Introducing Walter
by Renée Olson, Editor-in-Chief -- School Library Journal, 8/1/1999
SLJ's new editor is wired -- and not just on caffeine
In a June news story barely bigger than a coffee bean, you discovered that Walter Minkel recently joined SLJ as its first-ever technology editor. I must rectify this injustice since it failed to express our enthusiasm at having found such a highly qualified librarian to energize SLJ's technology coverage.
You may already be familiar with Walter's work through his SLJ Online's Web Site of the Month project, his feature articles, or his bestselling book, Delivering Web Reference Services to Young People (ALA, 1998), co-authored with Roxanne Feldman. He comes to this magazine with a sly sense of humor, a fine goatee, and two decades of experience as a children's librarian, most recently at Multnomah County Library in Portland, OR.
Over the next few months, Walter's work will begin to appear throughout these pages. Starting next month, he will write "Chat Room," a monthly column designed to get you thinking about technology in new ways -- from homework Web sites and digital cameras to e-mail policies and training.
Since Walter's fresh out of a library, he's well aware of the pressures under which you operate. "I think everyone realizes that digital technology in libraries is here to stay," says Walter. "But you hear people say, 'I don't have time to learn it. I have to do inventory.' Or, 'I have toddler storytime and storytimes for babies, too.' I do think the number-one issue is time."
Thus Walter is here to serve as your personal digital scout. He'll hack through the latest trends and return to you with what's worth knowing. You're in good hands because he's pretty hard to impress.
Walter will also coordinate SLJ's first-ever regularly scheduled reviews of subscription-based online resources, such as Web-based magazine indexes and encylopedias. Look for those in our new reference review section coming in November.
Bringing on board a self-described propeller-head like Walter is crucial right now. A report just out from the U.S. Department of Commerce called Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide makes an ironclad argument for libraries as access points to the Internet. The fact that white households are still more than twice as likely (40.8 percent) to own a computer than black (19.3 percent) or Hispanic (19.4 percent) households means that libraries are crucial links to an increasingly wired world, especially for minority children. The information Walter supplies will go far in helping you meet this demand.
Still, while Walter sees good reasons to teach kids and librarians to use digital tools, technology doesn't rule his universe. "I guess my attitude is fairly heretical, but I don't think our mission as librarians is going to change much at all due to technology," he says. "Our job is not to deal with technology. Our job is to bring kids and words and images together."
That brings me back to words printed on paper. Since we here at SLJ remain obsessed with the book, our technology coverage will not supplant book reviews or literature-related articles. To allow for the technology coverage I've just described, we'll add pages.
I invite you to help Walter with his mission, especially since taking the position required him to jettison his house and car, move to New York City, and wedge a houseful of furniture into an apartment whose size would surely make average librarians outside Gotham feel as though they lived in palatial splendor. Consider lending a hand by reviewing online resources or writing technology articles. Drop him a note today at wminkel@cahners.com. We're extremely pleased that he's here and we hope you will be, too.
Renée Olson
Editor-in-Chief
rolson@slj.cahners.com
