Valuing What You Do

My next role in helping you succeed as well as prove your worth

By Evan St. Lifer, Editor -- School Library Journal, 6/1/2005

I received a call one day in mid-May from Scott Hannon, an administrator in the Winona public school district in Minnesota. Things were bad. The district didn't have enough money to support one of the small rural elementary schools, so they were shutting it down and giving way to a charter school. He had called me to find out if I could help him calculate the value of the school library, so that it could be sold off to the charter school.

I struggled to give Hannon an answer. He told me the library didn't have a librarian. I told him a library without a librarian is just a room with stacks of books and a handful of computer workstations. A real library—with a real librarian as the agent of learning and instruction—was everywhere and anywhere teachers taught and students learned; it was part of the curriculum, woven into the learning objectives of the school. A real library was indispensable to learning, not an appendage that could be appraised and sold off. My conversation with Hannon made me realize how far we still have to go to successfully assess and articulate the value of the library—school or public. I have spent most of my career, first at Library Journal and then at School Library Journal, in pursuit of that goal, while also striving to help librarians become leaders in their respective communities.

I will soon be continuing that quest in a new role, as vice president and general manager of Scholastic Library Publishing. Not only will I be working with a venerable publisher and online purveyor, but my highest priority will be to help build and develop the strategies necessary to move libraries and librarians to the center of education, ranging from continuing education and training opportunities to new products and services to help them do their jobs better.

My move to Scholastic allows me to continue my own personal and professional evolution. I am excited about this new chapter while wistfully leaving the School Library Journal and Library Journal families where I have spent nearly 15 years. We've made exceptional progress at SLJ, and I am proud of the things we've accomplished: from the launch and success of Curriculum Connections to the debut of the SLJ Leadership Summit, from our book review's newly minted graphic novels section to our landmark studies on book-buying in the K–12 market and librarians' technology roles.

Library Journal afforded me the opportunity to launch its very first Web site as well as the now ubiquitous LJAcademic Newswire e-mail newsletter. I was also fortunate to have covered the budgetary landscape in public libraries, chronicled recruitment challenges in the library profession, and reported on racism in the field.

My first day at SLJ was September 10, 2001. The world has changed a lot since then, and yet, at the same time, we still have a number of the same burning issues confronting us. In a post-9/11, Google–infused landscape, librarians and the skills they bring to their respective communities are more relevant than ever. I am committed not only to helping librarians maximize the impact they have on learners, but also providing them with the necessary tools to explain how and why.

Evan St. Lifer
Editor
estlifer@reedbusiness.com

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