March 1998

Staff -- School Library Journal, 3/1/1998

Editorial Commitment

As a long-time subscriber and avid reader of School Library Journal, I feel compelled to ask a question. Why has the focus shifted from school to public libraries? I believe we are all united, but it does appear to be a shift in editorial policy. I found the great plan for a senior high school library in the February 1997 edition ("Renovate It & They Will Come: Designing a Popular High School Library," p. 25), but there was no middle school or elementary school floor plan, which I thought would be appropriate. The public library write-up and photos were great and useful, but the focus and responsibility and partnership of school and public libraries must remain clear. We have marvelous public libraries, and I support them. There are journals that focus on school libraries and their facilities and programs.

Ed. Note: For coverage of renovations in elementary schools, see "The Power of Paint: Refurbishing School Libraries on a Budget," February 1998, pp. 28-35.

"Hip" Cover Was Right On

A cheer to your wonderful cover story in the January issue ("Leaders in Waiting: Are These Eight Librarians Headed for the Top?" January 1998, pp. 24-29). Hopefully, it will set the mind of Ms. Jean Reese to rest. She wrote a letter (January 1998, p. 8) objecting to the stereotypical look you chose for the November cover. The joke of that cover, to me at least, is that none of the librarians I know are anything like that. We are as diverse and hip as the January cover depicts, so I am not too worried about stereotypes.

Having said that, I am now going to perpetuate one by pointing out a persnickety error in the same November issue. In Annette Curtis Klause's article, "The Lure of Horror," (Up for Discussion, November 1997, pp. 38-39) there is a grammatical error on the second page: "The Penguin Encyclopedia agrees that horror is not ultimately enjoyed for the style, ideas, medium or message, but for it's myth...." "Its" as a possessive does not take the apostrophe. I was surprised that no one caught that, including the author, since the rest of the article was so well written.

Library Landscapers

As I read the [news] article ("Weed-of-the-Month Club Pushes Librarians to Dump the Deadwood," October 1997, p.16), I recalled the experience that my colleague Nancy Linton and I went through two summers ago. Our library was the recipient of a three-year enhancement plan that allowed us to improve our media center significantly. One of our first tasks was to weed the collection. We began during the warm days of July. It took us four days to complete this job, which turned out to be quite eventful. Shelves began to collapse but our custodians, Keith and Bruno, quickly mended them. (Of course, we had to remove the books as they repaired them, thus creating more work.)

When we finished this long overdue task, I wrote the following letter to our principal, just for fun. A letter of a more serious nature was sent to him as well as to our superintendent to inform them of the status of the library. Although the enclosed letter was written in jest, it did reinforce the need of continual weeding and the importance of funding for collection development:

Dear Mel,
Our task of weeding the library collection at Spaulding School has now been completed. Our job can be compared to the summertime task of actually weeding a flower garden. If one neglects a garden, it becomes choked with weeds and the flowers are hidden and do not thrive. The garden gets crowded, the beauty is diminished, and its appeal to visitors is lost.

So it is with our library book collection. Years of scanty budgets made us reluctant to pull those weedy, sappy, and drippy titles for fear of a barren landscape. However, when we were given this wonderful opportunity to go ahead and make our library beautiful once more, we rose to the occasion. We donned our work clothes, and raced to the shelves. We pulled and weeded out those clinging vines (oops -- we mean spines). With sweat dripping from our brow, we knelt as we toiled in this greenhouse environment. Hour after hour, we barreled our way through fiction, nonfiction, and reference. On our journey through the library path, we became reacquainted with our perennial favorite titles and recognized the beauty of some wallflowers that were hidden amongst the weeds. And our job was not without danger in this jungle of a library. Our lives were in peril as timbers unexpectedly fell while we were improving the climate of our shelves. However, our trusty woodsmen came to our rescue.

But the job had its rewards. Our library is now prepared to meet the future and flourish with the advent of automation. Our shelf list, which will be sent out, contains only those specimens we see as worthy of our library's collection. And with the removal of those antiquated titles, we now have room to add more annuals to our shelves. We look forward to annually having the green stuff to buy bright, new, colorful, and currant (oops -- current) titles to keep our library thriving. We hope to provide continual grooming and maintenance to keep this library an inviting, up-to-date, useful facility that will show all those who pass by that reading makes the mind blossom.

The 1997 December "Awards" column (p. 20) misspelled the name of the winner of the Wisconsin Library Association's Elizabeth Burr Award. It is Barbara Juster Esbensen.