Feedback

Thank you for naming me one of LJ's Movers & Shakers (“On the Line,” Movers & Shakers, 2008, Supplement to LJ 3/15/08, p. 30). Because I love what the power of the membership can do and don't want to take away from the members' glory, I would name CUPE Local 391, Vancouver Public Library Workers, as the Movers & Shakers! So thank you to those fabulous members who nominated me....

The Vancouver Public Library, their employer, and the City of Vancouver said that pay equity was not a problem for Vancouver Public Library workers.... Pay equity is a right, not a pay raise.... Our membership drew daily inspiration from our collective belief in our cause and our solidarity. We never would have sustained our strike with a micromanaging leadership. The membership owned the strike.

We continue to build coalitions to achieve pay equity and end gender discrimination. We thank LJ for supporting us and for the journal's ongoing work in carrying the message for library workers and public service. We are very proud to be “Movers & Shakers” and to be in such collegial company.

—Alexandra Youngberg, Pres., CUPE Local 391, Vancouver PL, BC

What John Berry describes is not what is happening here in Wake County, NC (“The Vanishing Librarians,” Blatant Berry, LJ 2/15/08, p. 10). Our libraries are customer-oriented (we like the word customer, but we serve everyone...). We like self-service checkout and reserves because our customers like them a lot. We like the bookstore look, as do our customers. We do all the things that Berry rails against, but we employ more librarians now than ever before.

All of our service desks are staffed by librarians (with real master's degrees). All of our staff are trained and ready to provide whatever assistance our customers need, from...a good book to read to help in understanding a doctor's diagnosis of gout.... Our librarians...talk about books. They listen to our customers like friends and family.

We have used the successes of commercial bookstores to make our libraries better. We focus on books and reading, but, yes, we have over 2000 computers in use in our libraries and provide wireless services as well.

All the while, we have added more librarians because we want our professional staff to be available to help our customers. Our paraprofessional staff come from a wide variety of backgrounds and work side by side with our professional staff. Our overriding goal is to give our customers the best service possible....

Last fiscal year, our library system circulated over nine million books to our 800,000 citizens. That is more than any other library system in North Carolina by more than two million items....

These “products,” as you call them, improve the quality of life in Wake County. They make our citizens smarter, more in touch with the world as it is and as we would want it to be. Our citizens are well read, and they love to read. Our children are entranced with books and read every day.

Our librarians are not vanishing, nor are they shrinking violets. We are a vital, essential part of our community. Our citizens vote in favor of our bond issues, and our politicians love us because we meet the needs and wants of our customers so well....

—Thomas L. Moore, Dir., Wake Cty. Lib., Raleigh, NC

Never fear, John Berry; the good, old-fashioned library still exists. Perhaps there are more than you think (“The Vanishing Librarians,” Blatant Berry, LJ 2/15/08, p. 10). We use our online catalog for patron searching, but we would not give up the card file. We have it in the work room.... Too often the computers can have problems, and that makes us a bit paranoid. Catalogers type many of these cards every day. Your view that the circulation desk has disappeared in some libraries is a greater concern. Our success...is owing to the welcome patrons receive as they come in the door. We know who they are by name, and they deserve to be recognized as they approach. Maybe that is why the smaller libraries seem more friendly.... All is not lost. There are still many professionals holding down the fort.

—Amanda Pearsall, Asst. Dir., Charlotte Community Lib., MI

I feel compelled to give my backing to John Berry's “The Vanishing Librarians” (Blatant Berry, LJ 2/15/08, p. 10). Here in Western Australia we are experiencing the same actions.... It causes me great concern that I found myself nodding in agreement with everything Berry wrote. It is not because we are passive workers. Most librarians I know have opinions, are intelligent and well informed. I, for one, am willing to start shouting from the rooftops that we need to do something now or see the end of our loved profession. But how to appeal to everyone else is the question.

—Pollie (a pseudonym), Western Australia