Reflections from Liberty Square
December 2008
If all has gone well, this editorial will appear shortly after the successful completion of Choice's move to its brand new Liberty Square office condominium. Like Riverview Center, Choice's previous home, Liberty Square is located in downtown Middletown, Connecticut, at first glance an unlikely home for a scholarly book review journal. How, you might ask, did Choice ever end up in Middletown?
To properly answer this question, one needs to know a bit more about the founding of Choice. And for that story, there is no better source than the founding editor, Richard K. Gardner, whom we recently asked to write a history of Choice's early years. That piece, which will appear in a future issue of the magazine, is too long to include here, but Richard's fascinating account of Choice's arrival in Middletown can be outlined as follows:
- Choice actually began as a project of the Council on Library Resources (CLR), now the Council on Library and Information Resources.
- CLR, and more specifically its president, Verner Clapp, recognized the need for a professional book review journal for undergraduate and community college libraries.
- Once CLR determined there was a need for such a journal, it approached ALA as the organization most likely to provide an appropriate home.
- Persuaded by Clapp, ALA prepared and submitted a suitable proposal, and in 1961 CLR awarded ALA a grant of $150,000-roughly $1,000,000 in today's dollars-with which to launch the journal that became Choice.
When the first Choice editor, Richard Gardner, was appointed in February 1963, a location had not yet been determined. ALA's office in Chicago would have been the most likely location. New York, the major book publishing hub, would have been a logical alternative. But Verner Clapp favored a third option, a college campus, preferably in the vicinity of the New York-Boston corridor.
Clapp felt quite strongly about this, reasoning that the Choice staff would need access to the bibliographic resources and collections of an actual college library. Furthermore, he felt this would ensure ongoing contact with college faculty, who would be doing the reviewing. Given that he was responsible for conceiving of and funding Choice, Clapp's preferences carried the day.
And so it was that in July 1963, Choice opened its editorial offices on the top floor of Olin Library on the Wesleyan University campus in Middletown, Connecticut, where it occupied two large rooms and one small office, at a cost of $1.60 per square foot. Within fifteen months, Choice had outgrown its Olin accommodations and moved off campus to a storefront in downtown Middletown. When those accommodations proved unsuitable, the magazine moved in 1966 to the then new Riverview Center facility, where it remained until this past November.
And now, after 42 years at Riverview Center, the magazine has a new home. Choice's arrival in Middletown may have been a bit of an accident. It could have ended up on virtually any college campus in the Northeast, but Middletown is where it began, and where, with a little luck, it will continue. That's our story, dear reader, and we're sticking to it.—IER
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