Letters

In "A Stand for Freedom '@ your library' " (LJ 12/01, p. 6), John Berry said that my advocacy of "a moderate, nonconfrontational attitude" at this time toward the "anti-terror" legislation recently coming out of Congress made me look like a product of the "repressed Fifties"….

It was actually the 1960s and the era of confrontation that formed much of my thinking.… That era of passionate and sometimes militant advocacy was a time of much color and drama…. But where did we end up? After 1968, we had 24 years during which the national political agenda was pretty much dominated by the likes of Nixon, Reagan, and Bush. Since 1968, only two appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court have been made by Democrats. Many who insisted that Hubert Humphrey in 1968 and Al Gore in 2000 weren't sufficiently committed to civil liberties refused to compromise their principles, and we thus ended up with Nixon and George W. Bush in the presidency.

In politics, when you are unwilling to compromise, you lose. I doubt that any sane person would characterize Bill Clinton as a product of the "repressed Fifties." Yet it was the long-haired, bearded Clinton of the 1960s who eventually decided that the politics of confrontation didn't work so well—and he began to win elections by adopting a more moderate, centrist position.

I want the cause of libraries to win strength and mainstream support in the future. We can't do that if we care more about "taking a stand" and making memorable speeches than about actually winning power and moving forward with realistic agendas.

—James B. Casey, ALA Councilor-at-Large

I am pleased that "leadership" is receiving increased attention in the library and information science literature (John Berry, "Be Not Afraid of Greatness," LJ 3/1/02, p. 8). Based on the number of retirements predicted and the challenges facing the profession, we certainly need leaders who can be influential and enhance our ability to achieve organizational success.

Berry addresses the Library Leadership Institute at Snowbird ("some mountainside in Utah"), the Association of Research Libraries' Leadership and Career Development Program ("in the desert of Arizona"), and the Senior Fellows Program and Association of College and Research Libraries/Harvard Leadership Institute ("some prestigious campus"). Snowbird, for example, focuses on self-awareness and the importance of ensuring that participants determine what is needed in order to contribute to the success of organizations and the profession. Participants identify the types of leadership roles that they see for themselves, all based on greater self-awareness….

In our research, Teresa Neely and I surveyed all of the participants in Snowbird over the course of eight years ("The Snowbird Leadership Institute: Leadership Development in the Profession," College & Research Libraries, 9/99, p. 412–425, and "Leadership Development and Public Libraries," Public Library Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 3, 2001, p. 15–32). The respondents reported not only significant movement into and toward leadership roles but also increased participation in an array of leadership activities, including research and publication and service to the profession…. They indicated that their participation in the leadership institute has had a significant impact on their career paths.

While commitment to promoting principles such as access to information is an important asset for leaders in the profession, leaders must also be able to promote their vision in order to influence policymakers and funding sources, among others. In leading successful organizations, this influence is key, as is being self-aware in building strong leadership teams, making effective decisions, and ensuring that the vision is operationalized.

Leadership is largely irrelevant if it does not lead to organizational success. We should promote (as well as study, evaluate, and refine) opportunities that encourage librarians to think of themselves as leaders and to enhance our ability to realize organizational success.

—Mark Winston, LIS, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, NJ

As a vendor I fully understand the need, indeed the desire, to state areas in the market where one has a leadership position. Unfortunately, hyperbole is frequently a part of such statements. The "Automated System Marketplace 2002: Capturing the Migrating Customer" (LJ 4/1/02, p. 48–60) stated that one vendor is "an industry leader in OpenURL linking." In reality, Ex Libris has over five years of calendar time and more than a dozen person-years invested in this technology, has submitted this de facto standard to NISO to make it an accredited standard, and has over 50 customers worldwide running solutions based on the technology that uses this standard.

—Carl Grant, Pres., Ex Libris (USA) Inc., Chicago

Lana Porter is still the president of epixtech "(Automated System Marketplace 2002: Capturing the Migrating Customer," LJ 4/1/02, p. 48–60). She has announced her intention to step down, but she has not yet done so. The erroneous information was not reported by author Marshall Breeding but was inserted by LJ's editors.