Feedback

I agree with Marylaine Block (”One with the Community,” BackTalk, LJ 9/1/07, p. 52) that libraries are in an excellent position to assist people in their communities who are in need for various reasons. After the hurricanes (Katrina and Rita), we had evacuees in our library building for six weeks. Situated about 55 miles from the Louisiana border, we share the building with the Recreation Department, which is an emergency shelter.... The Texas State Library and Archives Commission offered Texas Responds grants to libraries serving evacuees. With these generous funds we hired two excellent people who acted as social workers to assist evacuees with transportation, federal forms, housing, food, education, and clothing, as well as a sympathetic sounding board.

Part of the money was used to set up a web site that is still linked to our site (npl.sfasu.edu, see Community Services). We used basic data collected by students in community nursing classes at our local Stephen F. Austin State University.... The data is basic for each nonprofit agency that serves our county, and the web site is searchable by the name of the organization or by subject area, such as “food.”

We are in a rural community, underfunded, understaffed, etc., and yet our library has been able to support this service. We have been able to serve people calling from several states away who need help for their parents who live here by referring them to the services listed on the web site. This kind of service site is something that can be achieved by many librarians. Volunteers might provide site construction, or gather nonprofit agency data, or provide data entry assistance. This is also a grant-fundable project. In ready response to the next large emergency, our city, county, and state staff can access this data. Even if librarians start slowly to build this kind of community database, it is a worthy goal that can be achieved.

Each month we try to make it to meetings of the Interagency Coalition and share information about programs and free computer classes and books for babies and all the other good stuff we do. Agencies feel comfortable contacting us to hold meetings here, and former hurricane evacuees feel comfortable coming here. Thank you for Block's essay.

—Anne Barker, Dir., Nacogdoches P.L. TX

I just wanted to write to thank you for your lovely mention of my novel, The Year of Fog, in Francine Fialkoff's editorial “Make 'Best Books' Matter” (LJ 12/07, p. 8). I've felt so fortunate that librarians have been so supportive of this book. This is my third time around the publishing block, and I know from experience how easy it is for a work of fiction by a new or emerging author to get lost in the shuffle. So the attention The Year of Fog has received has been utterly surprising and extremely encouraging. I was thrilled to see it appear on LJ's list of “Best Books of 2007” (LJ 12/07, p. 72–77).

—Michelle Richmond, San Francisco

They don't teach people in library school how to deal with small-town politics either (John Berry, “Hopes and Fears for Boston,” Blatant Berry, LJ 12/07, p. 10).Just an observation from the field.

—Kathy Nixie, MLS, La Marque P.L., TX

While I do not consider myself an expert, I have been listening to punk music since the Seventies, and in only skimming the contents of “The Filth and the Fury 101” by Matthew Moyer (Collection Development, LJ 11/1/07, p. 34–37), I have several reservations. First, the bands mentioned...[are] highly selective. In terms of American bands, where are Husker Du, The Dead Kennedys, Bad Religion, Bad Brains, The Misfits, Social Distortion, Black Flag, Minor Threat, Mission of Burma, Naked Raygun, and The Descendents, to name but a few that should be present in any serious collection? In terms of British punk bands, The Exploited, The Mekons, Rudimentary Peni, and The Subhumans, among others, should be included. And then there's the punk bands from the Continent, such as The Ex and others. One can find a more reliable list of seminal bands by reading the punk entries on Wikipedia.

Finally, looking at the book recommendations is a problem from the start. One only needs review the “readers' comments” about the starred Rough Guide to Punk on Amazon to know that significant bands are absent and that information presented is not always reliable. While arguably helpful, this contribution to LJ would certainly raise eyebrows among the punk cognoscenti!

—Dean Thompson, Collection Development Libn., Dona Ana Branch Community Coll., Las Cruces, NM

[Ed. note: The feature's introduction states the focus as Punk's initial explosion in New York and London from 1974 to 1978.]

The correct gross square footage of the new Germantown Library (“Going, Going, Green,” LJ 12/07, p. 48) is 44,193, with a square foot cost of $249.41. Total square feet for all new public libraries (p. 56) is 2,262,423.