St. Lifer Promoted to Editor of 'SLJ'

Evan St. Lifer has been named editor of School Library Journal, effective immediately, announced Fred Ciporen, publisher of SLJ, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal (LJ). A member of the LJ staff for nearly a decade, St. Lifer has served as executive editor for the past four years. "Evan has made innovative connections and built close relationships in the library market and among leaders of the library profession," Ciporen says.

An expert on a broad range of library and education issues, St. Lifer has directed LJ's news coverage and reported on policy issues and challenges confronting libraries and the library profession. He forged a reputation at LJ for crafting and overseeing several bellwether articles and reports that chronicled the profession's evolution as well as its short- and long-term challenges.

Ciporen also announced the appointment of Francine Fialkoff as editorial director of SLJ. Fialkoff, the editor of LJ, will employ her wisdom and experience as an editor to provide a strong partner for St. Lifer and help him develop new services and products for SLJ, Ciporen says.

St. Lifer is a veteran journalist and editor, having written for publications ranging from the New York Times to Crain's New York Business to New Jersey Monthly before his arrival at LJ. "I am proud to have worked on LJ, a magazine with such a long and enduring tradition, which has been considered the bible of the library field," St. Lifer says. "I recognize and respect that SLJ has had its own distinct and distinguished legacy, and my goal is to uphold that legacy by making SLJ as relevant and authoritative as it has ever been to those librarians who dedicate themselves to serving children and young adults."

St. Lifer is passionate about children, education, and literacy, exemplified on a local level by his involvement on a parental advisory board for the Cedar Grove, NJ, South End Elementary School, which both of his young sons attend. He is also chairman of Citizens for Quality Education, a proeducation group in Cedar Grove devoted to ensuring that students in town are provided with the best facilities and resources.

"In light of the historic tragedy September 11 here in New York and elsewhere, the security of our children has risen to become our nation's top priority, joining education and health care," St. Lifer says. "SLJ has an unprecedented opportunity to ensure that those who work in school and public libraries are an integral and oft-mentioned part of the national conversation about education, and I plan on doing whatever I can to perpetuate that."