A man named David Rodriguez had filed suit (Rodriguez v. Brooklyn Public Library) in March 2010 against the library, alleging that he had been injured in an April 2009 car crash that involved a library-owned van. In June 2011, BPL sought to have the suit dismissed, claiming that the library was a municipal corporation and entitled to a “notice of claim” within 90 days of any incident, failing which any suit becomes void.

In his November 29 ruling on the BPL motion, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Arthur Schack wrote that the BPL argument was “disingenuous and borders upon being frivolous, because it is completely without merit in law.”

And Schack was just warming up.

Schack dissected the library’s finances and history, noting that the city did not create BPL and making reference in his analysis to the “robber baron-turned philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.”

Schack said that the library is “a private, separate legal entity controlled by an independent Board of Trustees.” He noted that the library is “dependent upon the City of New York for its existence,” but it does not receive all (only 62 percent) of its financial support from the city, which distinguished it from a case (Bovich v. East Meadow Public Library) that the library’s lawyers had based much of their municipal corporation argument on.

Schack goes on to say that the city is not “the employer of Library personnel” and the library “is not a government or public employer” within the meaning of the Taylor Law. He also said the fact that BPL is privately insured is “further evidence that BPL is a corporation, distinct and separate from the City of New York.”

But the judge then turns his attention to the library’s 2010 tax forms (and Mel Brooks) in order to take a rather bitter swipe at the salaries of the library’s top administrators (the bracketed comments are from the judge):

Further, according to the BPL’s Federal 990 Income Tax Return for fiscal 2010, BPL’s Board of Trustees, despite ending fiscal 2010 with a $1,107,9801 deficit, approved paying $1,781,686 in total compensation to nine key employees. This is 1.68% of total revenue and 2.24% of the $79,529,880 for salaries, other compensation and employee benefits. This included total compensation of: $254,959 to Dionne Mack–Harvin, then Executive Director; $228,757 to John Vitali, Deputy Director of Business Administration; $221,258 to Judith Nichols, Deputy Director of External Affairs [a euphemism for a lobbyist]; $214,858 to Mary Graham, Deputy Director of Public Service; $196,086 to Lawrence Jennings, Director of Human Resources; $172,033 to Selvon Smith, Director of Information Technology; $166,672 to Lay Cheng Lee, Director of Information Technology; $164,788 to Aron Bukspan, Director of Major & Capital Giving [a professional fundraiser]; and, $162,275 to Vintress Brown, Director of Finance. The compensation of the new President and Chief Executive Officer, Linda E. Johnson, has yet to appear in a Federal 990 Income Tax Return available to the public. If BPL is a “municipal corporation,” why does it have a professional fundraiser, who receives more in compensation that every New York State judge, including the Chief Judge of the State of New York? These salaries are not indicative of those usually paid by a “municipal corporation.” To paraphrase Mel Brooks’ famous quote, “It’s good to be the king!”, when he played King Louis XVI of France prior to the French Revolution, in the 1981 film satire, History of the World: Part I, “It’s good to be operating a deficit running non-profit, receiving 62% of its revenue from the financially challenged City of New York!”

Schack dismissed the library’s motion, concluding that it was “nothing more than an attempt to deny plaintiff Rodriguez his day in Court.”

The Palo Alto Library Foundation (PALF) has been raising money to help properly furnish the Mitchell Park Library and Community Center, the Main Library, and the Downtown Library, which are being upgraded thanks to the $76 million Measure N bond passed in 2008. The bond money cannot be used to purchase furniture, books, computers, and other resources.

The foundation’s “Launch Our Libraries” campaign has so far received 800 donations and raised $3.6 million. The goal is to raise another $400,000 by December 2012.

On December 20,  PALF presented the City Council with a check for $1.9 million to buy all the furniture, technology, and materials needed for the Mitchell Park Library and Community Center, which is scheduled to reopen in 2012.

Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, an avid reader in Oshkosh named Marjorie M. Drexler, who passed away on August 16, 2010, made a $1.1 million bequest to the Oshkosh Public Library, the library announced Dec. 16. The Library Board voted on Dec. 15 to establish a memorial trust fund with the bequest.

“Bequests like these, and smaller annual gifts from generous area residents, help to elevate our organization from a good library to an excellent library,” said Jeff Gilderson-Duwe, library director. “Although the majority of our operations are funded by tax dollars, donations and bequests help the library to better meet the needs of the community with a wide variety of collections, services and creative initiatives. And donors like Mrs. Drexler are leaving a legacy that will touch many lives for years to come,” Gilderson-Duwe said.

The Library Board allocates trust fund income for library projects and services annually and will decide at a later date how to use earnings from the Drexler fund.

Similarly, in Connecticut,  the Southbury Public Library received a surprise $1 million donation on Dec. 9 from the estate of Lu Burke, a longtime Southbury resident who died in October 2010 at age 90 and who, apparently, did not have a library card, the Danbury News Times reported.

“We don’t remember her as a patron here, but she did have a background in a lot of literature,” Assistant Head Librarian Joan Stokes told the News Times. “From what we’ve heard of her, she really loved knowledge and literature, and obviously loved libraries.”

The library board will determine how to use the donation.

Last but not least, the Carnegie Corporation today made the official announcement of a $5 million grant to the three New York City public library systems. Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York, first mentioned the grant at the “I Love My Librarian” award ceremony that was held earlier this month.

As part of its Small Library Support Program, Gale will provide travel, lodging registration and all related expenses for library staff (serving populations of 50,000 or less) to attend the PLA conference in March. All scholarships will also include reimbursement to cover the library staff’s time away from work (temp replacement, etc.). Libraries can apply for the scholarship online by submitting a short essay (500 words or less) answering one of the following questions:

(1) How will attending the PLA Conference help me or my small or rural library bridge the digital divide for my patrons?

(2) How will attending the PLA conference help me to increase innovative or unique advocacy efforts to demonstrate value (or change perceptions about libraries) in my community.

Essays must be submitted by January 18. The winners will be notified no later than the week of January 30.

Maureen Nicholas Brodar is the new Youth Services Manager, Shaker Heights Public Library (SHPL), OH. She previously was Children’s Librarian at SHPL.

Philip Cheney is the new Director, Oconee County Public Library (OCPL), Walhalla, SC, effective January 2012. Replacing the retiring Sue Baldwin, Cheney most recently supervised OCPL’s three branches and its ­­bookmobile.

Susan Cooley, Director, Sara Hightower Regional Library, Rome, GA, was due to retire December 30. Instead, she will return to her position after a four-month leave of absence until her successor is chosen. She has worked at the library since 1988.

Mary Frances Cooper has been named director of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh effective January 1, 2012. Cooper has served as the library’s deputy director since 2008. She has previously worked at the New York Public Library, Minneapolis Public Library and the Louisville Free Public Library. She replaces Barbara K. Mistick who resigned as president and director in May to become president of Wilson College in Chambersburg.

Kyle Cox has been promoted to Executive Director, Mid-Columbia Libraries (MCL), Kennewick, WA. He had served as Interim Executive Director at MCL for the past 18 months and before that was Administrative Services Director.

John Fuchs, Director of the Rochester Public Library, NH, for the past nine years, will retire in January 2012.

Eva Hallock has been named Institutional Library Development Consultant, Colorado State Library, Denver, serving adult prison libraries. She previously was Librarian, Denver Women’s Correctional Facility.

Laurie Hunter is the new Physical Sciences Librarian, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She previously was Reference Librarian, Meredith College, Raleigh, NC.

Jane Light, City Librarian, San José Public Library (SJPL), CA, will retire at the end of March 2012. In 2000, Light was instrumental in the success of a $212 million bond issue. She also oversaw the SJPL and San José State University partnership to provide services at the main library, which was honored as Library Journal’s 2004 Library of the Year.

Deanna Marcum will become Managing Director, Ithaka S+R, effective January 1, 2012. She most recently was Associate Librarian for Library Services, Library of ­Congress.

Linda Schultz, Youth Services Librarian, Parlin-Ingersoll Public Library, Canton, IL, will retire December 31. She worked at the library for 21 years.

Terri Stano is the new Director, Thayer Public Library, Braintree, MA. Most recently Assistant Director, Stano replaces Elizabeth Wolfe, who is now the Director, Brockton Public Library System, MA.

Barbara Turkington has been hired as Assistant Director for Advancement, St. Louis County Library. She most recently was Executive Director, OASIS Institute, St. Louis.

Eric Werthmann has been appointed Director, Acorn Public Library District (APLD), Oak Forest, IL. He most recently was Interim Director and prior to that was APLD’s Reference Librarian and Adult Programmer.

OBITUARIES
Robert W. Houk, Public Printer of the United States, U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), from March 1990 to February 1993, died Sunday, December 4, at his home in Shelby, OH. He was 84. Appointed by President George H.W. Bush, Houk was the 22nd man to hold the title of Public Printer since its inception in 1876. During his three years in the position, Houk was instrumental in the incorporation of electronic information technologies into the agency while improving the provision of conventional printing and distribution services.

Rosemary Williams, former Librarian, Bracken Library, Ball State University (BSU), Muncie, IN, died at the age of 91. She worked at BSU for 24 years, retiring in 1984.

Mary Wilson, Head of Youth Services, Rochester Hills Public Library, MI, died November 27 at the age of 49.

LJ’s in-depth 2011 Placements & Salaries Survey found pockets of optimism but generally it reported  similarly distressing numbers, particularly in the public library sector. For example, among reports from LIS programs, 34% indicated there was less demand for talent to fill positions than previous years. Employers described getting 200 or more applications for one available spot. Of the 1,547 graduates reporting a job of any type, a mere 59.2% described those jobs as being both permanent and professional.

Carol Ann Batt is the new COO, Buffalo and Erie County Public Library System ­(BECPLS). A 30-plus-year veteran of BECPLS, she most recently was Assistant Deputy Director of Information Technology and Technology ­Support.

Bernie Bellin has been appointed Interim Director, Muskego Public Library, WI, a position to be held until January 16 while a search is conducted for a new Director. He retired as Director, Lakeshores Library System, Waterford, WI, in 2009.

Alex Boyd, Director, Newark Public Library (NPL), 1988−2004, died October 25. Under his leadership, all ten branches plus the Main Library were renovated or refurbished. He was 1997 President, New Jersey Library Association, and 1992–94 President, Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

Patty Braden is the new part-time Director, Romulus Public Library, MI. She most recently was Youth Services Librarian, Wayne Public Library, MI.

Keri Cascio has been appointed Director of Innovative Technologies and Library Resource Management, Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering and Technology, Kansas City, MO. She previously was Branch Manager, St. Charles City-County Library District, St. Peters, MO.

Dean Corner, Director of Reader and Information Services, Maine State Library, Augusta, since 2006, has announced his retirement. He formerly was Assistant Director, Patten Free Library, Bath, ME.

David Gray has been promoted to Assistant Director, Hancock County Public Library, Greenfield, IN. Most recently, Gray served as Director of Technology at the library.

Maureen Hirten is the new Director, Capital Area District Library, Lansing, MI. She has been Interim Director since April; prior to that, she was Assistant Director.

Jill Lininger will become the new Director, Oak Creek Public Library, WI, effective November 24. She currently is Youth Services Librarian, Racine Public Library, WI.

Ruth Lufkin will become Director, Bernards Township Library, NJ, effective January 2, succeeding the retiring Anne Meany. She currently is Supervising Reference Librarian.

Chris Mahon is the new Children’s Librarian, Yorktown-Mount Pleasant Public Library, IN. She previously was Director, Daleville Community Library, IN.

Lindy Moore has been named County Librarian, Douglas County Public Library (DCPL), Douglasville, GA. She was Branch Librarian, Lithia Springs Branch, DCPL.

Alexandria Payne has been named Digital Services Manager, Newport News Public Library System, VA. She previously was Webmaster, Pendergrass Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine Library, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Barbara Sutton is the new Children’s Librarian, Poway Branch Library, San Diego County Library. She most recently was Librarian, Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, La Jolla, CA.

B. Kristen Valyi-Hax is the new Director, Romeo District Library, Washington, MI. She previously was Director, Ruth Hughes Memorial District Library, Imlay City, MI.

Cheryl Willliams has been promoted to Branch Supervisor, Cassville Branch Library, Barry-Lawrence Regional Library, MO. She was Children’s Coordinator.

Joyce L. Ogburn,  president of ACRL and the dean of the J. Willard Marriott Library and university librarian, University of Utah, wrote:

ACRL believes that the future of libraries will be based in innovative uses of technology and intensive collaboration across geographic boundaries. The multi-state models for managing federal documents that libraries have developed address the pressing issues of the economic climate, the imperative for wider collaboration, and the improvement of access to these critical resources. We view these as necessary and viable partnerships that will sustain library collections and services and will create enduring programs of access and preservation.

On the ACRL website, Ogburn added that “I appreciate how this issue stirs passions. I also know that we are all invested in finding a viable future for the depository program and for its relationship to academic libraries across the country.”

As LJ has reported, the issues revolve around two plans that the GPO has expressed reservations about: (1) a proposed multi-state arrangement that would have allowed the University of Minnesota libraries (UMN) to act as the regional federal depository library for the 43 selective depository libraries in Michigan, and (2) a proposal spearheaded by the 38 members of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) that would reshape the FDLP program across 10 states in that region.

(ASERL also wrote to GPO on October 21 to address some of the agency’s concerns and to ask for a meeting with Baish.)

Ogburn wrote in her letter:

… ACRL is convinced that the quality of services associated with collaborative efforts will be stronger than stand alone efforts. ACRL urges the GPO to work closely and openly with depository libraries to explore and establish new models.

The roster of library organization that have now expressed concerns about  GPO’s recent decisions include, in addition to ACRL and ASERL, the Association of Research Libraries,  thirty-one of the 47 regional coordinators at regional depository libraries around the country, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), and the Great Western Library Alliance.

• The Digital Shift — technology, ebooks, and coverage of all things digital
• LJ Features — Our marquee annual features, including the 2011 Placements & Salaries Survey and the 2011 LJ Index of Public Library Service
• LJ Reviews — Home to Prepub Alert, In the Bookroom, and E-Views by Cheryl LaGuardia; full reviews and collection development content coming November 17

We’re getting our online house in order. Soon, Library Journal will have a proper home for the daily mix of news stories, reviews, features, columns, and research we publish to the web and in our newsletters.

In the meantime, you’re going to see LJ content published in a couple of different places, all still under the LJ banner.

Above you’ll find a list of new sections we’ve built out so far; we’ll keep that list updated as we introduce other elements and as we weave them together in new ways over the coming weeks and months.

For those curious to hear a bit more, read on:

As all web librarians and bloggers will know, building a functional web presence from scratch is no small feat. Revamping the existing web presence of a 136-year-old brand that has been building online in fits and starts for the last 15 years is a more complex challenge yet. Up until now, we’ve been renovating and building out additions as best we could, but it’s time for us to move house altogether.

For a little background—thanks to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine—here is one of the earlier iterations of the magazine online:

LJ Digital as it appeared in 2000

Since before Y2K, the LJ homepages have been a somewhat modest one-size-fits-all affair, serving as an archive of the print magazine as well as home to original news and tech stories, newsletter articles, and a growing number of topical webcasts and virtual events. As LJ has expanded in all of these areas, we’ve yearned for more flexibility and room to grow.

With a new CMS and web publishing framework, we can now build something closer to the home we’ve desired. We’re also taking the opportunity to reintroduce the many facets of LJ that deserve more individual attention; put another way, all of the kids are getting their own rooms and the family room is getting a 63-inch HDTV.

More literally: we’re keeping the umbrella homepage that will pull together the latest from all of the underlying content areas, like news, reviews, collection development, features, event coverage, and more. At the same time, we’re working to give each of these subcommunities a proper presence of their own—we want them to shine individually and to reflect the more specific personality of the content they highlight.

We started the process in July with the launch of The Digital Shift, a co-effort with our sister publication School Library Journal to feature coverage of technology, ebooks, and all things relevant to librarians serving an increasingly tech-hungry patron population.

More recently, we debuted two of our annual features—the 2011 Placements & Salaries Survey and the 2011 LJ Index of Public Library Service–on a new subdomain, features.libraryjournal.com.

Just this week we christened LJ Reviews, which will house reviews and commentary from our book and media review staff along with dozens of Prepub Alert annotations from editor Barbara Hoffert on hot titles coming down the pike and Cheryl LaGuardia’s E-Views blog. On November 17, we’ll expand that site to include the rest of our reviews coverage and collection development articles.

My colleague Heather McCormack described it best in the latest issue of BookSmack!:

Library Journal review content is moving in phases to a cleaner, meaner platform, and you can see the first step via our blogs Prepub Alert, E-Views, and In the Bookroom. The last blog is hosting a new series called “Librarians’ Best Books of 2011″ that will prime you for the November 17 publication of our Top Ten Best Books of 2011, plus beloved runners-up and the crème de la crème in genre fiction. More bests follow on December 1 (how-to, core nonfiction, YA lit for adults, and graphic novels) and December 15 (audiobooks, DVDs, video games, and music). During this time, columns and topical short takes that would normally deploy in BookSmack! will instead be posted on our new Reviews site, so be sure to check in and update your RSS feeds. Come November 15, all reviews will live on the Reviews site, including those that originated in the magazine.

The Reviews revamp will also include the launch of a new LJ Reviews database, with the first public beta debuting on the November 17 and which we’ll cover in more depth soon.

Come the new year, we’ll be well on our way to weaving all of these sections back together. But a move is a move, and that means we’ll be kicking up a bit of dust here and there until we get all of the pieces settled. We’re working to make the transition as smooth as possible, and we appreciate your patience.

In the meantime, one of the best ways to keep abreast of all the latest stories and in-house changes under way is to sign up for one of our free newsletters. You can also find LJ editors on various social media channels—including Facebook, two Twitter accounts, and Tumblr—where we’re available to field your questions and hear your comments.

If you’ve got any specific thoughts or questions about the moves mentioned here, let me know in the comments, or send me a note—jhadro@mediasourceinc.com or @hadro on Twitter.

As always, thanks for reading —

Josh Hadro
Executive Editor, Digital Products

The office followed through, releasing on October 31 a 97-page “discussion document” in which it says that “there is sufficient information to undertake an intense public discussion about the broader policy implications of mass book digitization.”

The report raises questions about public policy goals of mass digitization projects; the interplay among library exceptions, fair use, and licensing; and the collaboration between nonprofit and commercial actors.

The report is an invitation for further discussion among all stakeholders about the place where existing copyright law intersects with new technologies. Here are a few highlights from the report, which also includes a number of appendices that examine foreign treatment of orphan works, current scanning projects, and collective licensing options.

An end to ad hoc projects
The report is not meant to be prescriptive, and it overflows with diffident qualifiers:

To the extent that a digitization project captures [copyrighted] books, Congress may want to consider whether the purposes and objectives of these projects or possible future projects are sufficiently important to the nation to warrant possible changes to the copyright law.

But it does make a definite nod in the direction of projects like the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA):

The next logical step for the Library [of Congress] and other leading U.S. public collecting institutions — subject to the availability of resources — is to move from a series of ad hoc projects to a strategic and comprehensive effort that includes prioritizing content, managing licenses with copyright owners, and coordinating navigation and points of access with other important institutions.

The DPLA is mentioned in the next sentence, and the report also says: “Congress may want to consider whether the nation’s federal cultural institutions – the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Archives – should have a specific role in developing a national framework for mass book digitization projects.”

Sections 107 and 108
The report discusses libraries and sections 107 (fair use) and 108 of the Copyright Act, and it does provide a few cautionary notes.

The report says that the large scale scanning and dissemination of entire books is “difficult to square with fair use.” Google had claimed that it was fair use to systematically digitize millions of copyrighted library books and offer snippets from those books via its search engine.

“At this time, the outcome of a fair use defense for any mass book digitization project is uncertain,” the report reads, while also pointing out that fair use is unique to the U.S., which means that for any mass digitization project that is global in nature “fair use may prove to be of limited utility.”

As for Section 108, which permits libraries and archives to make, without obtaining permission, limited reproductions of copyrighted works under specific circumstances, the report says that “The Section 108 exception does not contemplate mass digitization.”

Any review of mass book digitization would need to consider, if not compare, the activities that currently are, or should be, permissible for libraries under Section 108. Any licensing schemes to implement mass digitization should not supplant the activities that have long been or should be covered legitimately by a copyright exception. This said, licensing is likely to be a part of the mass digitization equation for libraries.

In 2012 the Office, as part of its priorities, will formulate a discussion document and preliminary recommendations on copyright exceptions for libraries.

The report also deals extensively with licensing options and orphan works. For the latter, it refers to the office’s own 2006 study, Report on Orphan Works, which has been the basis for proposed, but not yet passed, legislation. The office continues to maintain that if adopted, the legislation would “greatly improve access to copyrighted works.” But it notes that the proposed legislation “did not squarely address for the possibility of mass digitization projects,” and that Congress may want to do so now.