Campaign to Save Libraries Sets
Stage for Philadelphia Meeting

ALA Midwinter Meeting,
January 24–29, 2003

• Introduction
• Supporters Rally to Save Libraries
• President’s Program Offers an Alternative
• Avi, Rohmann Win Newbery, Caldecott
• Legislative Briefing Lays Out Challenges
• UCITA on the Ropes
• Curley’s Love of Dance Honored
• Forums Feature Sobel, Huffington
• Sutherland, Trejo Tributes Held
• Libraries North and South of the Border
• Industry Execs Ponder Portals
• Politics, Rap, Nuptials Discussed
• Midwinter Registration Totals

More than 500 people from across the country heard about the new wave of library budget woes in a rally that kicked off ALA President Maurice Freedman’s Campaign to Save America’s Libraries. The event, complete with buttons and banners, set the tone for the Association’s Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia, January 24–29, and included a number of speakers who addressed how budget cuts are affecting library operations in their communities.

In an interview with the Washington Post during the conference, Freedman told reporters about how Gov. Jeb Bush’s proposed closure of the State Library of Florida sullied the good news that President Bush’s FY 2004 budget proposal includes a 15% boost for libraries. “I think it’s important that the brothers talk to each other,” he quipped.

At the same time, Institute of Museum and Library Services Director Robert Martin was circulating a letter from First Lady Laura Bush sending greetings to the Association of Library and Information Science Education and ALA conference-goers and pointing out that the president’s budget also doubles the amount requested for her librarian recruitment effort to $20 million. Rally-goers worried, however, that, once recruited, new librarians would have nowhere to work.

“Librarians can’t live on love alone,” echoed Carol Brey at the Better Salaries/Pay Equity Task Force update session, which spotlighted additions to the just-released second edition of the Advocating for Better Salaries and Pay Equity Toolkit—including new sections on benefits, economic hard times, faculty status, and support staff; updated salary data; and many additional resources.

The ALA Executive Board and the Association’s governing Council approved bylaws, a business plan, and a $250,000 loan from ALA marking the official start of the separate Allied Professional Association. The APA, which will allow ALA to conduct activities that are prohibited under its current 501(c) (3) status, was formed to offer postgraduate specialty certification, to advocate for pay equity, and to address other issues related to the professional status of librarians.

Tackling some of the most potentially divisive political issues that have come before them in years, ALA councilors moved swiftly through three Midwinter Meeting sessions. By the end, they had passed a resolution calling for amendments to the USA Patriot Act and denouncing Gov. Bush’s plan to eliminate the State Library of Florida. However, councilors refused to rescind a resolution passed last year on the destruction of Palestinian libraries, despite pressure to do so from the Anti-Defamation League. Council also drew the line at passing a resolution calling for a peaceful solution to the crisis in Iraq.

Council approved Honorary Membership (the Association’s highest honor) to Barbara Gittings for lifelong activism for gay rights. She will share the award—to be presented at the June joint ALA/Canadian Library Association Annual Conference in Toronto—with librarians Lucille Thomas and Samuel Morrison.

The disintegrating finances of libraries across the country and the effect the crisis will have on ALA pervaded the Executive Board’s discussions, leading to the belief that prudent management can ward off devastating cuts in service. Treasurer Liz Bishoff called for approval of a 5% reduction in ALA’s FY 2004 budget, with a total of $1.4 million less in budgeted revenues and expenses “in light of the continuing economic outlook.” ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels said the Budget Analysis and Review Committee would study the budget submitted by the board and propose recommendations for ALA Council at Annual Conference in Toronto.

Meanwhile candidates for ALA president, Carol Brey and Herman Totten, debated the issues at a candidates’ forum that included treasurer nominees Donna Dziedzic and Teri Switzer, as well as JoAnn Mondowney, who had just announced her candidacy.

The largest conference gathering assembled for the announcement of the “Academy Awards” of children’s literature—the John Newbery and Ran-dolph Caldecott Medals. Avi and Eric Rohmann received the respective awards for the best author and illustrator from the past year, announced by ALA’s Association for Library Service to Children.

President Freedman left the conference to appear with the Newbery and Caldecott winners on the Today show January 28 in New York and returned in time to show the film clip at Council’s last session.

Amy Goodman, host of public radio’s Democracy Now, denounced the mainstream media at the President’s Program. In these “serious times,” said Goodman, it’s important that the public have alternative information sources such as her show, which has served as a forum for politically progressive voices. Video files of Goodman’s presentation and the rest of the President’s Program are viewable online.

Midwinter Meeting registration totaled 13,664 attendees and exhibitors, which marked an increase in both categories from the 2002 Midwinter in New Orleans, where total attendance was 11,853.

Long lines at the registration desks on Friday and Saturday were due to three trunk lines being down, so credit-card approvals were taking unduly long, explained Deidre Ross, director of Conference Services. In spite of the slow credit-card machines, sales at the ALA Store were as brisk as the weather, netting more than $77,000 compared with nearly $56,000 in New Orleans. Aided by strong new releases, including ALA Editions’ AACR 2 and the Olivia “Reading Never Wears Me Out” poster, ALA Graphics Sales Associate John Chrastka reported that this was the second bestselling store ever.

The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science debuted its new audiovisual presentation, Trust and Terror: New Demands for Crisis Information Dissemination and Management, which is narrated by broadcast veteran Walter Cronkite. The boxed CD, distributed at the conference and available free to libraries, is designed to show governmental leaders the vital role libraries can play in crisis information dissemination and management.

ALA’s American Association of School Librarians honored Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio) at its affiliate assembly caucus with the 2002 Crystal Apple Award for significant impact on school libraries and students. The third U.S. elected official to receive the award, Regula was recognized for his role in securing $12.5 million for the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program, a subset of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which Congress reauthorized in December 2001. Regula noted that legislators have to constantly make choices and urged librarians to be lobbyists: “You can’t underestimate the role you can play,” he noted.

“Gathering at the Waters: Embracing Our Spirits, Telling Our Stories” will be the theme of the first Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC) being planned by the Association’s five ethnic caucuses––the American Indian Library Association, the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association, the Chinese-American Librarians Association, the Black Caucus of ALA, and Reforma: the National Association to Promote Library Services to the Spanish Speaking. Each group agreed to contribute at least $2,000 apiece in seed money to match a $10,000 contribution from ALA. Conference dates and location will be finalized during the ALA/CLA joint Annual Conference in Toronto.

“A Challenge to America’s Libraries: Ensuring Information Access for All People” was the theme of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. sunrise observance sponsored by the Social Responsibilities Round Table’s King Holiday Task Force and BCALA, with participation from various ethnic caucuses and roundtables.

Andrew Jackson, BCALA vice president/president-elect, said the program was not only a celebration of King “but of all of the ‘sheroes’ and heroes of the Civil Rights Movement” as well as those library leaders who have torn down barriers “so that we could be free to be the librarians we want to be.” He added that librarians make a difference each day, especially in the lives of youth. “They will never have to be turned away from a library just because of the color of their skin as my mother was,” Jackson told the crowd.

In the exhibit hall, the Dynix brand returned with gusto as Epixtech abandoned its tongue-twisting moniker in favor of its former name. The company kicked off its new identity with a splendid reception at the historic Franklin Institute and announced new business partnerships with Baker and Taylor and Sun Microsystems. Sirsi hosted a reception at the Free Library of Philadelphia to announce its new Room “content into context” software package.

President Freedman and the ALA Video Round Table hosted Video Nightcaps for three evenings during the conference, featuring The Trials of Henry Kissinger, Ducktators, Power and Terror, Etoiles, The Stone Reader, and Issak Babel. Freedman said an “unnamed sponsor” underwrote the cost associated with the film viewing. First Run Features/Icarus Films and Stone Reader contributed the films.

Conference-goers also had an opportunity to preview the newly redesigned ALA Web site, under construction for the past year and designed to make it easier to find information. The new site is scheduled to launch this spring.

Supporters Rally to Save Libraries

An overflow crowd rallied with ALA President Maurice Freedman to launch his Campaign to Save America’s Libraries initiative. Freedman, whose own library is facing cuts, spoke to the urgent need for those who understand the value of libraries to protect them during an economic downturn, then invited librarians, trustees, and other supporters—representatives from all types of libraries from Washington to Massachusetts to Florida—to share personal stories of the ways their operations have been impacted by recent budget cuts.

“We understand that libraries are competing with programs ranging from basic human services to those combating the threat of domestic terrorism,” Freedman said. “But we know that our libraries are valuable far beyond the books contained within them. . . . Libraries are fundamental to our democracy and to our communities.

“Libraries are too frequently taken for granted and overlooked when funding decisions are made and now those funding decisions are cutting too close to the bone.” Noting the fact that as the economy goes down, library use goes up, Freedman pointed out that “reducing funding to all of these libraries hurts everyone, but reducing funding to libraries hurts low-income families, new immigrants, and seniors especially hard.”

“When we save our libraries,” Freedman concluded, “we must ensure that the funding is adequate to save the library’s single most valuable resource, the library staff.”

Friends of Libraries USA President Lana Porter added that it was critical that librarians “know you have partners in your concern. . . . We know how important you are,” she said.

Referring to the diminishing funding to libraries in Iowa, state library trustee Dale Ross borrowed a line from Howard Beal in the movie Network: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

“What we are facing across this country is devastating to our profession,” said ALA President-elect Carla Hayden, “and yet I see the energy and the drive that we need to save America’s libraries.”

Hayden offered advice from her experience as executive director of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, which has been hit with cuts—“like the proverbial canary in the coal mine”—since 1997.

Be prepared, even if you think budget cuts aren’t coming your way, she warned. Get to know state legislators and reward those who have been helpful. Keep library users informed and hold a local rally if you can. Finally, go to the media and tell them what’s happening at your library.

“We have a right to mobilize,” Hayden concluded. “We don’t have to be quiet anymore. We’re here to make sure . . . that America’s libraries survive and that they thrive—it’s in your job description.”

President’s Program Offers an Alternative

Opening his President’s Program, ALA President Freedman called keynote speaker Amy Goodman “the most important person in journalism today.” Her daily public radio program Democracy Now, which covers underreported and controversial topics from a politically progressive viewpoint, is heard on the Pacifica network, which Goodman said allowed marginalized voices “who you don’t usually get to hear in the media to speak for themselves.”

As the prospect of war with Iraq loomed, Goodman stressed the importance of having alternative outlets such as her program, “so that dissent becomes commonplace.” She pointed out that when the Gulf War broke out in 1991, CBS was owned by Westinghouse and NBC by General Electric—both major weapons manufacturers.

At a time when “a man who was not popularly elected president has declared war on the world,” Goodman said, “it’s absolutely critical that we challenge the mainstream media now”; not only are they among the most powerful institutions on earth, she noted, but they’re also “the lens through which we see the world and the rest of the world sees us.”

Goodman observed that librarians know how serious the times are, since the USA Patriot Act “puts you at the forefront of the war on terror.” The question, she said, is not only whether we comply with the FBI, but whether we challenge the law.

Reiterating that “these are serious times,” Goodman added that “what’s most important is that we have information,” stressing the need for libraries to have a diversity of materials so that people are not limited to the mass media.

Goodman closed with a harrowing account of her confrontation with Indonesian soldiers in East Timor during a 1991 massacre in which more than 250 Timorese were gunned down. She said that the Timorese saw America as both a sword—the supplier of weapons—and a shield, providing inspiration for the protection of individual rights. As we sit on the verge of war, she concluded, “we have to make that decision whether to be the sword or the shield.”

Avi, Rohmann Win Newbery, Caldecott

Winners of the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, considered the most prestigious awards in children’s literature, were announced at a January 27 news conference sponsored by ALA’s Association for Library Service to Children.

Avi, author of Crispin: The Cross of Lead, won the 2002 Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. Published by Hyperion Books for Children, the novel, set in 14th-century England, tells the story of 13-year-old Crispin after he is suddenly orphaned and stripped of his home and possessions.

The Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children went to illustrator and author Eric Rohmann for My Friend Rabbit, published by Roaring Brook Press. In the book, Mouse shares his brand-new toy airplane with his friend Rabbit, and no one can predict the disastrous results. It’s a lighthearted celebration of friendship, said the judges.

Also announced at the briefing:

• Coretta Scott King Author Award to an African-American author (administered by the Coretta Scott King Task Force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table): Nikki Grimes, author of Bronx Masquerade (Dial Books).
• Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award: E. B. Lewis, illustrator of Talkin’ about Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman by Nikki Grimes (Orchard Books).
• Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature for young adults (administered by ALA’s Young Adult Library Services Association and sponsored by Booklist magazine): Aidan Chambers for Postcards from No Man’s Land (Dutton Books).
• Robert F. Sibert Award for the most distinguished informational book for children (administered by ALSC and sponsored by Bound to Stay Bound Books): James Cross Giblin for The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler (Clarion).
• Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime contribution in writing for young adults (sponsored by School Library Journal and administered by YALSA): Nancy Garden, author of Annie on My Mind (1982), published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in children’s video: Paul R. Gagne and Melissa Reilly (Weston Woods) for So You Want to Be President? based on the Caldecott Medal–winning book by Judith St. George.
• Laura Ingalls Wilder Award to an author or illustrator, whose books, published in the United States, have made a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children (administered by ALSC): Eric Carle, illustrator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Do You Want to Be My Friend? The Tiny Seed, and From Head to Toe.
• Mildred L. Batchelder Award to a publisher for the best foreign-language children’s book subsequently translated into English: The Chicken House (an imprint of Scholastic), for The Thief Lord, originally written in German in 2000 as Herr der Diebe, by Cornelia Funke, and translated by Oliver Latsch.
• May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecturer: Ursula K. Le Guin, author of the Books of Earthsea series, which includes A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, and The Farthest Shore.

Legislative Briefing Lays Out Challenges

Institute of Museum and Library Services Director Robert Martin opened the ALA Washington Office’s briefing session by reading a letter of greetings from First Lady Laura Bush that contained welcome news: The president’s 2004 budget would ask for some $242 million for libraries and museums—a 15% increase over last year’s request.

That announcement would prove to be just about the only good news of the morning, as a series of legal and library experts detailed the challenges that lie ahead for libraries as they attempt to defend privacy rights and access to information in an increasingly restrictive environment.

Political consultant Vic Klatt outlined the “three Ps” of Washington and what they mean for libraries:

Process: Now that Republicans control the presidency and both houses of Congress, a single party is in charge of the entire political process. That makes it crucial for library supporters to stay on track with their most important issues, Klatt warned.

Policy: Library concerns will be competing with the “big issues”: the war in Iraq, the tax-cut debate, and spending issues. The challenge for the library community is to work its way onto the agenda.

Politics: The closeness of the margins in the Senate and House creates a highly politicized environment, Klatt observed. It’s important for library lobbyists to appeal to the political sensibilities of both sides, he concluded.

“Most of the pieces of the USA Patriot Act were not new ideas,” observed Rick Weingarten, director of ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy in Washington. “The fact is, certain areas of the government have never been happy with the Internet as a location for anonymous activity.” Weingarten pondered whether the post-9/11 restrictions are a “ratcheting process” from which we can never return, or simply “a swing of the pendulum.” He suspects the latter, but warned that if the measures get embedded in the technology, they’ll become permanent.

Attorney Tom Susman of Ropes and Gray, describing the law’s most troubling provisions, said that the area of greatest concern to libraries was the gag order that prevents librarians from knowing if the powers have been abused. He reminded the audience that provisions will sunset in 2005, requiring a renewal at that time. The potential for repeal before then, he advised, is “zero to none.” In the meantime, we can offer amendments to restrict the use of the statutes—particularly to prohibit “data-mining”—and to remove the gag order.

Beryl Howell, minority counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, described the concerns of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who chaired the committee during passage of the Patriot Act. She said Senator Leahy strived to ensure judicial and congressional checks and sunset provisions, and added that he was considering introducing legislation “that would shed more sunshine on the process.”

Although we don’t want libraries to be “safe havens for terrorists,” Howell said we need to balance how much surveillance is necessary. The current atmosphere makes it difficult to challenge the Patriot Act, she concluded: “It takes very brave people to stand up and take on this kind of rhetoric” that the administration is putting forth.

Following the briefing, the Washington Office opened a session on distance education law and copyright issues with an overview of the TEACH Act presented by Kenneth Crews, a professor at the Indiana University at Indianapolis School of Law. The legislation, which was enacted last year, expands the scope of educators’ rights to use copyright materials in digital distance education.

Although the act was “a tremendous improvement over existing law,” providing protection from liability and broadening the opportunity to use copyrighted works online, Crews warned that it also carried responsibilities on the part of educators. He added that such language as “mediated instructional activities” and “class session” shows that the law’s authors were thinking in terms of old media, and some of the restrictions required by the legislation may not be technologically feasible.

Attorney Jonathan Band and ALA Legislative Counsel Miriam Nisbet offered a look at the current state of copyright legislation. Nisbet observed that when the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was passed in 1998, it tipped the balance in favor of greater control, and copyright owners have continued to ask for more protection. The latest threat is Digital Rights Management (DRM) measures that Nisbet said use technology to enforce owners’ rights without regard for the lawful use of digital materials.

Band senses a heightened concern in Congress about Internet-based copyright infringement. Where previous laws like the DMCA regulated the behavior of users and service providers, recent proposals regulate the technology through DRM mandates and other technological requirements.

Nisbet closed by alerting the audience to legislation that is slated to be introduced in the 108th Congress, including a bill that will permit denial-of-service attacks on peer-to-peer file traders, attempts to mandate “broadcast flags” that will prevent digital television broadcasts from being retransmitted on the Internet, and database- protection efforts.

UCITA on the Ropes

The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA), a controversial package of laws regulating software licensing, “is on its last legs,” declared Carol Ashworth, UCITA grassroots coordinator for the ALA Washington Office. At a session devoted to recent developments with the law, which proponents have been attempting to enact on a state-by-state basis, she said that if the American Bar Association doesn’t approve it this year and no more states pass it (thus far it’s only been approved in Maryland and Virginia), it will lose momentum.

William Woodward, professor of law at Temple University, described recent efforts to pass “bomb shelter” legislation, designed to ensure that a state’s residents don’t get subjected to UCITA even if the act has never passed in their state.

Since UCITA is a state law, it must be fought at the state level by talking to state legislators, noted Oklahoma State University Dean of Libraries Ed Johnson. UCITA defenders will cite such concerns as computer piracy and Napster, but we must stress that such concerns pale next to access to information and related issues, Johnson said.

Cathy Wojewodzki of the University of Delaware library added that lobbying against UCITA is unusual for the library community because even though we’re not asking for money or discussing other customary library issues, we’re still talking to the same legislators. “The people who give you money for libraries have a vested interest in your using that money well,” she noted, advising lobbyists to point out that UCITA prevents them from doing this. Remind them that libraries are public institutions, she concluded, and that what we’re requesting is for the good of the people of the state.

Curley’s Love of Dance Honored

Cultural historian Brenda Dixon Gottschild presented a unique mixture of performance and history during the fourth annual Arthur Curley Memorial Lecture, “Researching Performance: The Dancing Body as a Measure of Culture,” in honor of the former director of Boston Public Library and ALA president (1994–95).

Periodically reading a letter to Curley noting their mutual interest in dance, research, and society, Gottschild, a Philadelphia critic for Dance Magazine, said dance and books are two of her lifelong passions.

“I’m here today to celebrate talking bodies, speaking bodies, and dancing bodies,” she said. “Like the spoken word, dance comes in many languages”; Gottschild explained, “there’s language of the body and language of the word.”

Instrumental in originating and investigating a line of thought on what she termed “the Africanist” presence in European-based American concert dance, Gottschild said, “My writing is my choreography of the page. I’m an artist, writing about art and sometimes my library is a street corner or a database.”

Forums Feature Sobel, Huffington

The simultaneous Best-Selling Author Forums continued for a second year as a prelude to the opening of exhibits. This year’s events featured science-fiction writer/reporter Dava Sobel and syndicated columnist and author Arianna Huffington.

“People think that writers only like bookstores, but that’s not true because the only thing that’s really important is that people read your books and like them,” Sobel told the audience.

Her novel Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love (Walker, 1999) was actually “born,” she revealed, while she was conducting research at the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors Library, where she found a piece of a letter from Galileo’s illegitimate daughter, Maria Celeste.

Sobel also discussed her book Longitude (Walker, 1995), an international bestseller that has been translated into 20 languages and made into a movie.

Huffington’s appearance came the same week as the publication of her book Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America (Crown).

She asserted that the recent events at Enron, WorldCom, and elsewhere “are not corporate scandals as much as political scandals” because they would not have happened without a “nexus of power between Washington and corporate America.” At the moment, Huffington claimed, we are two nations operating under two entirely different sets of law: one for the powerful and wealthy and one for everyone else. “I know all you librarians around the country are suffering huge budget cuts,” Huffington added.

Despite the dominance of corporations, Huffington said she was optimistic because “I believe that public outrage trumps everything.” Citing the rescue of Michael Moore’s book Stupid White Men by librarian activism, she said, “The power that we have to change things is something we have to keep reminding ourselves of.”

Sutherland, Trejo Tributes Held

Zena Sutherland, noted children’s book reviewer, author, editor, and professor emerita of the Graduate Library School at the University of Chicago, and Arnulfo Trejo, library science professor emeritus at the University of Arizona and Reforma founder, were honored by their respective colleagues in separate tributes.

Sutherland, who died June 12, 2002, “raised the bar during her evaluation of children’s books” for 27 years, noted Ann Carlson, professor of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University.

Author and artist Maurice Sendak, who provided original artwork for the program cover, said Sutherland’s devotion to and approval of his book Where the Wild Things Are helped him win the 1964 Caldecott Medal, “thus establishing me and empowering me to experiment and devote myself entirely to my work and, perhaps, a worthwhile life.”

Author and illustrator David Macaulay said “Zena had knowledge and great wisdom. She knew what mattered and what didn’t.”

In an emotional program attended by a diverse assembly and filled with song, laughter, poetry, and a rhythmic incantation, Trejo, who died July 5, 2002, was described as a pioneer, visionary, mentor, and leader.

Reforma President Ben Ocón said he was one of the first few Latino librarians in the United States and was a man “who not only dreamed what was possible, but very effective in mobilizing others into a shared vision and a collective sense of activism.”

In a prepared statement read by BCALA President Bobby Player, former ALA President E. J. Josey said, “We will always remember him as a vital, living presence.” Former ALA President Betty Turock chal- lenged those in attendance to take up Trejo’s work.

Trejo’s widow, Ninfa, read the last poem she shared with her dying husband, and urged everyone to honor him by mentoring young Latino people through student Reformita clubs.

Libraries North and South of the Border

As a prelude to ALA’s internationally based Toronto conference this summer, the Association of College and Research Libraries presented a panel revealing both commonalities and differences between academic libraries in Mexico, Canada, and the United States.

Bob Seal, university librarian at Texas Christian University, focused on four aspects of American librarianship: assessment, a new model for the academic library that is currently developing, support for distance education and Web-based coursework, and the role of the library.

Seal pointed out several areas in which U.S. library values vary from those often found elsewhere: a strong service attitude, the need to constantly battle for funds, an emphasis on cooperation and resource sharing, and strong support for fair use.

Alvaro Quijano, director of libraries at El Colegio de Mexico, said the terminal degree for most professional librarians in Mexico is a bachelor’s: Of the 1,000 or so librarians produced by the nation’s eight colleges that offer library education (only two of which have graduate programs), fewer than 150 hold master’s degrees. Most of them received their MLS degrees in the States, a few in the U.K., and now, said Quijano, some come from Spain.

The countries’ proximity and the lack of a native model mean that U.S. librarianship is very influential on that of Mexico, observed Quijano. Perhaps the biggest problem is that Mexico has a weak system of public libraries, with the best libraries found in universities, so there’s no tradition of cooperation between types of libraries.

Canadian academic libraries also are reliant on U.S. librarianship, said John Teskey, director of libraries at the University of New Brunswick; their professionals have ALA accreditation and they use the same professional literature. A major difference is Canada’s geography, which sees unequal population distribution spread over great distances; that necessitates collaboration and cooperation to deliver services effectively, observed Teskey.

Budget constraints are another phenomenon shared with American libraries. Teskey said significant cuts during the 1990s (made even worse by the unfavorable exchange rate, given that 80% of their materials are priced in or originate in U.S. dollars) have prompted even greater cooperation among libraries.

Teskey said Canadian librarians are very concerned over many developments they see happening in the U.S., such as UCITA and the Supreme Court’s January 11 copyright extension decision, because “these things tend to drift across the border.”

Industry Execs Ponder Portals

What are library portals and what is their future? asked RMG Consultants President Rob McGee of this year’s eight panelists at the RMG Presidents’ Seminar, an annual discussion among industry executives about leading-edge developments.

Muse Global CEO Kate Noerr took the lead, offering a definition of a portal as a “Web doorway to library services.” Endeavor President and CEO Jane Burke suggested, however, that “portal is just a word we’ve applied, but I don’t think it’s accurate at all. . . . We’re really talking about broadcast search tools,” she said, noting that a lesson could be taken from the popularity of the easy-to-use search engine Google. The industry’s mission in building portals, she said, should be to provide users with access to all the authoritative resources libraries hold, but to “get it out there in a way that they’ll use it like Google.”

Most panelists agreed that, whether they’re called portals or something else entirely, making such tools easy to use is a top priority. “Most implementations of portals are overwhelming,” Sirsi President Pat Sommers said. “We must rethink how information is organized.” He warned against perfection procrastination paralysis: “Don’t look at it that we have to organize everything or organize nothing. There is a lot more libraries can do . . . to take the user into consideration and to make themselves more like a Google in terms of the ease of use,” Sommers noted.

ExLibris President Carl Grant pointed out that one way for libraries to get involved is through the National Information Standards Organization: “If you’re really interested in collaboration, one of the most important things you can do is get involved in helping to develop standards . . . that will make all of this possible,” he said.

“Portals are the main event of the decade,” concluded Robin Murray of Fretwell-Downing, cautioning that right now “is a critical, exciting, and somewhat dangerous phase.” If we fail, he said, someone else will step up. “We must succeed; otherwise we’ll be marginalized.”

Politics, Rap, Nuptials Discussed

Former U.S. Senator and 1984 presidential candidate Gary Hart is calling for a “renewed spirit of volunteerism,” saying that it should begin with our youth, who must be challenged to participate in their government.

Hart, author of The Restoration of the Republic (Oxford University Press, 2002) joined Michael Eric Dyson, Edna Buchanan, and Diane and John B. Rehm at the Friends of Libraries USA Author Breakfast. He said civic virtue and civic duty are on the decline in this country, particularly noting the decline in voting, and advocated “a restoration of the ideals of citizen duty, resistance to corruption, and the sovereignty of people.”

Dyson, also a professor of African studies at the University of Pennsylvania, called libraries a “passport to different worlds, different horizons” as he revealed the impetuses for several of his novels.

Regarding Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur (Basic Books, 2001), Dyson said that, although the murdered rap star was a high-school dropout, Shakur read “captively and broadly” from the Bible and the Koran as well as books on cooking and the art of acting. “The hip-hop culture is a form of literacy for people who find it as their only available curriculum in the problems and possibilities of America,” he noted.

Dyson said he had Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon in his hand when he was evicted from his apartment on Christmas Day one year. He called the book “redemptive,” saying it “gave me a possibility of language.” Ten years later, Dyson met Morrison at her 70th birthday party. He explained that the influence she and other women had on his life was the reason he wrote his latest novel, Why I Love Black Women (Basic Books, 2003).

“I knew I was going to be a writer when I was 4 years old,” said former crime reporter Edna Buchanan (The Ice Maiden, Morrow, 2002), who was raised in a single-parent home with her mother working two jobs. “I couldn’t read yet, but my mother read to me and I was already hooked on stories.”

Buchanan told the audience that her 7th-grade English teacher, who was also the school librarian, encouraged her to write and made her promise to dedicate a book to her some day. She fulfilled that promise in 1987 with her first book, The Corpse Had a Familiar Face (Diamond Books).

The breakfast concluded with a frank and personal presentation by National Public Radio talk show host Diane Rehm and her husband, John, a retired Washington attorney, about their 42-year marriage. The couple authored Toward Commitment: A Dialogue about Marriage (Knopf, 2002).

Reporting for American Libraries are: Gordon Flagg, Pamela Goodes, Amy Jordan, and Leonard Kniffel. Photographs by Curtis Compton and others.

Midwinter Registration Totals

Registration revenue totaled $597,080, compared to $605,572 last year in New Orleans.

Placement Center Statistics

Jobs: 196 (The highest number, 31, was for general reference positions.) This compared to 318 jobs last year in New Orleans.

Job-seekers: 293 (The highest number, 203, interested in reference positions.) This compared to 214 job-seekers in New Orleans.