Big Change Needed
By Lillian N. Gerhardt, Editor-in-Chief -- School Library Journal, 10/1/1997
Sit down before you read "Small Change" by the Dr. Marilyns -- Miller and Shontz -- so as not to injure yourself from the jolts it will produce. The report -- the eighth in SLJ's biennial series on the activities and conditions that affect school library resource purchases -- pinpoints the dawn of a new day: school librarians are spending about the same amount of money for access to the Internet and electronic information as they spend on books. From wire-up to click on, the telephone companies are moving ahead of the book publishers in attracting school library resource dollars.
The members of the Children's Book Council, Inc. (CBC), the trade association for children's publishers, are doubtless aware that school and public libraries together spend about a billion dollars each year on books for children and adolescents -- final sales at minimal discounts, a far cry from the indulgences publishers offer booksellers for carrying their wares. But, CBC's members don't (for the most part) run their publishing houses. They report to distant executives in the corporate structure who may or may not perceive the children's book department as a necessary investment in the future of adult readers for this country, but more likely as a cash cow to underwrite adult projects.
That point of view, that level of commitment to the power and the capacity of reading to enrich a life, is a conviction shared by librarians and classroom teachers of the language arts. This is described and demonstrated in "Coming of Age in the Castle" in which a new and enthusiastic librarian sets out her strategy for capturing teenage readers against the odds. You might think that book publishers would be our strongest allies in promoting the book reading habit in an era of web addiction, but such is not the case. Librarians and other educators actually believe in reading while the bean counters that run publishers believe in sales.
This difference was brought home with piercing force in late August by an item in the August 25 issue of BP Report, a newsletter on book publishing. It was the announcement of the shutdown of two distinguished children's book imprints as a result of Penguin's merger with Putnam: Cobble Hill Books and Lodestar Books. The reason these lists were scrapped was given by Penguin/Putnam's Executive Vice-President of Children's Book Publishing, Douglas Whiteman. In a monotonous echo of the justifications of other corporate book publishing company mergers, Whiteman said both imprints sold almost exclusively to libraries, "and we want books that sell to all markets." Unfortunately for young readers, almost all of the other markets -- direct mail, mass-market outlets, book clubs, bookstores, and wholesalers -- concern themselves with sales rather than quality of book content.
This is made clear in the roundup review of 1997's holiday books. There are 63 titles -- most about Christmas, a couple about Kwanzaa, and a few about Hanukkah. You can buy all of them for approximately $900 -- or put another way, for nearly 25 percent of the average school library book budget. But, fewer than a dozen appear to hold enough entertainment or information to justify library purchase.
SLJ's next survey of expenditures for school library resources will be published in 1999. Continued affluence in the general economy and renewed efforts with school administrators are expected to produce a much-needed increase in school library funds for collection development. What proportion of those funds will go to the purchase of new books is not the sole responsibility of school librarians or their administrators. Book publishers will have to get a better act together in order to join librarians and educators in developing a nation of readers.
Renée Olson
Editor-in-Chief
rolson@slj.cahners.com
