No one other than Nancy Pearl has so convinced Americans that libraries, books, and reading are critical to our communities. Her passionate advocacy has done that nationwide for thousands of individual readers and library workers in the trenches at the local level. She has spread book lust via broadcasts to the nation on National Public Radio's…

Each new school year, academic librarians are given a fresh crop of students and faculty to entice through the doors, both physical and virtual. Librarians create clever marketing that appeals to their students' intelligence. They devise games to highlight services. They foster a sense of ownership, offer exemplary service that makes their users'…

In commemoration of the Librarian of the Year Award's 20th anniversary, this article presents brief vignettes on all 19 of the title holders. When "Library Journal" named them Librarians of the Year, these inimitable 19 (for the 20th, Norma Blake, see EJ788676) had singled themselves out as risk takers, visionaries, bulldogs, pragmatists,…

Roughly 3.8 million people in the United States between the ages of 18 and 24 are neither in school nor employed, according to the National League of Cities. That translates to one in six adults in this age group. Many organizations, forums, national advocacy groups, and the like use the term disconnected youth when approaching this subject. Some…

In a time when information self-service and enhanced competition have sent libraries of all types into an oftentimes desperate search for a renewed sense of purpose, a fundamentally important question takes center stage: How can libraries connect with the deepest aspirations of their service communities? This article describes a new library…

Public libraries were indispensable resources for newcomers during the height of European immigration to the United States. They were havens for the poor and jobless during the Great Depression and bridges between rural and urban communities during times of major demographic change. An increase in the Spanish-speaking population has inspired…

How librarians came to their careers is as varied as the people themselves, but despite some often highly publicized challenges for college and university librarians in the digital age, academic librarianship is good work, according to the "Library Journal's" Job Satisfaction Survey. This article presents the results of this survey. The…

One candidate for president-elect of the American Library Association (ALA) is a woman, the other is a man. One can tell them apart by looking at them. But Nancy Davenport and James Rettig are not that far apart on the issues that confront the old association and the profession it serves. They have selected slightly different emphases for their…

One important responsibility of the library profession is the development and promulgation of a comprehensive, enlightened, well-reasoned, and sophisticated position on the question of censorship. (3 references) (Author)

With the pileup of responsibilities that range from programming to outreach to web management, more and more librarians are finding vendor-based book selection enticing. Most librarians see vendor-based selection as an option to relieve the pressure and still provide good collections to their patrons. However, using vendors to help facilitate…

If there is to be a great debate" within librarianship, statement or restatement of objectives should be the starting point, not the possibilities of applying computers to libraries and information. If professional persons are to have influence over the future of society, a great debate must soon begin. (2 references) (Author/NH)

Issue is taken with the library-college or librarian-as-educator notion which has gained favor with some academic librarians. The author states that one of the reasons for this movement is: Call librarians educators and they will have an effective talking point when seeking full academic status with the instructional faculty." (7 references) (MM)

Reports on the American Library Association's 2002 annual conference in Atlanta. Topics include incoming president Mitch Freedman's initiative to improve librarian salaries; author presentations; new technology, especially Amazon.com, and the library's role; ALA politics; intellectual freedom issues; salaries and recruiting; interoperability; and…

There are many chasms in the library profession: among different libraries and between public services and technology staff, users and librarians, and research and practice. Susan Gibbons bridges all of them. As director of digital library initiatives at the University of Rochester River Campus Libraries, Gibbons was an early adopter of MIT's…

Causes for an expanded educational role for academic libraries are identified and discussed, and factors influencing change are described, including improving the ratio of professional to support staff, success of librarian/faculty interaction, and participation by librarians on university-wide committees, need for librarians to acquire new skills…