News Briefs

Staff -- School Library Journal, 7/1/2000

New York's Public Shame
In a move that surprised many, the New York City Council recently failed to pass a 15 percent salary increase for librarians at the New York Public Library (NYPL), Brooklyn Public Library, and Queens Borough Public Library systems. In a special memorandum to city librarians, Paul LeClerc, NYPL president, says that although the city council took note of the strong community and staff support for the salary increase, the request might have been denied because of failed negotiations between the city's executive branch and union officials. New York's low salaries for librarians are notorious--starting salaries for NYPL librarians hover somewhere around $29,000, while librarians in Atlanta and Los Angeles start at about $40,000. Ray Markey, president of the library Local 1930, says that librarians have already left New York in droves. "This only means that we'll see morelibrarians leaving," he says.

Where No Book Has Gone Before

Patrons of Ukrop's grocery store in Williamsburg, VA, might be putting Green Eggs and Ham in their shopping carts. That's right: thanks to the Williamsburg Regional Library (WRL) and a friendly local grocery store chain, about two dozen rapt listeners were treated to snacks and storytime at Ukrop's last month. The program, called "Feed Me a Story," is slated to run on Saturdays throughout the season. It's the brainchild of Noreen Bernstein, director of youth services at WRL. The program received $10,000 from the Fyan Grant, which is awarded annually by the American Library Association. Bernstein says that the grocery store provides a nice compromisebetween the community and thelibrary. "Public libraries sometimes need to go where the people are," she says, "because people won't always be able to come to us." Although the grant can't be renewed, Bernstein hopes that the community will pitch in with funds and supplies as it realizes the value of the program.

Roman Roams to ALA Development

Susan Roman, executive director of the Association for Library Service to Children and the Association for Library Trustees and Advocates, will put her considerable talents and experience to work as the newly appointed director of development for the American Library Association (ALA). Her appointment also marks the opening of the new ALA Development Office, which was formerly known as the Fund for America's Libraries. Roman was director of youth and children's services at two Illinois libraries before joining ALA in 1986.

Reading for Inattentive Teens

The Chapter-a-Day Internet book club (www.chapteraday.com), which e-mails one chapter of a selected book each day to its members, will soon start targeting the notoriously short attention span of today's teenagers. Starting September 11, school and publiclibraries can take advantage of Chapter-a-Day's new teen book club. Chapter-a-Day will e-mail a designated number of chapters to each subscriber; those who'd like to read the rest of the book can buy it online. Suzanne Beecher, Chapter-a-Day's founder, says that the for-profit company has had teens' attention since its inception. "We were getting responses and questions from teens about when we'd start offering more teen selections," she says. Beecher notes that the company will use suggestions from teens and librarians about what tooffer. In fact, some teens have already written in about current selections. One favorite? A Walk in the Woods (Broadway, 1998) by Bill Bryson. To suggest a book, visit the company's Web site.

Chutzpah Pays Off

A pat on the back is due Walter Minkel, School Library Journal's technology editor. Minkel's article "Five Librarians, One 50-Foot Phone Cord, and a Whole Lot of Chutzpah" (SLJ, March 1999), written when he was the technology trainer at Multnomah County Library in Portland, OR, was recently selected as one of the "Top 20 Library Instruction Articles" of 1999. The list is compiled each year by the Continuing Education Committee of the American Library Association's Library Round Table.