NewsDesk, October 15, 2010
Oct 15, 2010HILDRETH MAY HEAD IMLS
The White House has announced that President Obama intends to nominate Susan Hildreth, the city librarian for the Seattle Public Library since 2009, as director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
She previously served as California state librarian, succeeding Kevin Starr, who retired in 2004. Prior to that, she brought stability as city librarian at San Francisco Public Library from 2001 to 2004. Hildreth served as president of the Public Library Association in 2006.
IMLS ANNOUNCES GRANTS
The Institute of Museum and Library Services has announced the recipients of this year’s National Leadership Grants. The $9.3 million for library-related projects (the total is $17.3 million) includes numerous allocations for libraries, universities, and library schools. All the grants require a local match.
Among the highlights are the American Library Association’s ambitious proposal to create a multistate e-government project to provide web-based resources.
MARX TO LEAD NYPL
The New York Public Library has selected Amherst College president Anthony W. Marx as its new president as of July 1, 2011, replacing Paul LeClerc, the library’s leader since 1993 and a former college president himself.
As with LeClerc, one of Marx’s major tasks will be fundraising. Marx, a political scientist, has a Ph.D. and an MPA but does not have a library degree.
LSSI STILL COURTING STOCKTON
The city of Stockton, CA, and San Joaquin County government are still considering a bid by Library Systems & Services, LLC (LSSI), to run the Stockton–San Joaquin County Public Library or part of it. The interests of the city and county may diverge, as the county evaluators of LSSI’s bid scored it higher than did city appraisers.
Also, the decision to outsource library operations in Santa Clarita, CA, to LSSI made the front page of the September 27 New York Times, generating 599 comments in a day, most of them critical of the decision.
SEATTLE BRANCHES TARGETED
Seattle mayor Mike McGinn, facing an expected $67 million budget deficit next year, on September 27 proposed an 8.5 percent cut in the budget for the Seattle Public Library, to $50.2 million.
He would save all service hours by consolidating branch management and downgrading eight branches to “circulating” libraries. Though no layoffs were mentioned, staff started receiving letters saying they were at risk, according to one insider.
ALA CANDIDATES NAMED
Susan Stroyan and Maureen Sullivan have been named candidates for the 2012–13 presidency of the American Library Association.
Stroyan, formerly head of Ames Library at Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, is now information services librarian there. Sullivan is a professor of practice in the Ph.D. program Managerial Leadership in the Information Professions at Simmons College, Boston.
KELLEY NAMED NEWS EDITOR
Michael Kelley has joined Library Journal as news editor, replacing Norman Oder, who left October 8. Kelley, formerly a staff editor at the New York Times, has had a long, productive career in newspapers.
Before coming to the Times in 2001, he held a series of jobs at Connecticut’s Meriden Record-Journal, starting as a reporter and working his way up to editorial writer/columnist. He is finishing his library degree at Pratt School of Library and Information Science, New York. Kelley can be reached at mkelley@mediasourceinc.com.
(For more on Oder’s departure, see his editorial, “Farewell to LJ, Not Libraries,” LJ 9/15/10.)
LJ/SLJ INAUGURAL VIRTUAL SUMMIT
“Ebooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point,” a virtual summit held September 29, confirmed librarians’ frustration over their exclusion from decisions about ebooks and their willingness to embrace ebook delivery and access for their users. LJ’s full coverage can be read at bit.ly/bHcytD.
A survey on ebooks in libraries released at the summit identified a nearly universal acceptance of ebooks in academic libraries and the expectation that ebook circulation in public, academic, and school libraries will rise considerably.
Ray Kurzweil, inventor, futurist, and author (e.g., The Singularity Is Near, Viking), reflected in his keynote on the pace of change. “We won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century,” he said, but “more like 20,000 years of progress.”
Panelist Eli Neiburger, a librarian at Ann Arbor District Library, MI, said if the ebook distribution model becomes dominant, then “libraries are screwed.” In the closing keynote address, New York’s Syracuse University iSchool director R. David Lankes took exception to Neiburger’s negative assessment. “The library community,” he said, “needs to stop being disappointed in ereaders that don’t do what they want and to “stop whining about publishers.” Instead, he asked, “Why isn’t the library community building an ebook platform?”
