It was very good news when Mary Frances Cooper, a librarian, was appointed the 11th director of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP) in January. I was never totally comfortable when CLP was directed by a nonlibrarian from business, even though that great library, built by Pittsburgh steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, is symbolic of all the public/private partnerships so crucial to the public good in America.
Library Jobs in the New Society | Blatant Berry
By on April 2, 2012
When governments run the corporations, it is communism. When corporations run the governments, as Mussolini showed us, it is fascism. To keep our society between and away from those extremes, we need a humane, socially, politically, and economically responsible entrepreneurial capitalism. That is a paraphrase of some of what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in his keynote speech at the recent conference of the Public Library Association (PLA) in Philadelphia. I didn’t record his exact words, but that is what I took away.
Run It Like a Library! | Blatant Berry
By on March 16, 2012
Bloomberg Proposes Cutting NYC Library Funding by Nearly $100 Million
By on February 8, 2012
Sharing for the Future | Blatant Berry
By on January 18, 2012
From the beginning of the modern library movement librarians have unselfishly shared their best ideas, innovations, strategies, management insights, and plans with one another. While there has been some competition and rivalry among libraries, it has never hampered the profession’s willingness to share success and failures.
An Excess of Ethics | Blatant Berry
By on November 15, 2011
No principle or rule of professional ethics requires that library workers forfeit any of their rights or job benefits in order to hold their jobs. Support for professional development and advancement is a benefit of working in good libraries. This often includes time off and even payment of costs for conference attendance. I was surprised [...]
Welbourne’s Legacy | Blatant Berry
By on October 1, 2011
Enlist the New Librarians! | Blatant Berry
By on September 1, 2011
THE BRIGHT, NEW YOUNG LIBRARIANS graduating from our LIS programs are the best news in this awful period of library decline. Every semester my classes at Pratt Institute in New York and Dominican University in the Chicago suburb of River Forest bring a new cohort of students, each as good as or better than the [...]
Renewing Our Mission | Blatant Berry
By on August 15, 2011
I’ve been a Pete Hamill fan for decades, and I’ve met him a few times. We’re close in age, so I recognize the New York City that he writes about in his latest novel, Tabloid City (Little, Brown, May). I think I know the difference between the solitude and loneliness that we both experienced living [...]
