A Golden Opportunity to Celebrate SLJ's History

In the fall of 1954, a magazine called Junior Libraries emerged from the pages of its parent publication, Library Journal. It wasn't until 1961 that Junior Libraries changed its name to School Library Journal (SLJ).

A half century later, SLJ remains a guiding force for librarians—documenting the difference they make in young people's learning and championing the transformative power of good books. Commemorating our golden anniversary, of course, allows us to reminisce about the past and contemplate the future… while unearthing some uncanny parallels.

Legendary Rutgers University School of Library and Information Science Professor Mary Gaver detailed the promising influence of the Knapp Foundation grant on school library services in our December 1962 issue. "[The Knapp] grant now provides an opportunity to demonstrate what we could do if only we had the money to pay for it!" she exclaimed. Gaver would be pleased to know that two of her Rutgers's successors, Ross Todd and Carol Kuhlthau, have made SLJ headlines by recently creating the Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries to better assess and articulate how school librarians enhance student learning.

Forty years before the July 2004 release of "Reading at Risk," a National Endowment for the Arts survey that found Americans aged 18 and up were reading less literature, the venerable Margaret Edwards asked in the pages of SLJ, "Why do Americans read so little at a time when knowledge and understanding are so essential?" In her 1964 treatise, Edwards, a young adult librarian at Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library, rued Americans' unremarkable reading habits, subverted by "thousands of hours of banal TV programs." (For the latest on how technology affects our reading habits, see Sven Birkerts's "The Truth About Reading," pp. 50–52.)

A librarian once told me that SLJ provided her with "the vision" she needed to succeed in her job. I've never forgotten that remark. I'd like to think our magazine has been providing librarians some much-needed vision throughout its long history. For nearly 30 years that keen perspective came in the form of a Lillian Gerhardt editorial. Lillian, our former editor-in-chief, became synonymous with SLJ, and her editorials—often sardonic yet humorous, sharply opinionated but never sanctimonious—gave readers a monthly reality check. She recounts the story of how SLJ's book review section became the trusted, respected resource it is today—with a couple of bumps along the way (see "The Story of Us," pp. 32–34).

At 50, SLJ is flourishing, with no signs of slowing down. The staff continues to search for new, exciting ways to help librarians do their jobs better and make smart purchasing decisions. With an eye to the future, we've launched the next generation of must-read content in new formats—from our award-winning Curriculum Connections supplement to the relaunch of the field's most comprehensive online resource, SLJ.com, with a new review database. In 2005, readers can look forward to a heightened commitment to technology—via quarterly technology reports—and the SLJ Leadership Summit, a first-time event to be held in the New York City area this March.

As we embark on the next 50 years, my progenitors, those who made SLJ what it is today, are worthy of mention. In addition to Gerhardt, her bosses, Daniel Melcher and Eric Moon, were the formative forces behind the magazine's early growth and progress. Without their contributions and commitment, SLJ would never have achieved its preeminent position in the fields of youth librarianship, children's publishing, and K–12 education. I thank them and pledge to them—and our readers—that we will continue to dedicate ourselves to upholding the respect and prestige they worked so hard to establish.

Evan St. Lifer
Editor
estlifer@reedbusiness.com