NewsDesk, January 2011
Jan 15, 2011|
Remembering Ron Shank Ron had an illustrious career, much of it at Library Journal and School Library Journal, where he was the longtime ad sales director before becoming associate publisher, then publisher and group VP. In 2007, he added Publishers Weekly to his portfolio. His business expertise helped bring about the sale of the library brands to Media Source, Inc., last spring. So much of Ron’s success came from his deep affection for the world of libraries and enormous admiration for the work librarians do. As Fred Ciporen, former group VP of LJ and SLJ, noted, “Ron was concerned with libraries’ well-being, their funding viability. He was a fixture in the world of libraries for more than 20 years. He played a huge role in the effort that recognized that libraries were not only a place for professional activity but that they constituted an industry and market, and that was transformative and greatly beneficial to libraries.” Ron understood both the needs of the professionals and the businesses in the library world, and under his leadership the publications responded to the profound challenges both faced. He was most proud of launching LJ’s Movers & Shakers, which highlights the work of the unsung heroes in the library community and identifies the profession’s future leaders. Other initiatives over the past 15 years include the SLJ Leadership Summit, LJ’s Design Institute and Directors’ Summit, and, most recently, the 2010 Virtual Ebook Summit. Ron was behind the efforts to restore the Alvar Street Branch Library (top right) in New Orleans after Katrina (which garnered LJ a Corporate Public Service award from American Business Media) and the makeover of the Southeast Branch Library in Washington, DC, as a model library. Ron joined what was then Cahners Publishing over 25 years ago as a sales representative for the company’s flagship publication, Modern Materials Handling, based in Chicago. In 1988, he made the switch to LJ and SLJ. On one of his many sales trips he met his future wife, Gwen, and they settled in Nashville, a city Ron especially enjoyed as an avid musician and music lover. They have two daughters, Madeleine and Vivian. The family asks that any donations be directed to a foundation established for Ron’s daughters, the Ron Shank Family Trust, 828 Pipers Lane, Brentwood, TN 37027. |
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS BLOCKS WIKILEAKS SITE
The Library of Congress (LC) has been blocking access to the WikiLeaks website since December 3, on its wireless network available for visitors as well as on its own staff’s computers. It’s the first time that LC has blocked WikiLeaks, and it comes on the heels of an Office of Management and Budget memo advising federal agencies on policies regarding classified information.
On November 28, WikiLeaks began releasing the text of communications between the U.S. State Department and several of its diplomatic missions worldwide, many of which have been deemed classified. The leaked cables have since been made widely available online and have received press coverage from major news sources, including the New York Times and the UK’s Guardian.
The LC action quickly sparked criticism in the library world.
NYC LIBRARIES SUFFER $16.5 MILLION 'ADJUSTMENT'
On November 18, New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took a midyear budget knife to all city agencies, including the three library systems.
Mayor Bloomberg’s midyear adjustment to the FY11 budget will leave the libraries’ coffers down $16.5 million.
FY12 still has a projected deficit of $2.4 billion, and Bloomberg’s point of departure for that budget, of which he will present a preliminary version in January, slices the libraries’ budgets another $19.7 million.
He projects that the three library systems will have to reduce their head count by 404 positions through a combination of attrition and layoffs.
TOP SCHOOL FIGHTS PRESSURE TO MERGE
The highly ranked University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS), Urbana-Champaign, has been fending off pressure to consolidate with three other small academic units at the university.
John Unsworth, the GSLIS dean, opposes any merger.
“LIS programs, at their core, are professional programs,” Unsworth told Library Journal. “And professional programs usually stand alone because they exist to acculturate people to a particular profession. So, the agility you need to keep up with the competition in a field evolving so rapidly will be diluted if that focus on the information profession is lost,” he said.
CHICAGO: FISCAL EXCEPTION THAT PROVES THE RULE
The Chicago City Council has spared the Chicago Public Library (CPL) from the budget knife. Also, CPL will be hiring in preparation for the opening of four new branches this spring.
The total operating budget for FY11 approved on November 17 is $96.6 million, of which the city provides about 93 percent.
The way Chicago operates, the materials budget of $12 million is included in the total, but it is contingent upon the successful sale of bonds and notes during the course of the year.
Ultimately, however, this budget represents a slight increase of $400,000 to the baseline. This “corporate fund request,” which is the total budgeted amount minus the requested materials budget, is $84.6 million for FY11, compared to $84.2 million in FY10. [For praise to Chicago’s management style, see Blatant Berry, p. 10.]
IN BRITAIN, IT'S NOT A PRETTY BUDGET PICTURE
The British government’s most recent Comprehensive Spending Review, which fixed budgets for fiscal years 2011–12 to 2014–15, includes a budget cut of 50 percent for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, which funds libraries.
This action has prompted the closure of Museums, Libraries and Archives (MLA), which operates under the Culture department. Its responsibilities will be transferred to Arts Council England (ACE), culture minister Ed Vaizey announced November 23.
Public libraries will be severely affected, including extensive library closures and the elimination of as many as one-quarter of, or 6000, library positions, Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals chief executive Annie Maugher told the Guardian.
HARVARD LIBRARIES TO BE REORGANIZED
Harvard Libraries will undergo a “structural design” and be overseen by a single library board, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, announced December 1. The board is made up of faculty and deans and chaired by a provost. In one of its first actions, the board appointed Helen Shenton, a veteran of the British Library, as executive director. She will represent all libraries.
The redesign will focus on improving access to materials and offering a “more integrated digital portal” into Harvard’s vast and decentralized collections, according to professor David Lamberth. Lamberth led the Implementation Work Group that followed up on findings from the report of the Task Force on University Libraries released November 2009.
“We want our patrons to be able to find anything at Harvard, whether it’s a book, whether it’s a digital copy of a journal, whether it’s a database, or whether it’s an object in one of our museums,” provost Steven Hyman told the Harvard Gazette.
