March 2001

Are you also aware of the changes of name at the University of Michigan, and the resulting constant changes in degrees from that school? In less than 10 years the degree went from the M.L.S. (Master of Library Science) to the M.I.L.S. (Master of Information and Library Studies) to the M.I.S.L. (I forget what this meant, as it was after my time.) Now the school has adopted as its name, rather grandiosely I think, the School of Information. This name seems to cast aspersions at what is being dispensed at all the other colleges at the university, and I cannot imagine what degree it will confer.

Prudence N. Liberty
Media Specialist
Fort Gratiot Middle School
Port Huron, Michigan

I liked your comments in the editorial of January 2001. I, too, hear that we are supposed to become more and more tech-oriented, but where's the humanity, or the reader? Who will deal with the student who just came to me and said: "Ms. S., you know I like to read. Do you have any suggestions for what I could read next?" Who will answer those questions? Who will ask about her interests, her previous reads? Will the talking computers handle that?

Shirley Swan
Librarian
Lakeview High School
St. Clair Shores, MI

Not Enough Spanish Books

I am certainly honored and flattered by Maria Otero-Boisvert's kind and generous review of my book Recommended Books in Spanish for Children and Young Adults, 1996 through 1999 (Scarecrow, 2000; December p. 172).

I would like to emphasize that I, too, am concerned about the decreasing number of publishers in Latin America. And, yes, I have often written about the scarcity of high-quality books in Spanish published in the United States that reflect the cultural background, environment, thoughts, needs, and feelings of Latino children and adolescents.

At the Barahona Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents, we endeavor to highlight the best books in Spanish for children and adolescents published worldwide. Hence, I am delighted that an increasing number of our Spanish-speaking colleagues from around the world are now concerned with such issues as literary and artistic quality, presentation of material, appeal to the intended audience, and translations that are faithful to the spirit of the Spanish language.

Isabel Schon, Ph.D., Director
Barahona Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents
California State University
San Marcos, CA

Don't Blame Books

The news item "Good Testing or Censorship?" (Dec., p. 24) described the concerns of those administering the Bangor Assessment of Reading--that children's scores would be affected by previous exposure to the picture books used in the test. It is very disheartening that, of all the people quoted in this news item, not one believed that children might be exposed to books outside of school. In reality, between public library story programs and all our efforts to get parents to read to their children, every child should have been read Whistle for Willie (Putnam, 1976) by first grade. If children who have not been read these stories don't score well, it may have more to do with their preschool environment than whether the text is a surprise.

To answer the headline's question: "neither."

Carolyn Caywood, MSLS
Bayside Library & Special Services
Virginia Beach, VA

Wild About Harry

Thank you so much for the article "Deconstructing Harry: A Practical Approach to Getting the Most Out of a Certain Young Wizard," by Pamela M. Greene (July 2000, pp. 38-41). After sketching out some brief notes, I met with my principal, Patricia LaMonica, who was completely supportive and enthused about implementing a "Harry Potter" week in the library. We decided the event would take place during extended lunch periods for three consecutive days. Students who were interested were required to complete a "Hogwarts School" application in their reading classes. The application included some basic recall questions about Harry Potter, as well as some open-ended questions. After receiving about 250 applications, I chose 175 students to attend the lunch activities. Next, I enlisted the help of several staff members.

When students arrived for the big day, they were treated to a Harry Potter-style feast: platters of roast beef, turkey and ham, chunks of bread, roasted potatoes, and tapioca pudding. We served "everything beans" (gourmet jelly beans) and cups of pumpkin juice (carrot juice). Students' admission tickets doubled as raffle tickets. I gave away Harry Potter books, puzzles, and games during all sessions. After finishing lunch, students moved around to different activity stations. The grand finale came on the last day, when students returned to the library for a performance by a local magician, Kevin Barnes. The biggest perk of all of our hard work was what it did for my library public relations. Also, our staff found how easily Harry integrates into the school curriculum. Thanks again for the great article. Please keep the fun ideas coming.

Susan Thornton-Ball
Hyde Park Middle School Librarian
Clark County School District,
Las Vegas, NV

Nothing but the Facts

There are a few mistakes in Virginia Rankin's letter regarding the LibraryCom Web service ("A Puff Piece," December 2000). Rankin describes herself as "an employee of the only school district on earth currently using LibraryCom." First, the school district is not the only one using LibraryCom. Second, the school district wasn't using the commercial version of LibraryCom at all but a special beta-version that was rolled out specifically for her school district at its own request. None of the remarks were actually about the commercial service.

To clarify the misunderstanding, the school district had to move away from a Legacy system very quickly last summer and chose to outsource its library software to LibraryCom, even though the service did not have all the bells and whistles that it wanted. CASPR rolled out a special beta of the software specifically for that school district just in time for the new school year. Because of specific cataloging features requested by the school district, the cataloging module of the beta version was not available until early October. This explains why they didn't have access to the cataloging module during the beginning of the year.

There are a few other factual mistakes in the letter, but they do not apply to the commercial service itself and are really differences between the writer's desires and the direction of the school district she works for. Some additional remarks are simple feature requests that have already been implemented or are on the "wish-list" that CASPR will respond to. However, the summation at the end of the letter was absolutely correct. "The price is right." LibraryCom was designed to provide a low-cost solution to automating libraries and to break the cycle of expensive software, maintenance and upgrade costs that devour library budgets. Currently, the service offers basic but solid cataloging and circulation functionality. As the service grows, additional features will be added.

During the first four months of operations, over 3,500 new members logged onto the service and over 800 libraries were created. In a market that is mature, this is nothing but an explosive growth rate. There is simply nothing on the market that compares to this service to provide cataloging, circulating, and OPAC services quickly and inexpensively. Anyone who is interested should simply go to www.librarycom.com and build their own library--the membership is absolutely free.

Norman Kline, President
CASPR Library Systems
San Jose, CA

A Matter of Opinion

With regard to your editorial ("Presidential Malarkey," November 2000), it is easy to agree with the sentiment that our public discourse is imprecise at best and too often intentionally misleading. The role of our public librarians in all of this is somewhat unclear to me.

I have tried to grasp both what you say and what you mean--the latter being a considerably more subjective endeavor than the former.

With respect to your assertion that "most librarians don't like the fact that their libraries' computers can be perverted to the access or exchange of every sort of sick behavior or fantasy... don't like the notion of government-ordered filters...," it is worth remembering that the librarians to whom you refer to do not own their libraries--they work in them. Libraries no more belong to librarians than the White House belongs to the President who lives in it. Or was that merely an imprecise use of the word "their"? Insofar as you refer to public libraries, it would be more accurate to say that the public owns them--we paid for the buildings and we paid for the books held in them. We provide money (not enough) to our librarians each year to purchase additional books and films. Without diminishing to any degree the high value of their work, it is, again, useful to remember that we pay the librarians to work in these libraries so that they are, in actuality, our employees, and not a law unto themselves. We have not hired them to think for us. We have not asked them to champion intellectual freedom. But neither have we hired them to promote an uncontrolled access to information which we, the owners of the libraries, believe will be detrimental to our children and to the adults in society who insist on acting in immature ways. We have not hired librarians as the watchdogs of the public good. None of that is their responsibility. Inasmuch as many, if not most, of them have paid their American Library Association dues with what we call public money, neither have we asked that organization to speak for us--or against us, for that matter--in Washington or anywhere else. The government-ordered filters to which you seem to have some objection come much nearer representing the views of the owners of the libraries and the employers of librarians, inasmuch as they are ordered at the request of those who elected them, than do the actions of a few thousand librarians scattered across the country. These good women and men are librarians. They run libraries. That's it.

Having said that, it does seem to me, from what you have promoted in your editorial, that with respect to the salacious matter (too mild a term--have you seen what is there?) to be found on the Internet, all you would suggest, and all that these librarians should need to do, is to register a dislike for this material, while continuing to provide for free that for which the X-rated theaters continue to charge. How is the public good served by your generosity in this matter?

Thinking about a library's materials, your censorship and mine might differ. But don't they differ only in degree? Surely there are some things which even you would judge to be inappropriate for a library?