News Briefs
Staff -- School Library Journal, 9/1/2000
A Too-Successful Party
It's every librarian's dream: thousands turn out to celebrate your library's reading program. But for the San Antonio (TX) Public Library, the dream turned into a brief period of mayhem. At "Party in the Park," the library's annual mini-carnival for summer reading participants, about twice as many people showed up as party organizers had expected. Heavy television and radio advertising, coupled with the promise of free school supplies for the first 2,000 children to arrive, resulted in a near-mob of about 4,000 children and parents that required the involvement of local law-enforcement officials. But according to Beth Graham, public information officer for the library, "The furor was over by 9:30 a.m., and we just went back to our regular party, with about 2,500 participants." Jean Schmeisser, a San Antonio children's librarian, added that the key problem might have been miscommunication. "Many of the people who were there for the free stuff didn't even know about our summer reading program," she says.
The Library as Vacation Spot
Ever need to take your work with you? Try New York City's Library Hotel. Not only do its floor numbers and rooms correspond to the Dewey Decimal System, but every room is decorated to reflect the section of the library you are staying in. If you're on the social sciences floor, you'll find a room outfitted with art and books that pertain to social science. But don't worry that this hotel will replace a real library--with rooms starting at $375 per night, the Library Hotel will never serve the budget-conscious. For information, call (877) 793-7323, or go to www.libraryhotel.com.
Macaulay Building Television Show
In Building Big, a new PBS series slotted to air next month, Caldecott winner David Macaulay will apply his penchant for explaining the intricacies of big structures to the small screen. The five-part series will explore bridges, domes, skyscrapers, dams, and tunnels, and will air on five consecutive Tuesdays through October. Macaulay will host and narrate the show. A companion book to the series, also called Building Big and illustrated by Macaulay, will be published this fall by Houghton Mifflin.
Success Stories
Holly Gunn, teacher-librarian at Sackville High School in Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia, has been named the 2000 Teacher-Librarian of the Year by the Canadian School Library Association. The award is sponsored by National Book Service, a Canadian book wholesaler.
J. Dale Cuthrie of Clayton (MO) High School and Kimberly Sweigart Grotewald of Black Mountain Middle School in San Diego, CA, are winners of the 2000 Information Technology Pathfinder Award, sponsored by Follett Software and the American Association of School Librarians (AASL). The award recognizes library media specialists who have taken innovative approaches to technology.
Ann Weeks, director of libraries for the Chicago Public Schools, left the district last month to take a teaching post at the University of Maryland's College of Library and Information Services. Weeks was formerly the executive director of AASL.
Ed Sullivan, supervisor of young adult services for New York Public Library's Staten Island branches, has taken a job in Clinton, TN, as librarian for the Children's Defense Fund's Langston Hughes Library. The year-old library, on the former Alex Haley farm, includes books on African-American history and culture and the civil rights movement, plus an extensive children's collection.
Religion--No Longer a Deterrent
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 1985 appeals court ruling that parochial schools could not receive federal funding for materials other than textbooks. That ends a 15-year battle between Jefferson (LA) Parish, which has 41 parochial schools, and three taxpayers who did not want their tax dollars used to fund materials for religious schools. In a split decision this year, the Supreme Court opined that federal aid to religious schools did not advance religion. Some law experts say the decision opens up new grounds for debate over vouchers, which would allow federal monies to be spent on private schools.
