Virginia Stanley: HarperCollins
Bridge Builder

-- Library Journal, 3/15/2002

Librarians "are the cream of the crop, and they're a book's best friend," says Virginia Stanley. "They feel so passionately about a book. They spread the word and don't keep it to themselves.... If you're an author, you want a librarian behind you."

Strong words, especially since they don't come from a librarian. Stanley, 40, is the associate director of library marketing for HarperCollins Publishers in New York, and she's in charge of making sure librarians have the books--and the authors--to be passionate about. She works with editors and publicity directors to put books in the libraries and authors on tours.

Stanley has been with HarperCollins since 1988 and helped make it a corporate member of Friends of Libraries USA (she's a board member). She is also responsible for the $10,000 FOLUSA/HarperCollins Award in honor of Barbara Kingsolver, given annually to a Friends group in a library with a small budget. The prize money goes to the library to be used solely for buying books and/or audios. This year's winner, the Friends of the Crested Butte Library, CO, more than doubled the library's book budget of $4000. Among their efforts, they raised over $15,000 and initiated a $5000 two-year college scholarship for a high school senior based on an essay contest. Contestants had to define the American democratic system and describe how a democracy might benefit and prosper from a well-educated and well-read society--and, of course, they had to use books they had read to make their case!

In her non-Kingsolver Award role, Stanley has also persuaded several WWF wrestlers, including Chyna, to pose for an American Library Association poster promoting reading and libraries. Stanley, who once worked briefly as a stand-up comic, says her current job is her favorite. And she leaves the impression that working with librarians is a perk of the job rather than a duty. "[Librarians] are in it for the right reasons; they're in it for the books."