Letters

Thanks for the July editorial, "The Salary Effort Gets Rolling" (LJ 7/02, p. 6). There is much work to be done nationally, locally, and at the state level if we are going to raise salaries significantly across the country. Then we have to get the word out to young people seeking careers that they might be able to support a family on a library salary. Until the salaries are much higher, it's also difficult to recruit people who can fill the pressing diversity needs of library service.

As American Library Association president, Mitch Freedman is using his bully pulpit to alert the public to the dangers of leaving library salaries so low when so many library workers are nearing retirement. With improved public awareness, the work of increasing compensation must be done at specific libraries, one jurisdiction after another. After some progress this way, market forces may help lagging libraries in a given geographic area. People who want to get started can find information and encouragement via Mitch's web site (www.mjfreedman.org).

I especially liked the last line of the LJ editorial: "…it is too late to put the library pay genie back in the bottle." A 1981 journal article about our partially successful San Jose (CA) city workers' pay equity study was entitled "Pandora's Box." Thanks for reminding everyone that "once it gets started, it's difficult to stop it" regarding work on library salaries. Some library directors, staff members, and state associations are already beginning to plan and carry out projects—we must make it a groundswell across the country!
—Joan Goddard, retired from San Jose P.L., currently working part time at Santa Clara Cty. Lib., San Jose, CA

I read Francine Fialkoff's "Where Are the Library Best 'Sellers'?" (Inside Track, LJ 4/15/02, p. 68) with interest. Libraries Online (LIONS), a consortium of small and medium-sized public libraries in Connecticut, posts the top 100 items being requested by our patrons systemwide. We call the list "Titles in Greatest Demand" and put it in the public access catalog using Dynix's "Best Sellers" feature. All the patron requests are sorted, with the most heavily requested items first, and we list the top 100. This can be accessed from our web-accessible catalog at (webpac.lioninc.org/webpacj/lion.html).

Another report, done annually, lists the top ten items by format (BooK, FIlm, Data File, MUsic). The items on the system that were active during the previous year are listed by their cumulative circulation total. Currently, Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham is the top book on that list, while the motion picture 101 Dalmatians is the leader in the film category.
—Mark Hewes, Assoc. Dir., Libraries Online, Inc., Middletown, CT

I have another tool for libraries increasingly frustrated with poorly bound books: The Publishers' Hall of Shame (www.powerlink.net/wyvern/shame.htm). I began this effort last fall in response to the growing number of postings on the Maine Library electronic discussion list regarding books…that fell apart way too soon, some on the first circulation…. After the first month, a librarian outside Maine asked if I would consider expanding the list to cover reports from other states. With a bit of trepidation, I agreed, and the list now has almost 200 titles from librarians in 27 states, Canada, and Australia.

It has made a difference. Since I created it, I have chatted via phone and e-mail with numerous publishers, most small, about the quality of books and what can be done. A representative from Quebecor Publishing called to say they knew there was a problem but not its extent. Several small publishers have asked me if I might be able to list the printer as well as the publisher for poorly bound titles…. Thorndike Press staff saw one of their Five Star Titles on the list and immediately sent a complimentary replacement copy to the Pittsfield Public Library—a smart move that got noted on the Maine Library discussion list.

How long will this site have a life and value? I don't know. I expected it to go dormant when I made a job change two months ago, but it hasn't, and at least one new library contacts me weekly. —John R. Clark, Lib. Systs. Specialist, Maine State Lib., Augusta

Thanks so much for the recognition and support that you gave the American Library Association's (ALA) Public Programs Office ("Have an Author to Lunch," Inside Track, LJ 7/02, p. 64). We were gratified by the appreciation of the attendees who packed the audience at the LIVE! Reading Stage at the ALA conference and at our other adult programming sessions. As you put it, there is a huge audience of adult collection development librarians who have been longing to hear and see the authors whose books they buy.

One correction though: Deb Robertson is director of the Public Programs Office at the American Library Association, and she has been leading the charge to bring more adult authors into conference (as well to libraries nationwide).

It's an easily understood mistake, what with the "Davis" in my name and the "real" Deb Davis at ALA's Campaign for America's Libraries.
—Mary Davis Fournier, Project Mgr., Public Programs Office, American Library Assn., Chicago

Ed. Note: LJ apologizes for the mix-up.