After only a week on the job and in her first meeting with the state board of education, Hawaii State Librarian Virginia Lowell spoke in favor of a wide interpretation of a state administrative rule that would return the authority to select books to all public service librarians in the Hawaii State Public Library System. The law prohibiting librarians from selection took effect during the controversial outsourcing agreement with Baker & Taylor that terminated in July 1997.
According to the August 20 Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Lowell disagreed with the state attorney general's interpretation to limit selection to heads of branch libraries. However, Lowell told American Libraries that "there was a mix-up in the terms 'selection' and 'acquisition.'" She is in the process of planning for centralized acquisition, but "our librarians are indeed in charge of selection." The rule was passed by the board on September 3 and now awaits the governor's signature.
Posted September 7, 1998.