Alire, dean emerita at the University of New Mexico and Colorado State University, and Williams, coordinator of library media services for Anne Arundel County (Md.) public schools, to questions from the audience during the forum. ALA Immediate Past President Leslie Burger moderated. The questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.

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ERIC FRIERSON, University of Texas at Arlington: What brought you to librarianship? ALIRE: I worked, as many of us

have, as a student employee in my college library. And in the process of doing that, I told my supervisor, Mr. Alberta, that I was looking for some electives my freshman year. He said, “You work in the library, take this course, Introduction to Librarianship.” I took that course and I kept getting A’s. When I graduated, I was certified as a school media specialist for a school library. That’s what got me into the library. There hasn’t been one minute in my professional career that I have regretted being in this profession. WILLIAMS: It’s really rather simple. No dramatic stories here. I was a school teacher, an English teacher. I heavily used the

handicapped, minorities, all forms, everyone who represents a particular segment of society. I up and the success of it so far is ab- would not exclude them in library solutely critical. I’ve been a school education in any way, shape, or librarian, and form. We are “The more it’s imporall one people. tant that we We are all in it information I start at that together, and we can share with level, grade need to respect people about schools, jueach other’s culnior high, and what I believe in, what I’m ture, each other’s high school, positions. If acpassionate about, the better to get these commodations students liter- it is.” —Camila Alire need to be made, then we need to ate in reading skills, information skills, make them. There is no faction of and technological skills. Coming society that should be treated any from an academic library backdifferently than anyone else. Staff ground, I have the utmost respect training: I met with the Library Support Staff Interests Round for all of those folks who work in Table, and it’s the same thing. We school libraries and youth serare in it together. They do library vices because academic libraries benefit from students who are work, and we need to be inclusive information literate when they get of everyone. It’s appalling to me into colleges and universities. that some way or another people want to exclude other people. They WILLIAMS: The first thing we need to do is get some of the legisla- were saying to me that they’re not tion changed so school librarians accepted in the American Library are no longer categorized as support Association because they’re not staff but actual professional librarlibrarians. I totally disagree with ians. The way the National Center that, and I assured them that if for Education Statistics reported I was elected president I would school librarians up until two years make sure that they were repreago was as support staff. When sented in the way they want to be.

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ELIZABETH ANN RIDLER, Brooklyn (N.Y.) Public Library, ALA councilor at large: Please address the issue of diversity—the broad issue and also within the area of the library education curriculum and staff training. WILLIAMS: Diversity includes

ALIRE: When I talk about diversity, I’m talking about all the areas of diversity. I focus on minority diversity because that’s what I know the strongest, and I’m passionate about that. But that does not mean that it’s not important to look at gender diversity, age diversity, sexual orientation, and differently-abled diversity. I think it’s important that ALA stand up and walk the walk relative to all of that. We have ALA members that fit all of those categories. In terms of library education, it’s not enough to have courses on how to serve special populations. It’s important that that component be infused and integrated in the entire curriculum. And relative to library staff training, it’s important that we prepare our members, and that can be through ALA programs, other national conference programming, regional workshops, or state library workshops. It doesn’t matter what venue. We need to be concerned and provide people the tools to do adequate staff training to work with all diverse employees and to work with a diverse user group.

ROBERTA STEVENS, Library of Congress, ALA Executive Board member: How would you bring about increased support for school libraries and for increasing the number of school librarians? ALIRE: The SKILLs Act is coming

states and counties see this, they figure support staff are expendable. They are looking to formally change that definition, and when that happens, that will also give us another road to go down to show just what our value is. The other thing would be changing No Child Left Behind. School librarians are not included. We are teachers like everyone else.

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I can share with people about what I believe in, what I’m passionate about, the better it is. This new generation does have the right to make a decision in terms of what they want to share. We don’t want to censor, but I would caution people that there are employers that will go on websites and read about folks, so you have to be very careful. It’s a challenge almost every day for some people, but I think we have to protect those rights.

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ALA ELECTION | Candidates Forum

library, and the librarian said, “You know, you’re here all the time. You ought to try this.” So I thought “Well, you know, I need to get a master’s. Let’s try library science.” I am very passionate about it, and I am so glad that this was the field that I went into. ANN EWBANK, Arizona State University: How will you encourage both membership and active participation in ALA and continue its relevancy as a professional association? WILLIAMS: We do need to find

JOHN BERRY, Library Journal: There’s a widespread practice in public library children’s services to allow parents to limit their children’s access to resources. Should ALA change its position or do anything about this practice? ALIRE: Let me be emphatic: Ab-

solutely not. We cannot start making exceptions. One of our constitut ional rights is the right to privacy, and to me age doesn’t matter. WILLIAMS: I defintely agree. We

TRACY SUMLER, youth service librarian, Ocean County (N.J.) Library: As a new librarian, I would like to be involved in ALA and YALSA and all these other fun divisions, but it’s pretty expensive to be a member. Is there anything that you would do in your term about that? WILLIAMS: I would like to see

that we have teleconferencing. I know that’s going to be expensive, but let’s look at other ways of doing things. There can be some sort of a structure for beginning librarians, because I believe that once you come to conference, once you get hooked, you’re going to stay, and you’re going to find ways to afford it. There need to be scholarships from ALA, particularly if you’re in a library school in the surrounding area where the conference is being held. Getting people involved would be one of my top priorities. ALA has given me a lot as a member, and I really want to give back and get people to have the same experiences that I have had. ALIRE: I do workshops in marketing and job search strategies, and one of the things I tell new librarians and library school students is that getting involved in your professional association really is an investment in your career. It allows you to be involved in continuing education, to help you do your job better, and to network, which can help you move up and into other positions. I think it’s worth the investment to get

involved in at least the one division that would most help you be successful in your work. We have a whole cohort of new librarians, and we need to be able to provide the mechanisms, the methods that are going to get them engaged in ALA and in activities. And if that’s virtually, then let’s do that. LEONARD KNIFFEL, American Libraries: How would you answer critics of bilingual education—and the library materials that support it— who say that becoming a bilingual nation is detrimental to the country? WILLIAMS: I do not agree with

them at all. What’s wrong with a bilingual nation? In European countries, they can speak four or five languages. As far as providing these materials, it can only help us work together. As a librarian, I’m of the belief that regardless of what information someone needs, what language, what format, we need to serve them. That’s our job. In our schools, how can we bring the students into our culture if we do not recognize the way they hear things, speak things, read things? We cannot stay separate and get along with each other. We need to be aware of everybody else’s background, culture, and ways of doing things. We’re all different and we need to accept that. ALIRE: We are about providing access to information. We’re about teaching people how to use that information so they can apply it to their specific needs. That’s what a democracy is all about. The critics who criticize bilingual education and using public funds to support services to bilingual users are extremely shortsighted. We have changing demographics in this country. In order for us to prepare people to be better informed residents, we need to be able to provide materials and services they’re most comfortable using. z

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different ways for people to participate regardless of the reason they’re not participating or regardless of the reason why they think we’re not relevant. And if they tell us ALA is not relevant, we need to listen to them, find out what will be relevant, and rectify that. ALIRE: I am so concerned about the ALA members who are disenfranchised. We have to have other ways to work with them and get them involved. I’m talking about engaging not only us, the seasoned librarians, but also engaging and empowering new librarians. I think we can do that with information technology. The bottom line is we have to have a very robust IT infrastructure for ALA, not only in terms of equipment but software that will allow people to be engaged who can’t afford to attend conferences.

do not need to change our Bill of Rights. We do not need to make exceptions, even though it’s a young child. They have a right to check out, to look at whatever they want. I also believe, however, that the parent has a right to limit what their child reads. But that doesn’t mean they have a right to tell me I can’t lend it to other children or that other children can’t look at it.

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2/19/2008 1:57:24 PM

ALA Council

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| american libraries

Round Table Action Council’s measure addressing the crisis in Kenya narrowly passed by a vote of 67–65, after an attempt to refer the matter to the International Relations Committee. Judith Platt (left), chair of the Freedom to Read Foundation, “The situation and Candace Morgan, chair of the Committee on Professional Ethics, deliver their reports to Council. is in crisis right now,” said resolution cosponsor Al Kagan. “If we In a related matter, a hotly wait six months, the situation debated Committee on Organiwill be different. The effects zation proposal that would have of doing this will be greatly prohibited candidates in elected diminished.” or appointed positions from servTwo of the three Council sesing on committees or participatsions included discussion about ing in board activities that could changes made by the Executive advance or appear to advance their Board to the guidelines for cancandidacy was defeated (CD#27). didates campaigning for ALA ofCalling the proposal “bizarre, fice, an attempt to update action absurd, and certainly unenforceapproved by Council in 1992. able,” Councilor Bernard Margolis Indicating that he was bothered said, “I think it’s really important about the costs involving in runthat we give people the opporning for ALA president, Countunity to behave ethically and to cilor Nicolas Buron said, “I feel behave appropriately in a profesthere will come a time that there sional association. This moves way might be a candidate with many beyond any appropriateness.” resources that could use their own Asset climb continues personal funds as resources to run It was good news all around as far as against a better-qualified candithe Association’s finances were date who has very few resources.” concerned. Treasurer Rod Hersberger reported that net Read more about it at www.ala.org FY2007 assets increased $6 Click on Our Association, then Council. million—a 19.4% boost—to a

PHOTOGRAPHY: Pamela A. Goodes

LA’s governing Council sailed through full agendas during sessions January 13, 15, and 16 at the Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia. Among other actions, the group gave the nod to revised accreditation standards (Council Document #47, #47.1), encouraged accessible workstations at conference locations (CD#36 revised), and approved resolutions calling for an end to the crisis in Kenya (CD#42) and condemning the confiscation of documents from the Iraqi National Library and Archives (CD#44). The Council-approved changes to the 1992 Standards for Accreditation of Master’s Programs in Library and Information Studies, from the Committee on Accreditation, place stronger emphasis on systematic planning, student learning outcomes, assessment, and diversity. Six resolutions brought by the Committee on Legislation (CD#20–20.6) were passed, including measures calling for nofee access to federal government information, supporting tribal college memberships in the Federal Depository Library Program, opposing postal rate increases for small-circulation publications, and commending FBI whistleblower Bassem Youssef (see p. 58). The Social Responsibilities

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Governing body adopts revised accreditation standards, pushes for accessibility, and calls for an end to destruction in Kenya and Iraq

2/19/2008 2:41:41 PM

ALA BIANNUAL REPORT | Midwinter Meeting 2008

In other actions, ALA Council: n Approved Policy Monitoring Committee actions concerning placement of principles for digital content, revised wording in the Membership Meeting policy to enable more discussion of resolutions, and the updating of the ALA Policy Manual to increase use of the wording “library and information studies” (CD#17). n Adopted a Committee on Professional Ethics language revision of the ALA Code of Ethics to balance the interests of information users and copyright holders (CD#38). n Approved Honorary Memberships for Pat Mora, author and creator of “El día de los niños/El día de los libros”; Effie Lee Morris, retired coordinator of children services, San Francisco Public Library; and Peggy Sullivan, former ALA executive director, to be bestowed at the Annual Conference this summer (CD#24). n Elected three new councilors to the Executive Board: Diane Chen, Joseph M. Eagan, and Em Claire Knowles (CD#11.2). n Adopted a Committee on the

Status of Women in Librarianship resolution in support of women as caregivers in the workforce (CD#41). n Established an Advocacy Committee, as proposed by the Committee on Organization, to begin work at the close of the 2008 Annual Conference (CD#27). n Granted affiliate status to the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials and to the On-Line Audiovisual Catalogers.

Allied Professional Association Finances on the Rise The ALA–Allied Professional Association reported a positive net revenue of $5,731 for 2007, compared to a loss of $39,551 in 2006 (APA-AP CS#4.0), Treasurer Rod Hersberger reported. Revenue sources include certification fees, Library Worklife subscriptions. He also announced that the ALA-APA, now in its fifth year of operation, is scheduled to make the first repayment of $25,000 on the $250,000 loan from ALA this year. Denise Zielinski, chair of the

Certified Public Library Administrator Program Certification Committee, reported that the group approved an additional course during the Midwinter Meeting as well as nine new candidates and 21 candidate course reviews (ALAAPA CD#10). Tom Galante, chair of the Committee on Salaries and Status of Library Workers, updated Councilors on the six programs planned for Annual Conference as well as a planned fifth-year anniversary fundraiser. (See also APA report to the Executive Board, p. 71.)

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Action roundup

Councilors raise their reusable cups for planet Earth in the Social Responsibilities Round Table Task Force on the Environment’s “Cup by Cup” campaign. The effort was the brainchild of SRRT member Monika Antonelli.

n Adjusted the terms of office for all officers and elected members of the Executive Board to last through the adjournment of the Annual Conference that follows the selection of their successors (CD#25). n Approved FY09 Programmatic Priorities offered by Treasurer Hersberger (CD# 13.2). n Directed the Constitution and Bylaws Committee to develop a plan for removing specific dues amounts from the ALA Bylaws (CD#45 revised) to enable routine adjustments. n Referred a resolution on member access to electronic lists to the Task Force on Electronic Participation (CD#7). n Received memorials in honor of Joanne Goodman Michaels, Cynthia B. Duncan, Barbara Will, and Robert L. Oakley, as well as tributes to Lynn El-Hoshy of the Library of Congress and to the Association of College and Research Libraries Rare Books and Manuscripts Section. —P.A.G.

Photograph: Elaine Harger

record $36.8 million (CD#13, #13.1), and total revenues increased 10.3% or $4.9 million to $52 million. Long-term invest ments grew by $3.8 million— a 14.3% boost—to $30.2 million, and the general fund revenues increased by $472,225 to $2.1 million. “ALA needs some continual increase in net revenue to fund staff salary increases and some program growth,” Hersberger emphasized. He also noted that FY07 was the first year of a three-year phase-in dues increase. “Although ALA membership was down slightly from the last fiscal year, dues revenue was slightly more in '06 because of the increase,” Hersberger added.

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ALA Executive Board Holding pattern forecast for 2008 library legislative agenda

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First certification CAndidate Graduates

ois Blythe, head of adult services at Burlington (Iowa) Public Library, is the first graduate of the ALA–Allied Professional Association’s Certified Library Administration Program. In her report to the Executive Board, ALA-APA Director Jenifer Grady said that 100 CPLA candidates are currently enrolled with 40 course completions and 40 new proposed courses. Grady also reported revenues of $49,550 for the three months of FY2008, September to November 2007. But, with expenses at $59,141, she noted that the contribution margin resulted in a negative $9,591 due, in part, to sluggish survey sales. A new sponsor is being sought for the SirsiDynix– ALA-APA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Promoting Salaries and Status for Library Workers after the company decided not to fund the award after 2009. A five-year anniversary program and fundraiser is slated for Annual Conference in Anaheim.

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american libraries

Read more about it at www.ala.org. Click on Our Association, then Executive Board.

ALA-APA

verything we hear is that 2008 2008–09 presidential initiatives is going to be a complete (EBD #3.2) as part of a report holding year,” ALA Washfrom the Budget Analysis and ington Office Executive Director Review Committee and F & A. Emily Sheketoff told the Executive A Presidential Task Force on the Board, summing up the atmosphere ALA Election Process and Guidein the nation’s capital during one lines will be established and the the board’s three sessions, Januskeleton schedules for the 2009 Midary 11, 14, and 16, during the Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conferwinter Meeting in Philadelphia. ence were approved (EBD #12.35). She reported that the Labor, Also approved by the board was Health, and Human Services, Educa- a list of 162 “socially responsible tion, and Related Agencies FY2008 companies” taken from the Domini appropriations and TIAA-CREF bill passed portfolios, from by Congress which the Dein November velopment Office and vetoed by will prospect for President Bush donations and resulted in sponsorships cuts that will (EBD#6.1). impact literacy President programs and Loriene Roy LSTA (Executive and PresidentBoard DocuElect Rettig ment #12.3). presided. Other Em Claire Knowles, Joseph M. Eagan, and Diane Chen share a moment after their Treasurer board members election by Council to the Executive Board. Rod Hersberger present were: asked the board to review two FiImmediate Past-President Leslie nance and Audit (F&A) Committee Burger, Francis Buckley Jr, Madocuments—the 2007 audit of the rio Gonzalez, Terri Kirk, Charles Association’s consolidated financial Kratz, Larry Romans, Patricia statements (EBD #4.16) and a revised Smith, June Pinnell-Stephens, investment policy (EBD #13.1) sugRoberta Stevens, and Executive gested by the Endowment Trustees, Director Keith Michael Fiels. both of which were approved. Board documents and a complete The board also approved ALA list of board actions are availPresident-Elect Jim Rettig’s proable on the ALA website or call posed budget of $100,000 for his 800-545-2433, x3212. —P.A.G.

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People | Announcements

Currents n March 17 Kristine Alpi joins North Carolina State University in Raleigh as director of the Kenan Library of Veterinary Medicine. n Sophia Anastos became director of River Forest (Ill.) Public Library February 25. n Laura Baldwin is the new collection development coordinator at Anchorage (Alaska) Public Library. n Sally Bryant has been promoted to head of access services at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. n Bettendorf (Iowa) Public Library Director Faye Clow retired in January. n January 4 Nancy Cummings retired as director of Washoe County (Nev.) Library System. n Eva Davis became director of Canton (Mich.)

Public Library January 2. n Tabszeera Dosu joined California State University at Sacramento as library dean December 8, 2007. n February 1 Ron Dubberly became president of Library Systems and Services’s public library management operations. n In February, Jenny Emanuel was named digital resources and reference services librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. n Carol Erickson became executive director of READ Global in Incline Village, Nevada, in January. n Towson (Md.) University has appointed Amanda Feigley research and instruction librarian for science and mathematics. n March 1 Susan Gibbons became vice provost and dean of River Campus

n Louisiana State Librarian Rebecca Hamilton was named to the Baton Rouge Business Report’s “2007 Top 40 Under 40” list of rising stars in business and government. n The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign named Wesleyan University Librarian Barbara M. Jones winner of the 2007 Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award. n Jeffrey R. Krull, director of Allen County (Ind.) Public Library, was named Citizen of the Year by the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.

George Jaramillo

libraries at the University of Rochester, New York. n Nicholas Graham joined the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as North Carolina Maps Project librarian December 1, 2007, and Chad Haefele became reference librarian for emerging technologies November 5, 2007. n Ethan Henderson has been named head of special collections and university archives at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. n The University of California at Davis has appointed Helen Henry associate university librarian for administrative services. n George Jaramillo became library director for the Town of Taos, New Mexico, December 3, 2007. n Amy Kautzman has joined the University of California at Davis as associate university librarian for humanities and social sciences. n Patricia Kim is now librarian at the College of the North Atlantic’s Happy Valley–Goose Bay (Newfoundland and Labrador)

Coleen Martin

Vailey Oehlke

campus. n Independence (Kans.) Community College has named Marcel LaFlamme director of its Learning Resource Center. n Sarah Lawson has been appointed monograph cataloger at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. n The University of California at Davis has appointed Xiaoli Li head of the serials department. n On January 31 Coleen Martin began as coordinator of outreach services at California State University, Northridge. n Janis McKenzie joined Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, as head of reference January 7. n Allen W. McKiel was named dean of library and media services at Western Oregon Univer sity in Monmouth January 23. n Nadia Nasr has been appointed university archivist and digital collections librarian at Towson (Md.) University. n January 1 Vailey Oehlke was promoted to deputy director at Multnomah

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cited

Laura Baldwin

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Christine Weideman

Dwyer Wanninger be came director of Manito woc (Wis.) Public Library. n Christine Weideman has been appointed direc tor of manuscripts and archives at Yale University in New Haven, Connec ticut. n W. Walter Wicker re tired as dean of library services at Louisiana Tech University December 31, 2007. n Pekin (Ill.) Public Library recently hired Alissa Williams as assis tant director. n Barbara Morrow Williams joined Santa Clara County (Calif.) Library as community librarian for the Saratoga Library in January.

n Sharon Wiseman has joined Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin, Illinois, as director of staff devel opment and training. n Patricia Wong was named Yolo County (Ca lif.) librarian December 4, 2007. n Ken Yamashita be came deputy director of library services at Stockton–San Joaquin County (Calif.)Public Library January 1. n Gan “Grace” Ye has become digital systems librarian at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. n Jean Zanoni became associate dean of libraries at Marquette University in Milwaukee January 1. z

Send notices and color photographs for Currents to Greg Landgraf, glandgraf@ala.org.

march 2008

n Claire Stokes has joined 3M Information Research and Solutions as patent and technical liter ature searcher. n January 11 Jean Tabor retired as director of Can ton (Mich.) Public Library. n Joseph Turrini has been appointed assistant professor and coordinator of the archival administra tion graduate certificate program at Wayne State University in Detroit. n March 28 Barbara Via will retire as assistant di rector for the Graduate and Science Library Cir culation Services Division at the University at Alba ny, New York. n On February 11, Patty

in Guilderland, New York, died sudden ly December 17, 2007. She had served on several ALA Association for Library Service to Children book award com mittees, including Newbery, Caldecott, and Notable Books for Children. n Sally R. Setzer, 57, director of Red Wing (Minn.) Public Library until retir ing in August 2007, died November 14, 2007, of cancer. n Celeste West, 65, San Francisco Zen Center librarian until 2006 and previously a librarian at San Fran cisco Public Library, died January 3. West edited Revolting Librarians and founded Booklegger Press to pub lish it in 1972. She also published the feminist library journal Booklegger Magazine from 1973 through 1976.

n Robin D. Dombrowsky, 56, head of adult services and an avid genealogist at Palm Harbor (Fla.) Library, died after a brief illness December 2, 2007. n Donald J. Dunn, 62, dean and pro fessor of law at the University of La Verne in Ontario, California, died January 5 of complications related to cancer. He spent most of his 38-year career as a librarian at Western New England College School of Law in Springfield, Massa chusetts. Dunn coauthored Fundamentals of Legal Research, which in 2006 the American Association of Law Libraries voted one of the most influential texts in legal research of the last 50 years. n Micki Nevett, 53, library media spe cialist at Westmere Elementary School

Sarah Pillivant

obituaries

american libraries

County (Oreg.) Library. n Tara Olivero joined Goucher College in Balti more as special collec tions librarian and college archivist January 14. n Shelagh Paterson be came executive director of the Ontario Library Asso ciation in Toronto Febru ary 25. n Sarah Pillivant has been named teen/refer ence librarian at Warren– Trumbull County (Ohio) Public Library. n Buffalo and Erie Coun ty (N.Y.) Public Library has appointed Bridget Quinn-Carey director ef fective March 3. n Joseph P. Reynolds has been named president of Ingram Library Services and group managing di rector of Coutts Informa tion Services. n Meredith Saba is the new reference librarian for biological and agricultural sciences at the University of California at Davis. n November 1, 2007, Jill Sexton became informa tion infrastructure archi tect in the Library Systems Office at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. n Daniel J. Slive has joined the University of California at San Diego as reference and special projects librarian.

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Professional Development | Youth Matters

Downloading the Bard What will spark teens’ interest in Shakespeare?

themselves working outside the academy, but the oddities of quasi– product placement amid learning tools for teens seem far from quaint.

Juxtaposition is all

I don’t make these complaints because I believe in innate, unaided genius. There is no shortage of guides and reference tools in my work spaces. I depend on PDF directions to explain grant application procedures, French dictionaries to fill the yawning gaps in my translation abilities, noted essayists to enhance my understanding of the texts that I teach and research, and editors who prevent my missteps from making their way into print. There’s also my old copy of Piping Down the Valleys Wild: Poetry for the Young of All Ages. Its pages include the poems of William Blake and Christina Rossetti, even a snippet from The Tempest labeled “Ariel’s Song.” A less-familiar verse by Yuan Mei ends the volume: Only be willing to search for poetry, and there will be poetry: My soul, a tiny speck, is my tutor. Evening sun and fragrant grass are common things, But, with understanding, they can become glorious verse. Beware, then, of soulless tutoring. Read glorious verse. z JENNIFER BUREK PIERCE is assistant professor of library and information science at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Contact her at youthmatters@ala.org.

american libraries

march 2008

eware the Ides of March. No Fear Shakespeare texts are Or, as the staff at Spark- available without charge online Notes, who produce the (making my decision to carry yet No Fear Shakespeare seone more book around even less ries, rewrite the Soothsayer’s warn- logical), sponsored by advertising. ing to Julius Caesar, “Beware of As I scrolled through the balcony March 15th.” scene from Romeo and Juliet, a darkIt’s a less dramatic change than eyed young woman whose curls fell some of the company’s other revisions to her shoulders advised from of Shakespearean lines. For one, Roscreen right, “Now’s the time: Help meo’s love-struck attentions are renguard yourself against cervical candered in flatly contemporary terms. cer and genital warts.” The immortal cry “But soft! What light Was this ad for Gardasil intended through yonder window breaks?” beas further opportunity for young comes “But wait, readers to underwhat’s that light in stand irony as a litRomeo’s the window over erary device? Was it immortal cry there?” in hopes of a warning to young making Renaisbecomes “But would-be lovers to sance theater make protect their reprowait, what’s sense to 21st-cenductive health bethat light in the fore admitting the tury young adults. The No Fear window over there?” object of their desire Shakespeare edito their chambers? tion of King Lear was one of the (Please understand, these are merebooks in my luggage following the ly rhetorical questions.) ALA Annual Conference in WashThis ad wasn’t the site’s only ington, D.C., last June. For months commercial pitch; a page for educanow, the paperback has occupied a tors contained both the assurance corner of my desk. While its rhymthat No Fear was an aid to, rather ing brand name provoked an than a replacement for, reading the amused smile, its paired pages of original plays, and a 20%-discount Shakespeare’s scripts and modern Barnes and Noble offer for those English translations have left me registering with SparkNotes. puzzled. These line-by-line outlines Shakespeare, of course, sold his may convey a sort of meaning, but plays to earn a living, and in the 19th will they encourage further reading century, Charles and Mary Lamb and ignite passion for the wonders wrote Tales from Shakespeare: For the of language? Do they help teens pass Use of Young Persons to encourage a test, or do they prompt insight young readers’ understanding and to into webs of words and phrases that ease their financial straits. Even have stood the test of time? Harvard graduate students may find

by Jennifer Burek Pierce

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Working Knowledge | Professional Development

Loose Lips Sink Ships Preparation and a calm demeanor counter career perils

your response in advance. Get some assistance by connecting with a local job-counseling center. (Local organizations may offer these services free or at a low cost. Check with your United Way.) They can assist you in telling the truth briefly yet accurately, accepting responsibility, and focusing on what you learned from the experience and how you have grown as a result. z

Never lie or deny

Cultivate a professional demeanor and a high degree of common sense. To avoid tough situations in the first place, consider the advice in Thomas A. Schweich’s book Crashproof Your Life. In the first three chapters, Schweich lays out clear guidelines for “professional crashproofing,” kicking off with an eye-opening selfassessment. His recommendations are primarily in the form of don’ts, accompanied by examples of failures to heed such wise advice. You will soon realize that a little discretion can help you prevent professional suicide or worse.

march 2008

WORKING WISDOM

Of course, not every awkward situation has its roots on the Web. For example, a librarian conducting a job search asked me how to handle a previous felony conviction. Should she reveal this on applications? Did I think a potential employer would ignore it and offer her a professional position anyway? And what about terminations? Is there any way to put them in a positive light? Can you just pretend they never happened? Some candidates are forthright in interviews. They raise the uncomfortable topic themselves, provide a brief explanation, and move on. Others dread the question and try to hide the facts or avoid the inevitable as long as possible. How should a job candidate handle discussions of awkward or career-damaging situations? In such circumstances, remain objective to avoid rekindling emotions that may have accompanied the situation. Focus on the present, not the past. Do not lie or deny. In fact, doing so could result in immediate termination if you do get the job. Prepare

Mary Pergander is director of Deerfield (Ill.) Public Library. Send comments or questions to working@ala.org.

websites, or other such tools to seek information about prospective employees. Another manager responded that employers should not feel hesitant to look at what potential employees are obviously confident enough to share with the entire world. Moral and ethical issues aside, assume that unintended eyes will see your posts and sites, probably at the worst possible time.

american libraries

recently had an unsettling experience: An email I thought I sent to an individual somehow posted to an entire discussion list instead! Fortunately, the only damage was my acute embarrassment. From now on, I will be extra certain that I know where an e-mail address leads. By definition, discussion list archives have very long memories. Always be certain to reread and reconsider your message before hitting “send.” Beware of Discussion the candor and list archives ill-advised personal athave tacks exemplivery long fied by some of memories. our librarian colleagues on professional discussion lists. Such posts could certainly limit your career. If you must vent, practice writing e-mail without filling in the message recipient. Delete it after you cool down. Omitting the names from the start makes it impossible to accidently send your rant. There are hazards in speaking your mind or posting your photos on the internet that can come back to haunt you during a job search. Last December, a library manager expressed to me reluctance about using web search engines, social networking

by Mary Pergander

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Professional DEVELOPMENT | Books

Librarian’s Library The very definition of definition Completion of the longawaited third edition may be as laborious as the first.

editors. Now, in Treasure-House of the English Language: The Living OED, Charlotte Brewer brings the history forward from the completion of the first edition in 1928 to the making of OED’s first (1933) and second (1972–86) supplements; OED2 (1989), which merged the supplements with the original; and several Additions containing new entries. Despite the OED’s relatively early conversion to an electronic medium, completion of the longawaited third edition may be as laborious as the first; it was originally planned for 2010 but has been deferred. Indexed, 334 p., $35 from Yale University Press (978-0-300-12429-3).

Taking Our Measure

When we focus on inputs and outputs (“How much?” “How many?” “How fast?”), we’re evaluating our library’s service the old way. The new way, according to Joseph R. Matthews in The Evaluation and Measurement of Library Services, is to pair internal evaluations with “customer-centric metrics,” which are gathered using a combination of qualitative research methods such as interviews and focus groups and quantitative tools such as surveys. After a thorough discussion of

methodology, Matthews devotes several chapters to particular aspects of library service, such as reference and interlibrary loan. Finally, he tells us how to use all the information we’ve gathered to make our case about the library’s value to patrons and stakeholders and answer the most important question of all—what difference do we make?

Indexed, 372 p., PBK., $50 from Libraries Unlimited (978-1-59158-532-9).

Illuminating Manuscripts

For those of us who are feeling anxiety over the demise of the book as an artifact, it’s useful to remember that the book we know and love is part of just one phase in a long evolution—and not the most glorious phase at that. Five hundred years ago, some people may have felt just as anxious about the demise of the manuscript, lettered and decorated by hand. Beautifully illustrated with examples from Chicago’s Newberry Library and other collections, Introduction to Manuscript Studies by Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham covers the materials (goose feathers made the best quills; oak-gall ink was the best ink

american libraries | march 2008

he story of the making of the Oxford English Dictionary has been burnished into heroic legend over the years, at least among librarians and linguists, and in the process has inspired its own library of sorts. In The Professor and the Madman (1998), Simon Winchester examined the strange case of one of the most prolific contributors to the first edition of the OED—W. C. Minor, an American who sent most of his quotation slips from an insane asylum. The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary (2003), also by Winchester, took on the dictionary’s whole history, from the first attempts to document the English language in the 17th century, to the start of work on the OED in 1860, to the completion of the first edition nearly 70 years later. For Lost for Words: The Hidden History of the Oxford English Dictionary (2005), Lynda Mugglestone examined page proofs to show how, despite the aim to be neutral and inclusive, the process of compiling the dictionary involved persistent winnowing, dictated partly by economic pressures and partly by bias on the part of publishers and

by Mary Ellen Quinn

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All libraries have a crucial role to play in fostering information literacy. In Proven Strategies for Building an Information Literacy Program, a number of experts provide practical advice on the entire process, from planning to assessment. At the start of each chapter, editors Susan Carol Curzon and Lynn D. Lampert employ an “information literacy wheel” that breaks out the various elements in a successful information literacy program—timing, librarian readiness, collaboration, faculty readiness, and so on—and illustrates how each chapter’s topic fits into the grand scheme. Information literacy is usually discussed in a higher-education context in the professional literature, but a couple of chapters here are devoted to school and public libraries and “the importance of these institutions as partners for academic librarians.” Indexed, 333 p., PBK., $75 from Neal-Schuman (978-1-55570-608-1).

Blog Tired

find themselves hobbled by several pervasive myths about American teens; for example, that all teens hate their parents, and that teens are necessarily more technologically adept than adults. Rather, says American Libraries “Youth Matters” columnist Jennifer Burek Pierce in Sex, Brains, and Video Games: A Librarian’s Guide to Teens in the Twenty-first Century, we need to view teens “through the lens of neurological, psychological, and educational research.” This may sound a bit academic, but fortunately the book summarizes a lot of that research for us—in particular, how the teen brain develops, and how teens use media. A separate chapter is devoted to making sound decisions about materials related to teen sexuality. Bottom line: If we want to connect with teens, we need a more nuanced and informed understanding of what being a teenager means. Indexed, 130 p., $35, $31.50 for ALA members (978-0-8389-0951-5).

Homeschooling help The National Home Education Research Institute estimates that 1.9 million to 2.4 million students from kindergarten through 12th grade were homeschooled in 2005–6, and the numbers have certainly climbed since then. Libraries can actively participate in this trend, as Adrienne Furness makes clear in Helping Homeschoolers in the Library. She discusses the various reasons why parents choose to educate their children at home, provides advice on reaching out to the homeschooling community and creating pertinent programs and collections, and offers “the 10 easiest things your library can do to serve homeschoolers.” Indexed, 139 p., PBK., $35, $31.50 for ala members (978-0-8389-0955-3). Order from ALA Order Fulfillment, Toll-free: 866-746-7252, Fax: 770-280-4155, www.alastore.ala.org.

recent phenomenon of political blogging. Now, in Blogging @merica: The New Public Sphere, he takes a look at the evolution and proliferation of blogs, important issues they raise, and how they are becoming a force in politics, popular culture, and almost every other sphere of existence. As of late December 2007, the blog search engine Technorati

claimed to be tracking 112.8 million blogs. If you find this headacheinducing, Barlow’s book can provide relief, both by offering muchneeded perspective on the whole phenomenon, and pointing you to some of the blogs most worthy of your attention. Indexed, 183 p., $49.95 from Praeger (978-0-275-99872-1). z Mary Ellen Quinn is editor of ALA Booklist’s Reference Books Bulletin.

In Rise of the Blogosphere (2007), Aaron Barlow spun a historical context around the relatively

Librarians who work with young-adult patrons may

march 2008

Learning Literacy

Inside the Teen Brain

Indexed, 301 p., $85 from Cornell University Press (978-0-8014-3863-9).

New From ALA

american libraries

for parchment) used to create a manuscript; how manuscripts were assembled, bound, and stored; and how to decode manuscripts today. The book is designed primarily for students in disciplines that study medieval manuscripts, but it will also delight anyone who is interested in the history of the book.

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2/19/2008 2:04:56 PM

ROUSING READS A SPECIAL OFFER FOR ALA MEMBERS!

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nations for best picture of 1967—Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who’s Coming Old and New Hollywood; the two sides weren’t exactly armed camps, but it was clear that the winds of change were howling through the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, where the awards were presented. In Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, Mark Harris tells the story of how those five pictures came to symbolize a cultural cataclysm. Just the fact that a film critic can tell a good story is newsworthy in itself. It’s a mystery why the upper echelon of film critics and historians turn out such deathly, pretentious prose, but it almost never fails. So when the odd film writer, say Pauline Kael or David Thomson, exceeds our expectations, it’s cause for celebration. Harris jumps immediately into that small circle of film writers not afflicted with what I like to call mise-en-scène disease (that is, a propensity for clogging the arteries of one’s sentences with gobbledygook).

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telling. Moving back and forth in time, Harris tracks the genesis of the five movies: Doctor Doolittle, of course, represents the old way, a big-

Sex, Brains, and Video Games

studio musical determined to milk the last possible dollar from the cash cow that produced The Sound of Music, while Bonnie and Clyde, the brainchild of two precocious Esquire editors, was the avatar of the new.

A Librarian’s Guide to Teens in the Twenty-first Century

The backstory on the films never fails to fascinate, but the miniportraits of all the personalities (from dying Spencer Tracy to fish-out-of-water

Jennifer Burek Pierce

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My favorite anecdote in the book is the story of a party held at the home of Jane Fonda and her then-husband, director Roger Vadim, on July 4, 1965. The event may have been the first occasion when Old Hollywood (Darryl Zanuck, William Wyler, Henry Fonda) came face to face with New Hollywood (Warren Beatty, Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda). Writer Buck Henry remembers the occasion as one of those gatherings where “there was the adults’ room and the kids’ section, where it was really fun to be.” There was music, too, in the form of the Byrds, who dropped in with guitars at the ready. “Can’t you get them to turn it down?” Henry Fonda asked his stoned son at one point. They didn’t

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turn it down, of course, and soon enough everyone was listening.

Bill Ott is the editor and publisher of ALA’s Booklist.

american libraries | march 2008

Like our best narrative nonfiction writers, Harris finds a story in what, for many, might be an arcane subject and then lets that story drive his

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New Products | SHOWCASE

Solutions and Services <<< www.davidedward.com David Edward offers the Aspen Series of lounge furniture. The chair is available with a high or low back, tight or loose seat, and with or without wings or arm caps.

<<< www.btol.com Baker & Taylor’s Paw Prints reinforced prebound books meet or exceed Library Binding Institute standards and have a lifetime guarantee for the binding. Bindings are side-sewn if the volume is under 5/16-inch thick, double-fan adhesivebound with copolymer polyvinyl acetate emulsions for books between 3/8 inch and one inch, and over-sewn for volumes thicker than one inch.

march 2008

To have a new product considered for this section, contact Brian Searles at bsearles@ala.org.

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Levenger offers bookends in the shape of Art and Science, the bronze statues outside Boston Public Library’s Copley Square central library. The 8¼-inch bookends are available in cast bronze or polyresin with a bronze finish.

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The allCIRC-Vault optical media dispenser from Library Automation Technologies adds on to self-check systems to enable secure dispensing of CDs and DVDs. Discs are stored in the vault and dispensed in about 6 seconds when a patron brings an empty case to check out. Vaults have a capacity of 400 discs, and up to three can be connected to operate with a single self-check system.

www.encoreforlibraries.com Innovative Interfaces's Encore platform integrates Web 2.0 technologies such as tagging, user ratings, and community reviews. The system enables faceted searching to help users build complex queries as they go, offers federated search results with a single query, and provides context-sensitive links to web resources.

CASE STUDY A change in light bulbs is saving New York Public Library watts of power. CFLs also burn for about 10,000 hours, a quarter million dollars in energy costs per year while reabout six to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs. ducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1.5 million pounds. This adds up to significant savings in maintenance time: In December 2006, contractor Quality Conservation Prior to switching, an electrician spent six hours a week Services developed a new lighting plan for the Huon a scissor lift replacing burned-out bulbs in that room manities and Social Sciences Library that incorporates alone. The reduced maintenance also helps protect the energy-saving compact fixtures themselves. “Some of fluorescent light bulbs these fixtures are original, 100 (CFLs). Each room and hallyears old, and the great reducway at the NYPL’s Humanition in the number of times ties and Social Sciences that these historic and irreLibrary has unique lighting placeable fixtures have to be requirements, and most handled is very important to have unique light fixtures, maintaining their performance some dating to the buildlife,” said Building Manager ing’s 1911 opening. QCS Christopher Williams. began by sampling the Other rooms went beyond lighting in each location to simple bulb replacement. Staff gather data on the existin the Dorot Jewish Division ing lighting and the effect were concerned about heat of walls and furnishings in and noise from the magnetic Fitting the Rose Reading Room chandeliers with each space. ballasts regulating the current compact fluorescent light bulbs led to savings in energy and maintenance costs. The library’s Rose Readin 24 250-watt metal halide ing Room, for example, lamps, but they also needed has 20 four-tiered bronze-and-glass chandeliers, each more light at the scholars’ desks. QCS removed the containing 90 bulbs. QCS switched the 60-watt clear ballasts and replaced them with two 42-watt CFLs that incandescent globes to 9-watt CFLs, saving 91,800 tripled the amount of light available.

american libraries

march 2008

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT | Classifieds

Career Leads from Your #1 source for job openings in Library and Information Science and Technology

Print Deadline March 5 for the April issue, which mails about April 1. Ads received after the 5th will be published as space permits through about March 15.

Contact E-mail joblist@ala.org or call 800-5452433, Jon Kartman, ext. 4211. C areer Leads, American Libraries, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; fax 312-440-0901.

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A salary range is requested for all job recruitment ads per ALA guidelines. The ALA Allied Professional Association endorses a minimum salary for professional librarians of not less than $40,000 per year. Job applicants are advised to explore “faculty rank” and “status” carefully. ALA opposes residency requirements and loyalty tests or oaths as conditions of employment. Job titles should reflect responsibilities as defined in ALA personnel guidelines. ALA requires that

and maintaining effective vendor relations, monitoring vendor performance, and identifying new vendor sources; collaborating with electronic resources librarian to manage and evaluate database trials; negotiating licensing terms, pricing, and maintenance for electronic resources and verifying access to electronic subscriptions; and providing leadership in the management of the electronic resource management system. All library faculty serve on teams as a subject liaison to one or more disciplines/programs, with responsibility for collection development and library instruction sessions, and share in weekend reference responsibilities and introductory library instruction sessions. QUALIFICATIONS: MLS from ALA-accredited program; experience in a library performing electronic resource management and /or acquisitions ; knowledge of trends in library acquisi-

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tions; demonstrated ability to work in a team environment; ability to multi-task and manage detail; excellent oral and written communication skills; and demonstrated ability to engage in scholarly and professional development activities at the level necessary to meet requirements for tenure and promotion. Other considerations: Second subject master’s degree (required within 3 years for tenure); experience with working in an academic library, an electronic resource management system, collection development, an automated acquisitions system, financial management, and/or accounting, the Aleph integrated library system, providing reference services, and library instruction; and knowledge of cataloging standards. To apply: Send cover letter addressing the above qualifications, resume, completed application for employment form (seewww.mnsu. edu/humanres/forms/unclassapp.pdf),

Acquisitions Librarian, Assistant Professor (tenure-track). Minnesota State University, Mankato, Memorial Library seeks a flexible, innovative, service-oriented individual to serve as acquisitions librarian in the newly formed technical services unit. This position works in close collaboration with the other technical service librarians and staff for the successful acquisition of print, non-print, and electronic resource materials for the library’s collections. A primary focus for this position is the management of over 250 electronic resources. Responsibilities include managing the library’s materials budget in close collaboration with the dean of library services; assigning fund codes; monitoring and reporting on account balances and expenditures using the Aleph Acquisitions Module; establishing

Advertising Policies

organizations recruiting through the Association’s publications or placement services comply with ALA antidiscrimination policies. Policy 54.3 states that the Association “is committed to equality of op portunity for all library employees or appli cants for employment, regardless of race, color, creed, sex, age, physical or mental handicap, individual life-style or national origin.” By advertising through ALA services, the organization agrees to comply with the policy. Ads are edited only to conform to standard style. Acceptance of an advertisement does not constitute endorsement. ALA reserves the right to refuse advertising.

march 2008

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Consultants or Classifieds

Visit JobLIST.ala.org to establish an institutional account in order to place Webonly ads, print ads in American Libraries and C&RL News, or any combination. Print ads in American Libraries cost $7.50 per line, $5.50 for ALA institutional members. Display ads range from $125 to $2,340. Print ads may be posted on JobLIST for 60 days for an additional $75, $65 for ALA institutional members. Complete rate and size information at JobLIST.ala.org.

american libraries

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CAREER LEADS | Academic Library

California State University, East Bay University Librarian California State University, East Bay seeks a dynamic, visionary leader and accomplished library administrator to direct and enhance the work of library faculty and staff, enabling an educationally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse student body to become information literate professionals, critical thinkers, life-long learners, and leaders in their fields. See our library mission statement at www.library.csueastbay.edu/ mission.htm. The university: California State University, East Bay, one of the 23 California State Universities, consists of a 342-acre campus in the Hayward hills, overlooking the San Francisco Bay, a campus in Concord with more than 1,500 fully matriculated students, and a center in downtown Oakland. The university serves a richly diverse, multi-cultural population of over 13,000 students drawn largely from regional community colleges and high schools. See our university mission at www.csueastbay.edu/about/president/mission. html. The university libraries: The university libraries consist of the main Hayward campus library, a Concord campus library, and a growing online presence. The libraries provide information literacy programs for approximately 3,000 students per year, and offer 80 public service hours per week. The libraries have approximately 14 full-time equivalent faculty members, and 17 paraprofessionals. The collection includes over 900,000 volumes and approximately 85,000 online resources. Participation in the CSU system and regional consortia enhances these resources. The annual library budget is about $3.5 million. The position: The university librarian is the academic and administrative leader of the university libraries, and reports to the provost and vice president for academic affairs. The university librarian has primary responsibility for: • Overseeing two campus libraries; • Managing a budget of $3.5 million; • Leading a library faculty and staff of more than 30; • Planning, administering, and assessing the libraries’ services, collections, facilities, outreach, and fundraising; • Integrating advances in information technology with traditional materials and services in support of academic programs. The university librarian works closely with library faculty and staff to: • Serve the educational needs of ethnically and linguistically diverse students; • Develop and maintain high quality academic and curricular resources for four colleges with a range of undergraduate and graduate programs; • Implement sound educational planning and policies; • Encourage innovative curricular development and delivery models; • Provide leadership for securing grants and external support; • Initiate and maintain strong cooperative relationships with campus and community constituents, and state and local agencies; • Advocate for the libraries both within and outside the university. Qualifications: Candidates must have: • Educational and scholarly achievements commensurate with appointment to the faculty rank of Librarian (ALA-accredited master’s degree in library or information science, or its equivalent is required; a second master’s or doctoral degree is desirable); • Substantial administrative experience in an academic library; • Interpersonal, organizational, analytical, and communication skills necessary to champion the libraries’ mission and foster collegiality; • Demonstrated ability to provide strong leadership in a collective bargaining and shared governance environment; • Experience with an educationally, ethnically and linguistically diverse student population; • Record of supporting faculty research and faculty and staff development; • Demonstrated understanding of evolving information technologies and their applications to enhancing library services; • Significant experience with resource sharing, information consortia and other cooperative entities.

Send letter of nomination or application materials to: Dr. Eileen Barrett, Chair, Search Committee for the University Librarian, c/o Office of the Provost and Vice President, Academic Affairs WA 815, California State University, East Bay, 25800 Carlos Bee Blvd., Hayward, California 94542- 3007. The anticipated start date is July 1, 2008. NOTE: California State University, East Bay hires only individuals lawfully authorized to work in the United States. All offers of employment are contingent upon presentation of documents demonstrating the appointee’s identity and eligibility to work, in accordance with the provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act. As an equal-opportunity employer, CSUEB does not discriminate on the basis of any protected categories: age, ancestry, citizenship, color, disability, gender, immigration status, marital status, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran’s status. The university is committed to the principles of diversity in employment and to creating a stimulating learning environment for its diverse student body. Deadline to apply: Open until filled. Review of applications began Feb. 25.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR/HEAD OF CATALOGING, University Libraries, Murray State University. Full-time tenure track position to begin July 2008. QUALIFICATIONS: AL A-accredited master’s degree required. Must show demonstrated experience with copy and original cataloging and supervisory experience. Familiarity with existing and new cataloging standards such as MARC, LC subject headings, and AACR2; familiarity with an Integrated Library System, prefer Voyager; and knowledge of OCLC services are required. ABD’s with documented plan for completion by appointment date will be considered. RESPONSIBILITIES: Coordinates and supervises all operations related to cataloging to maximize library user access; prepares and ensures quality of original and complex copy cataloging for library materials of all formats; conducts analysis of existing workflows and develops creative solutions for making workflows more efficient; participates in library, university and state/regional committees. The Murray State University library system is striving to reach university expansion initiatives, including participation in the implementation of a new university-wide portal. Application deadline: April 4. To apply: Submit a letter of application, curriculum vitae, and the names, addresses, email addresses, and telephone numbers of 3 references to: Nancy Jones, Head of Cataloging Screening Committee Secretary, 205 Waterfield Library, Murray State University, Murray, KY 42071-3307. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. Murray State University is an equal education and employment opportunity M/F/D/, AA employer. Cataloging Coordinator. Under the direction of the head of cataloging the position will be responsible for managing and supervising the western language section including hiring and training staff and students assistants, cataloging and managing the workflow of electronic books, performing original and complex copy cataloging of monographic materials representing all levels of difficulty, all subjects and languages and all formats according to AACR2R, LCRIs, LCSH, LC classification and MARC21 formats. This position has faculty status with accompanying univer-

american libraries

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The Process:The search committee began reviewing applications on Feb. 25. The position remains open until filled. Applicants should submit a letter of interest addressing their qualifications for the position, current curriculum vitae, and the names and contact information of 5 references. This is a position in the Management Personnel Plan (MPP). All MPP positions serve at the pleasure of the President.

unofficial transcripts, and the names, addresses (including email), and telephone numbers of 3 professional references to the address below. An official or certified copy of the transcripts will be required prior to any interview as a finalist for this position. Submit to: Acquisitions Librarian Search, Attention: Becky Schwartzkopf, Minnesota State University, Mankato, PO Box 8419, Mankato, MN 56002-8419; 507-389-5956; TTY 800-627-3529 or 711; fax 507-389-5155; email becky. schwartzkopf@ mnsu.edu. AA/EOE and a member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System.

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Information Technology Services Librarian University of North Texas Libraries

sity expectations and requirements for tenure and promotion including teaching, service, research, and publication. Additional information is available at www.library.osu.edu or at www. library.osu.edu/sites/hr/cat_coord_ PD_2008_final.doc. The Ohio State University is an equal-opportunity, affirmative-action employer. Women, minorities, veterans, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

To apply, please submit a letter of application, vita, and names, addresses (e-mail address helpful if available), and phone numbers of at least 3 professional references to:

Cathy Hartman Chair, Integrated Library Systems Librarian Search Committee UNT Libraries Administrative Offices P.O. Box 305190 Denton, TX 76203-5190 Fax 940-369-8760 The University of North Texas is an equal-opportunity, affirmative-action institution committed to diversity in its educational programs, thereby creating a welcoming environment for everyone.

for a stipend of up to $9,000 for the academic year. Part-time and summer employment may be available with variable compensation. Appointment date is Aug. 18. Additional information about the library is available at lib.mnsu.edu. Additional information about MSU graduate assistantships is available at grad.mnsu.edu/assistantships/. To apply: Submit cover letter addressing qualifications, resume, and the names and telephone numbers of 3 current references to: Leslie Peterson, Assistant to the Dean, Library Services, Minnesota State University, Mankato, PO Box 8419, Mankato, MN 56002-8419; 507-389-2290 ; email L.Peterson@mnsu.edu. AA/EOE and a member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System. INSTRUC TION AND OUTRE ACH LIBRARIAN. MiraCosta Community College in coastal San Diego County, California, invites applications for a tenure-track librarian position beginning July 1. Apply by March 12. Must submit complete application packet. For application, job announcement, and salary information, visit website www. miracosta.edu/jobs or call jobline 760795-6868 or toll free 888-201-8480, ext. 6868. EOE. MUSIC AND MEDIA REFERENCE LIBRARIAN, Tulane University. The Howard-Tilton Memorial Library seeks a creative, dynamic librarian to serve as

the music and media specialist within the reference services department. This librarian plays a key role in the library’s efforts to rebuild its world-class music collections, which were heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina. RESPONSIBILITIES: The music and media reference librarian is a creative professional who participates in recovery tasks, including the reintegration of restored music materials into our collections and the replacement of items unable to be restored. The librarian develops new music and media collections in both digital and print formats; acts as bibliographer and liaison to the music department; and works closely with a full-time media specialist who oversees the day-today running of the library’s music and media facility. He or she develops a dynamic vision for the library’s music and media collections, following national trends, current research, and the latest practices in the field. Reporting to the director of public services, the music and media reference librarian shares reference duties with other librarians at a central reference and information desk including some evening and weekend duty; and participates in the library’s instruction program. REQUIREMENTS: ALA-accredited MLS; degree or significant background in music; knowledge of music literature as evidenced by course work or experience; 2 or more years of experience in reference and instruction in an academic library; knowledge of trends in music and media librarian-

Graduate Assistants, Minnesota State University Mankato (MSU). Minnesota State University, Mankato (MSU), seeks individuals with a master’s degree in library science who wish to pursue a subject master’s degree while gaining professional experience in an academic library as a Graduate Assistant (GA). GA’s assist in professional work in the various public and technical areas of the Library. Positions may include cataloging, interlibrary loan, reference, or technical services. Qualifications include MLS from an ALA-accredited program, eligibility for admission into an MSU graduate program, good oral and writ ten communication skills, ability to work independently and as part of a team and knowledge of and experience working with automated library systems, microcomputers and other technical tools. Previous library experience preferred. GA’s qualify for full tuition waiver of up to 18 graduate credits during the academic year. GA’s work a maximum of 20 hours per week

Position available: Immediately. Applications will be reviewed until position is filled. Salary is commensurate with experience, $42,000 minimum.

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Minimum Qualifications for the Position • Master’s degree in library science or master’s in library and information sciences degree from an ALA-accredited program. • 3-5 years of integrated library automation system and administration experience or other library technology experience.

Desired Qualifications for the Position Prior experience administering an INNOPAC system. Basic understanding of MARC records. Experience with MS Access, SQL, XML a plus. Knowledge of content-linking and authentications standards including: Open URL, DOI, Z39.50 and Web design and associated resource applications including: ASP, CSS, JavaScript, Dreamweaver, Web editor, Photoshop, etc. • Familiarity with Internet information services, EZProxy, OSI, OAI, PURL, Internet Technologies. • Fundamental working knowledge of PC-based applications including: word processors, MS Access and Excel. • Knowledge of Windows XP, FTP, Active Directory. • • • •

Specific Position Responsibilities Includes, but not limited to: • Provides user support and operational support for the Libraries’ integrated systems, including installation, configuration, and troubleshooting of client modules. • Administers all aspects of the Innovative Interfaces INNOPAC library operating system working with the primary users of the various modules. • Customizes and maintains INNOPAC WEBPAC and related applications, data collection and analysis. • Serves as liaison to Innovative Interfaces, Inc. to track and resolve problems that cannot be addressed in-house. • Offers training on new and updated INNOPAC modules, recommend and facilitate staff training programs and tutorials. • Actively participates in enhancement request process and other activities of the INNOPAC User Group attending appropriate meetings and training opportunities. • Chairs an advisory group of the libraries’ primary users of the INNOPAC modules. • Attends committee meetings as requested and provide assistance in problem solving for library IT applications.

• Evideance of leadership and communication skills necessary to effectively manage an advisory group. • Evidence of the ability to effectively perform in the workplace cultures of information technology and libraries.

american libraries

Summary of Position The integrated library systems librarian is responsible for managing the libraries’ integrated library system, including the online catalog, bibliographic utility software and related systems. The librarian investigates and exploits the INNOPAC Systems (Innovative Interfaces, Inc.) capabilities to their fullest and serves as the contact person with the Innovative Information, Inc. and the various module users within the libraries.

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CAREER LEADS | Academic Library

The University Libraries University of California, Riverside

2 Positions The University of California Riverside Libraries seeks experienced, innovative, and serviceoriented individuals to develop and lead 2 emerging priorities of its collection development and scholarly communications programs. The University of California, Riverside (UCR) is one of 10 campuses of the University of California. Head, Collections Management Department The head of collections management is a newly created position formed from the merger of acquisitions and collections departments to provide leading edge synergies for collection management. Reporting to the assistant university librarian for collections and scholarly communications, the incumbent will assume responsibility for the leadership and management of the department. Working within an annual acquisitions budget of approximately $5 million, the incumbent will oversee the successful management of the department; supervise in-depth collection analyses; develop responses to new and existing program initiatives; and organize/direct the workflow of the department to accomplish its mission, tasks, and goals. Salary range: $56,496-$94,500. Salary is commensurate with qualifications and experience. Licensing, Copyright and Scholarly Communications Librarian Reporting to the assistant university librarian for collections and scholarly communications, the licensing, copyright and scholarly communications librarian negotiates and licenses electronic resources; works closely with various library units to oversee implementation and tracking of electronic resources; serves as the libraries’ advisor for copyright and intellectual property issues; and provides leadership in UCR’s contribution to the University of California’s e-Scholarship initiatives and acts as liaison to copyright and licensing experts in the California Digital Library (CDL) and other UC Libraries. Salary range: $56,496-$88,488. Salary is commensurate with qualifications and experience.

David Rios, Director of Library Personnel University of California, University Libraries P.O. Box 5900, Riverside, CA 92517 fax 951-827-2255; e-mail david.rios@ucr.edu. For the complete job announcements visit library.ucr.edu/employment/listing.php. The University of California is an affirmative-action, equal-opportunity employer.

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Application Information Review of applications will begin April 7 and will continue until the positions are filled. Applications should include a letter discussing interest and relevant experience, a current resume, and contact information for at least three professional references. Submit materials to:

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                                                                                                    

to Andrea Bacino, abacino@tulane. edu or mail to: Andrea Bacino, Tulane University, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, 7001 Freret St., 2nd Floor, New Orleans, LA 70118. Tulane University is an AA/EO/ADA employer.

LIBRARY EDUCATION ASSISTANT PROFESSOR. We anticipate an opening for a full-time, tenure-track, academic year, continuing position beginning in fall 2008. Visit our website at www.uri.edu/hr for a complete job description. Review of applications will begin on March 17 and continue until the position is filled. Submit (no emails or faxes, please) a letter of application, vita, and the names and addresses of 3 references to: C. Herbert Carson, Search Chair, (Req # AL12091), University of Rhode Island, P.O. Box G, Kingston, RI 02881. URI is an AA/EOD employer and values diversity. Tenure-track Instructor or A ssistant Professor , School Library and Information Technologies Graduate Program, Mansfield University. Position beginning August 2008 (PhD required for Assistant Professor rank). Teach online school library and information technologies courses that support the master’s of education and school library certification program in successful candidate’s area of interest. Continue to develop the school library

public library A ssistant Direc tor, Beaufor t Count y Libraries, Beaufor t, South Carolina. Will serve a growing public library system by overseeing personnel administration, assisting director in preparation of annual budget and statistical reports, and management

ship including emerging digital audio formats; familiarity with copyright, licensing and preservation issues; potential for leadership in a collaborative setting; effective communication and teaching skills; and enthusiasm for an innovative and changing environment. PREFERRED: Advanced degree in music or musicology; collection development experience; demonstrated skill in library instruction. Environment: Tulane University is an AAU/Carnegie Research I institution with its main campus located in picturesque uptown New Orleans. The Howard-Tilton Memorial Library is the university’s main library, which is an ARL research collection supporting programs in the humanities, social sciences, and the sciences. Recently, the library has been reorganizing, building its collections, and developing an architectural plan for expanded library facilities. During this period of dynamic change, the library seeks to build its professional staff by recruiting talented, energetic librarians interested in participating in the recovery of Tulane and New Orleans. (See library.tulane.edu). Compensation: Salary is commensurate with qualifications and experience. Librarians are academic appointees. Librarians do not have tenure or faculty rank, but in other respects receive the benefits of faculty members. Review of applications will begin immediately, and continue until the position is filled. To apply, qualified candidates send a letter of application, c.v., and contact information for 3 professional references via email

march 2008

                                                                         

                                                                                                     

american libraries

 

and information technologies program and collaborate with department faculty to support the training of school library media specialists. Teach 3 courses (3 preps) each semester; engage in continuing scholarly development; supervise practicum students; and serve on departmental/university committees. The successful candidate is expected to teach effectively and advise a diverse student population; undertake significant scholarship including research that advances knowledge of the discipline; make professional and university service contributions; and advance the school library and information technologies program at Mansfield University. Qualifications: Master’s degree in library science from an ALA-accredited university and 5 years of experience as a school librarian required. PhD in library science preferred. Extensive and varied experience with school libraries; active participation in state and/or national professional associations; demonstrated ability in developing and instructing online courses; and highly proficient computer skills required. Qualifications include completion of a successful interview to include a 30-minute presentation on web-based instructional strategies and use of Blackboard or other appropriate Learning Management System software; excellent communication skills (verbal/ written) including an ability to work collaboratively with others; and ability to teach, evaluate and advise students. Background check required. Competitive salary dependent on qualifications/ experience. Excellent faculty benefits: hr.mansfield.edu/benefits.html. The department offers a web-based master’s of education (MEd) and recommendation for an add-on certificate in library science K-12. Department website: library. mansfield.edu. Submit letter of intent; resume; copies of undergraduate/ graduate transcripts; and the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of 3 references via email to lkent@mansfield.edu. Attach documents in Word or pdf format. Transcripts may be sent by mail to: Position F10-TT-2007, Human Resources Department, 109 Alumni Hall, Mansfield University, Mansfield, PA 16933. Application review will begin immediately; applications will be accepted until the position is filled. A condition of employment is a complete set of official transcripts for all academic work. Completion of an MU faculty application required for interview candidates. AA/EOE. Website: www. mansfield.edu.

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CAREER LEADS | Public Library of operational budget and capital improvements program. To apply, go to www.bcgov.net/EmployeeServices/ employment.php.

Branch Head Librarians (3 librarian positions). Are you a native Mississippian (wannabes okay, too!) looking for a chance to come home? Do you remember BBQ, football games, blues music, vegetable plates, people who will speak kindly to you, storytelling, sweet tea, and a little slower paced lifestyle? Mississippi has changed a great deal while you’ve been away and we think you will like what you see! So think hard about coming home to work with us as we try hard every day to make a positive difference in the lives of the people here. Because 3 of our key branch heads recently received promotions, we are looking to fill these important management positions. Open are: Head Librarian, Batesville Public Library located in Panola County; Hernando Public Library located in DeSoto County; and R.C. Irwin Public Library, located in Tunica County.

Permanent and temporary part-time librarian positions available with the County of Los Angeles Public Library. People with bilingual skills and/or interest in children’s services especially needed. Monthly salary: $4,006-$5,114. Go to www.colapublib.org for job announcement and standard application. Contact human resources at 562-940-8434 for interview appointment. MLS required.

The First Regional Library is a 5-county regional public library system located in northwestern Mississippi which serves approximately 250,000 people in 13 branches. Our headquarters library is located on the northwest corner of the Historic Square in Hernando, which is about 25 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee. There is no residency requirement to work here and many staff members choose to commute from Memphis each day. We are as progressive and as forward-thinking as our budget will allow, but we will always first emphasize and appreciate our staff. You will be encouraged to participate in continuing education activities including the Mississippi Library Association (our director is Immediate past president) with paid MLA membership and fully paid travel to the annual conference (to be held in Natchez this October). Yes, we will be at the PLA National Conference in Minneapolis and would love to meet you! Serving the youngest among us is a major thrust of our service plan. This includes the library’s early childhood resources and referral center which is associated with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. A mobile service designed to reach those children who have never experienced a more complete public library experience is to be launched this spring. A brandnew 43,000-sq.-ft. branch opens to the public in Southaven beginning Feb. 25. In fact, nearly all our facilities have been added to, updated, or renovated in the last 10 years. Well over a million people visited our libraries last year, checking out more items than any other public library system in the state. We also offer T-1 access to well over 200 computers for public use with EnvisionWare time and print management software. There are laptops for checkout within the library and WiFi in every building. We offer eBooks, downloadable audio books through OverDrive and have been a Sirsi customer for many years. The ALA-accredited MLS is required, plus demonstrated library management experience preferred. Salary range: $33,500-$55,000, very negotiable—depending on education and experience. (Remember, your cost of living will be lower here.) We also offer a solid package of fringe benefits, including paid major medical. Send e-

Library Director The City of Springfield, Oregon, is seeking a dynamic customer-oriented individual with a bold vision of the future of library services. $75,004$91,208/year plus full benefits (Salary under review). Please see our website for requirements, description and to apply online: www.ci.springfield.or.us; 541-726-3704. Deadline: March 14. AA/EOE. mail of interest, along with resume attachment to Barbara Evans, Assistant Director for Public Services at bevans@ first.lib.ms.us. Br anch Libr ary Manager II. York County Library, South Carolina, is currently seeking candidates for the position of Branch Library Manager II for our York facility. York County is a rapidly urbanizing county located in the Charlotte/Mecklenburg metropolitan area adjacent to the Charlotte city limits. The York branch, located in the historic community of York, South Carolina, is a mid-sized library currently experiencing tremendous growth in patron usage and programming since it moved into its new facility 2 years ago. The headquarters library for the York County Library system is located in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The branch manager supervises, plans, and directs the activities of the branch library to help ensure the effective and efficient management of library operations and programming. The successful candidate will oversee and perform reference, circulation, readers’ advisory, and general customer services; assist with the scheduling and presentation of special programming; and supervise the branch staff. The branch manager reports to the deputy director. This position provides an excellent growth opportunity for an enthusiastic, customer service-driven public librarian who enjoys working in a team environment and who embraces change. A complete copy of the job description is available on the library’s website at www.yclibrary.org. Salary range: $37,295-$52,213. The position requires a MLS from an ALA-accredited institution and supplemented by 1-2 years of public library experience. Send completed application, available at www. yclibrary.org, and resume to: Shasta Brewer, Deputy Director, York County Library, PO Box 10032, Rock Hill, SC 29731. Deadline: April 2. EOAAE. Library Director. Progressive, fast growing White County, Arkansas, is seeking energetic, experienced public library system director. Director will oversee and assist with planning all phases of library services for 7 branches with 15 FTEs; will work with a 13-member regional board and

american libraries

march 2008

Assistant Director of Dallas Public Libraries. A progressive and professional organization seeks highly qualified, energetic and innovative library assistant director. The assistant director directly reports to the director of libraries and assist in leading and directing a public library system, with 500 employees, 25 branches, a 640,000-sq.-ft. central library and a $32 million operating budget. Is also responsible for assisting with the continued implementation of a bond program approved in 2003, and a second one approved in 2006 for a combined program in excess of $100 million. Education and Experience: Candidates must have a master’s of library science degree from an ALA-accredited college or university with at least 8 years of seniorlevel library management experience; have outstanding senior management skills and a demonstrated progressive record of achievement leading a highachieving, professional library system in a diverse community; have experience in managing the resources of a library system serving a population of over 200,000; have strong communication and analytical, technical skills as well as strong public service experience; have demonstrated ability to provide strategic leadership, develop innovative solutions, and motivate staff to maintain a high level of effectiveness; and have experience interacting and contributing within a community of multicultural, multiethnic, and socioeconomic diversity. Compensation and executive benefits: Starting salary is dependent on qualifications, experience, and record of professional achievements. Anticipated hiring range is $83,000-$110,000 annually, plus benefits and retirement plan. Moving expenses: The City of Dallas covers the cost of temporary housing and moving expenses for executives who relocate. Please apply online at agency.governmentjobs. com/dallas/default.cfm.

Librarian I

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5-member county board; will be responsible for budget preparation and represent the library to the public and governmental agencies. Applicants must have an MLS from an ALA-accredited school, at least 5 years of administrative experience, excellent verbal and written skills, cooperative spirit, political experience, technological knowledge, and a public library background. Experience with construction projects a plus. Beginning salary range between $50,000 to $56,000 based on experience. Retirement and health care provided. Letters of application, resumes and references should be sent to: Susie Boyett, White County Regional Library System, 113 E. Pleasure Ave., Searcy, AR 72143. For complete information please visit www.wcrls.org. LIBRARY DIRECTOR. The Board of Trustees of the Radnor Memorial Library is seeking a dynamic library director with enthusiasm, vision, and a dedication to superior library service that will lead our library as it enters an exciting stage of expansion and development. The director is responsible for the implementation of the strategic plan, budget preparation, fundraising and program development. The director reports to the board of trustees and is responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the library. This position requires the ability

State Library

to collaborate with local officials within Radnor Township, the Friends group, the Delaware County Library System, as well as, the board, staff and local community organizations. Knowledge and experience with the planning and oversight of building projects is desirable. The new director will possess excellent communication skills, innovative thinking, and knowledge of emerging technologies. The director must have a master’s degree in library or information science from an ALAaccredited institution, with a minimum of 7 years of decision-making experience in a public, academic, or business library. Salary: Competitive with benefit package. Submit current resumes electronically to radnorlibrarysearch@verizon.net or mail to: Radnor Director Search, Radnor Memorial Library, 114 W. Wayne Ave., Wayne, PA 19087. As one of the busiest

public libraries in the Delaware County Library System, the Radnor Memorial Library serves a population of 30,000+ residents and has a current annual circulation of over 231,000. The library has a $1.4-million budget and a staff of 10 full-time and 26 part-time employees. Radnor Township is a community rich in heritage. It is located approximately 15 miles west of the City of Philadelphia. It has a public school system that has been rated as one of the finest in the nation and a vibrant business district. Close to 20,000 students attend 18 different private educational institutions located in the Township which contribute to the local culture. Further information is available on Radnor Memorial Library’s website at www.radnorlibrary.org. The Radnor Memorial Library is an equal-opportunity employer.

LIBRARIANS’ CLASSIFIEDS PERIODICALS AND SERIALS

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CHEMICAL OR BIOLOGICAL AB STR AC TS AND OTHER SCIENCE JOURNALS. Contact: eva@rpbs.com; 713-799-2999; fax 713-779-2992.

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WANTED UNNEEDED LIBRARY MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT WANTED. Books for Libraries, Inc., Jim Stitzinger, 23800 Via Irana, Valencia, CA 91355; 800-3215596; e-mail jstitz@pacbell.net. ALL EX-LIBRARY MATERIALS WANTED, specialize in old/rare. Archival Resource Co., POB 1175, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004; 800-390-1027; backsets@ aol.com. Since 1995.

USED STEEL LIBRARY SHELVING. 90 inches, double-faced cantilever, excellent condition. $135 per section. Jim Stitzinger, 800-321-5596; e-mail jstitz@pacbell.net; www.booksforlibraries.com. World War II in Egypt 1945 History

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Search Florida Library Jobs online for jobs in Florida’s libraries. Upload your résumé for future job positions.

march 2008

Youth Services Librarians

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COMMENTARY | Will’s World

Is Everybody Happy? It’s no fun to foster joy in the workplace

There’s right. Every time we cided that I would read the memo, we try subtler, more a theory laughed like crazy. sophisticated that happy Or, you could inmethods of inducworkers are duce happiness by ing happiness. At outlawing it. I will nev- productive workers. the time, I was er forget the director under the illusion who instructed our library supervithat opera was pure bliss. So at 3 p.m. sors to get rid of all “lemon suckers.” every day, I would invite everyone In all library work areas he hung into my office to sit on the floor, close posters of lemons that were crossed their eyes, and listen to 15 minutes of out by big black x’s. As you can imag- Mozart. Everyone fell asleep. ine, this little crusade didn’t go over Employees loved it. Unfortunatetoo well with Human Resources. ly, afternoon siestas were frowned There was nothing in the library’s upon by my board. That ended that. personnel rules and regulations about prohibiting lemon sucking, Fairway to happiness and the two grumpy employees who In a subsequent phase of my life, were fired for doing it were reinstat- Deepak Chopra’s Golf for Enlightened with full back pay. ment: Seven Lessons for the Game of Most bizarre of all was the boss Life led me to conclude that golf prowith the smiley-face campaign. vided the path to inner joy. So I set Happy yellow circles appeared evup a fairly elaborate six-hole golf erywhere—on the door of the staff course in my office and invited the room refrigerator, on the compulso- entire staff to stop by at any time to ry screen saver, on everyone’s busiplay. Everyone—everyone—loved my ness cards, on the little links layout. Each day, people front of the circula- snuck into my office and enhanced tion desk, on library the course with little flags, sand cards, on the datetraps made from number 4 sand due slips, and even paper, and potted plants for trees. above the urinals in Pretty soon we were having tournathe men’s room. ments, playoffs, entry fees, wagers, Soon, employees and even trophies. We were having were drawing mus- great fun, but doing less real work. taches on the smiley So where does that leave the adage faces with Sharpies; about happy employees being prothat did the trick for ductive employees? z everyone except the director. WILL MANLEY has furnished provocative commentary on the library profession for over When I got into 25 years. He is the author of nine books on the management I delighter side of library science.

american libraries

march 2008

here’s a new concept afloat that work should be fun. The theory is that happy workers are productive workers. I suppose that we librarians are very fortunate in that many of us consider our jobs and our profession to be a labor of love. However, there are times when the emphasis is on the labor. It’s no fun, for instance, when you work for two hours on a reference question only to have the patron say he no longer needs the information. So even though we love our jobs, it’s important for library managers to find creative ways to uplift morale. Creating a fun atmosphere at work, however, is tricky; you can’t exactly direct people to have fun. Actually, the theory isn’t that new. I once worked for a boss who actually put out a memo stating: “This is going to be a happy place to work, and that’s a directive!” In a way he was

by Will Manley

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