LISNews: Librarian News

Dateline Dana Point, CA:

Secret meetings. Unexplained firings. Legal action threatened. It's not exactly what anyone would expect from the Dana Point Friends of the Library, but a group of women from the nonprofit say the current president Terrence Inouye ousted them as managers of the bookstore without explanation, alienated members and demoralized 80-year-old volunteers.

"We all love the bookstore and that is what makes this all distressing," said Rachel Brezinski, a bookstore manager forced to resign in March. "To be treated like this has upset all of us elderly ladies."

From Monday through Saturday bookstore volunteers and managers roll out carts of discounted used books and collect the proceeds for the Friends of the Library. Customers can stop by from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. to browse and purchase tomes to take home.

But bookstore volunteer Jayne Boydston estimated that 25 volunteers and managers — or about one-third of the membership — have either resigned in protest or been pushed out altogether.

There’s trouble in paradise… Hawaii is seeing controversy from an unlikely source: Friends of the Library organizations.

Over a year ago, State Librarian Richard Burns informed local Friends groups that they must become affiliates of the statewide Friends of the Library organization (also referred to as FLH or the “Big” Friends) or they would no longer be allowed to raise funds on state property, according to the Hawaii Reporter.

In response, the Friends of the Aina Haina Public Library, which does not want to join the statewide group, began a process which eventually led them to seek a change from the state legislature. The resulting bill, HB1054, passed both the Hawaii State Senate and the House on May 1, and will now go to the governor for signature.
If You Won’t Be Friends with the Big Friends, You Can’t Be Friends At All?

The source of the conflict is a 2010 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which grants the FLH exclusive rights to raise funds on state property (in a system that’s unique in the country, Hawaii’s libraries are all state-run.)

In an age of library closings and cuts, here's some good news: a brand new library for Topanga Canyon, CA. Story from Huffington Post.

The two women who spear-headed this decade-long -- and yes, it was well over a decade -- quest were themselves fifteen and eighteen year residents of Topanga, moms of kids in the Topanga elementary school, all of whom used to visit the weekly Las Virgenes Bookmobile. One of the mom's, Cynthia Scott, became a volunteer, and she -- inspired by her kids -- started gathering petitions about getting a library. She now works for County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, the third crucial element in this triad of a deal.

The second mom, Adriane Allan, was a library science student who got a Masters in Library Science from UCLA. In 2001, she had been working on a paper about the importance of libraries to their communities, and something sparked. She called Supervisor Yaroslavsky's office, where they were -- quite understandably -- a tad discouraging. Nevertheless, she started to gather all kinds of information for her paper. What would it take to build a library in Topanga?? Names, facts, feasibility studies... The figures were discouraging, to say the least, but she wanted to finish her paper!! (This woman is now a Santa Monica Children's Librarian, bless her heart.)

The article's author Jodi Lampert adds...go kiss your librarian, today!!

For-profit book recycler behind popular donation program sells many of the books received.

Full story at Marketplace.org

Excerpt from story: The bins worry Cady because he helps run Prescott Library's used bookshop. It raises thousands of dollars for library programs by selling donated books. Like many Friends of Library groups around the country, Cady worries the bins are siphoning off donations that normally would come to them.