EDITORIAL: Farewell to LJ, Not Libraries 

MY 14 YEARS AT LIBRARY JOURNAL HAVE BEEN a fascinating, accidental career; indeed, I’ve half-joked to colleagues that had our current hiring standards (which give preference to library experience) been in place, I wouldn’t be here. An ex–newspaper reporter, I was freelancing for Publishers Weekly when I got hired part-time at LJ, then PW’s sister publication. After a few months, I was offered a permanent position, working on news and features. There, drawing on colleagues (notably John Berry, Francine Fialkoff, Evan St. Lifer, and Brian Kenney), columnists I worked with like Roy Tennant, my own reporting, and numerous trips to library conferences, I steadily absorbed a journalist’s version of the library world: policies, budgets, management, intellectual freedom, collections. It’s never been dull. (Where else do you get to talk to Google execs and also small-town librarians?)

The rush of news stories aside, I’ve especially enjoyed writing feature articles that take a longer look. I drove around Louisiana in March 2006, observing the anguished, uncertain aftermath for libraries not only of Hurricane Katrina but also of Hurricane Rita. A trip to Singapore allowed me to learn how the cyberfriendly city-state slicked up libraries. Months of reporting allowed me to figure out how outsourcing company Library Systems & Services (LSSI) makes its pitch. On the eve of an American Library Association (ALA) conference, the troubled Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System was a fascinating case study. (It’s better now.) More recently, I’ve been tracking the game-changing Google Book Settlement; earlier this year, in a throwback to my younger reporting days, I dictated a story from the courthouse on a pay phone.

These 14 years have seen enormous change, as libraries and the world moved to the web, and the web moved at warp-speed, often ahead of libraries. For reporters, the web’s a boon, bringing local news articles, background documents, and sources. Still, it’s tough for a tiny staff to cover this world, and I’ve been grateful to the readers who’ve pushed story ideas our way, even if our view isn’t always in sync. Like many reporters pressed for time, I’ve relied, sometimes too much, on public relations statements and seen how libraries with crackerjack PR shops gain notice while others miss out.

At heart, I am a library person: it was my haven as a youth, and I’m an active, engaged user of both the New York Public Library and my home Brooklyn Public Library. (Heck, my mom was a librarian.) Free public libraries offer a vital public service. At the same time, I’ve always thought of libraries as “they,” not “we,” deserving scrutiny. That means I’ve tried to understand LJ’s job as serving our ideal reader, not any library or vendor even if it’s an award winner or advertiser.

I admire librarians—they have a true public service ethos and share a bedrock commitment to freedom of information. Innovative libraries help build a civic role—that third place—that’s duplicated rarely in society. At the same time, libraries, and librarians, might use more of the skepticism that is in journalists’ DNA. I’ve seen some great conference presentations but also too many mediocre ones. I’ve seen some fuzzy thinking. (Does anyone really believe return-on-investment studies that value a DVD circulation at Blockbuster charges?)

The future of libraries is troubling (and thus fodder for journalists). How do they revamp public services in a budget crunch? Can (should?) libraries be liberated from local support? Are libraries closer to arts or education? (I hate that the New York Times puts library news in the Arts section.)

With so much to cover, why am I leaving? For more than four-and-a-half years, I’ve been moonlighting on my own blog, the Atlantic Yards Report, about an enormously controversial real estate development—Atlantic Yards—that would bring an arena for the relocated New Jersey Nets basketball team and 16 towers to Brooklyn, just a short walk from my apartment.

I’ve immersed myself in issues like urban planning, affordable housing, and eminent domain. It’s been tiring but rewarding; I’ve written for the New York Times (though I’ve been a fierce critic of its coverage) and cowritten a law review article. Now, I’m working on the book the saga deserves. (Agents, yes, you’re welcome to contact me. Librarians, yes, I’m happy to visit on book tour.)

I’m sure I’ll write about libraries again and see some of the library folk of whom I’ve grown fond. Meanwhile, after ­October 8, you can find me at NormanOder[at]gmail.com and on LinkedIn.

[For info on Norman Oder's replacement, Michael Kelley, click here.]