Were Youth Books Truly Diverse in 2018?

I am pleased to see the new 2018 Diversity in Children's Book 2018 infographic from the team of Sarah Park Dahlen and David Huyck based on the astounding work of the staff at the CCBC at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a star-studded consulting group of #diversityjedi.

Huyck, David and Sarah Park Dahlen. (2019 June 19). Diversity in Children’s Books 2018. sarahpark.com blog. Created in consultation with Edith Campbell, Molly Beth Griffin, K. T. Horning, Debbie Reese, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, and Madeline Tyner, with statistics compiled by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison: http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/pcstats.asp. Retrieved from https://readingspark.wordpress.com/2019/06/19/picture-this-diversity-in-childrens-books-2018-infographic/. 

Released for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0 license). You are free to use this infographic in any of your work, including presentations and published work, so long as you provide the full citation noted above.

Below is the first version of this graphic done by this team looking at 2015 books:

Huyck, David, Sarah Park Dahlen, Molly Beth Griffin. (2016 September 14). Diversity in Children’s Books 2015 infographic. sarahpark.com blog. Retrieved from https://readingspark.wordpress.com/2016/09/14/picture-this-reflecting-diversity-in-childrens-book-publishing/ Statistics compiled by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, School of Education, University of Wisconsin Madison: http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/pcstats.asp

Released for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license

What do I note in those three years? Ahem, we ALL have some work to do.

While the percentage of books depicting white characters decreased, characters who were animals, animated inanimate objects and other more than doubled. So it makes me wonder if we are seeing hesitation from non-#ownvoices authors on how to navigate the call for more truly diverse books.

While doubling of books published with LatinX and Asian Pacific Islander/Asian Pacific American characters is great to see, I can't help feeling that doubling of almost nothing (2.4% to 5% and 3.3% to 7%) is way too small a gain.

What can we do to keep the focus on the need for more diverse books?

• Buy - we are seeing more sources for reviews. And we know that we can look to awards to find authentic content and #ownvoices. Look at Coretta Scott King, Pura Belpre, Stonewall, Schneider Family, Asian/Pacific Award for Literature, Sydney Taylor, American Indian Youth Literature, South Asian, Arab-American, Americas, Dolly Gray and Middle East Book awards (among others!). Connecting to and buying from small presses is also critical. And we need to think about connecting to our immigrant communities to find material there and online that reflects the rich diversity of our communities (including our global community!). 

• Highlight  - booktalk them, put them in displays and face-out on shelving, use them in programming and in outreach collections, include them in booklists - and think twice before you weed them. Will you see another delightful book about a family's celebration of tasty roti like F. Zia and Ken Min's Hot, Hot Roti for Dada-ji (Lee and Low, 2011)?

• Inform Yourself - follow hashtage like #diversityjedi; #weneeddiversebooks and #everydaydiversity. Follow blogs like American Indians in Children's Literature, CrazyQuiltEdi, Sarah Dahlen, Book Toss, LatinX in Kids Lit, Reading While White, Rich in Color, Disability in Kids Lit, We Are Kid Lit Collective (GREAT reading lists btw) and the blogs THEY link to to identify ongoing and breaking issues and reflect on the literature (and misuse of literature).

• Advocate - let your salespeople, jobbers and the publishers know that you appreciate the diverse #ownvoices books they are and have published.  Ask for more and say why it matters. Advocate with your colleagues, stand up and be an ally for diversity and #ownvoices. The more the publishers hear, the better. 

Never think your voice is not enough. Together we CAN make a difference and make sure that all children have the chance to see and experience mirrors and sliding glass doors and find themselves in our youth literature.

Power Up Conference is Coming!

The University of WI iSchool Continuing Education Department has opened up registration for its 2nd Power Up Leadership Conference for Youth Library Managers and Staff, March 29-20, 2019.

This day and a half conference with inspiring keynotes and amazing sessions spans two days  at the beautiful UW-Madison campus' Pyle Center. There are 18 different presentations to choose from as well as amazing networking opportunities to share ideas and learn informally with youth services leader/peers.

Speakers from around the US and homegrown WI children's librarian powerhouses will be your guides to learning.

The first Power Up Conference filled up quickly so don't delay in registering for this extraordinary opportunity!

Power Up Conference - Last Call for Proposals

And now a word from our colleague, Meredith Lowe, Continuing Education Services at The Information School at UW-Madison:


Do you have ideas to share about management and leadership in Youth Services? The University of Wisconsin-Madison Information School is pleased to offer the second Power Up Conference to share your exciting ideas! The conference will take place in Madison, Wisconsin on March 28-29, 2019. The program committee will be accepting proposals until August 3, 2018.

Topics may include, but are not limited to: strategic planning, collaborations, ethics, leadership pathways, advocacy, mentorship, managing change, work/life balance, staff motivation, and innovation. Youth services librarians and staff from public libraries, schools, after-school programs, museums, etc. are invited to attend – we had 142 attendees from 20 states at the 2017 conference! More about the conference, including information about past conferences, is here

Our opening keynote address speaker is Andrew Medlar, former ALSC President and current director of BookOps, serving the New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library. Our closing keynote will be presented by Dr. Sarah Park Dahlen, Associate Professor of Library and Information Science at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, MN.

Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Statement
The Program Committee encourages a diversity of presenters representing a variety of personal and professional backgrounds, perspectives, and voices. We encourage submissions from anyone who is interested in presenting, including students, new professionals, first-time presenters, and representatives of allied professions.

Proposal Evaluation
The committee will evaluate all of the submissions as individual entries, and how they fit within the balance of conference content as a whole. The Program Committee will evaluate all proposals submitted by the deadline using the following criteria:
• Clarity and completeness of the proposal, particularly having well-developed content and sufficient speakers to address all relevant aspects of the topic;
• Originality and relevance of the proposed topic;
• Uniqueness of content in relation to other conference presentations;
• A range of speaker experiences and representations
How to submit a proposal


Please submit a 200-250 word description of your proposed session to Meredith Lowe, by August 3, 2018. Sessions at the conference will be one hour. Please include an additional sentence or two about how this proposal aligns with our diversity, inclusion and equity statement outlined above. Note that the proposal will not be the finalized description for the conference program; the committee will contact selected proposal submitters for a final draft.

Panel presentations are accepted. All selected proposals will receive one complimentary conference registration ($300 value), which may be divided however the presenters of that session choose.

Let's Power Up Conference!

Do you have ideas to share about management and leadership in Youth Services?

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Information School announces their second Power Up conference on youth leadership and management March 28-29, 2019 and this is YOUR chance to pitch your exciting ideas for a session proposal. 

The first conference was amazing, deep, dynamic and 100% empowering. The second promises the same with new voices, content and powerful networking opportunities.

Topics can include (but aren't limited to): strategic planning, collaborations, ethics, leadership pathways, advocacy, mentorship, managing change, work/life balance, staff motivation and innovation.  Pitch a panel; pitch a solo prezi; pitch a session that pushes the envelope. Proposals are due August 3 but don't delay!

And stay updated on the conference's Facebook page.

2019 Power Up Youth Leadership Conference is ON!!

Great news, peeps! The uber amazing Power Up: A Leadership Conference for Youth Managers and Staff will be back. Mark your calendars for March 28-29, 2019 and join us at the beautiful Pyle Conference Center right on the UW-Madison campus for all things youth library staff and leadership.

Watch for requests for conference proposals to be out in early 2018 and registration to open in early fall 2018!

A Reflection on Conference Programs

I'm just back from our WI state library conference.

I find all conferences valuable but I especially love our state conference. Like ALA, it brings together librarians from all sizes and types of libraries. But it's a more intimate atmosphere (800 attendees) that lends itself to deeper and yet wider networking and learning.

The impromptu hallway conversations, before and after hour meet-ups and catching up; and the promptu fun group activities like battledecks, cards (for and) against librarianship, gaming, dances and trivia make conferences a warm and inviting place to connect and laugh. On a small scale you get to meet and re-meet people for a couple of days of library-celebration.

Programs are often the meat - or tofu - around which the whole conference sandwich is made up. They attract non-members, sustain members and give us food for thought or content that spurs us to action.

Since the state conference is put on by a phalanx of volunteers that changes annually, you never know exactly what shape the programs will ultimately take. Not enough youth programs; too much technology; not enough academic library content - each year the winds of content shift.

And why? Because, like many conferences, outside of keynoters that the conference committee engages, programs are us. Content is dependent on those who come up with a plan and submit an idea. Anywhere from 95-100% of proposed programs get accepted.

This year, we had a boatload of youth content, from babies to teens, technology to hands-on. In terms of content, some of this stuff was as good as or better than what I see at national conferences (go WI!).

I always find panels of librarians from different sized libraries my favorites. Rather than an individual or a couple of people from one institution discussing "how I run my library good", panels from multiple library-size/library-type perspectives suggest how all libraries can find a pathway to change or better service, regardless of size or type.  It helps library staffers think, "How do I bring this back to my library?" and I think overcomes the feeling of "My library could never afford staff/budget/time of the speaker's library to do this marvelous thing."

I love hearing new voices too. Encouraging people who have never presented to be on a panel or join on a panel gives everyone a chance to lead and bring their insight to the table. We were so fortunate to have many many new voices join conversations and presentations this year (thank you iLead and DPI especially).

I also like perspectives from outside our state. I appreciate program planners who invite a colleague from MN, IA, MI or IL to border cross and share their passion and expertise. Our Youth Services Section is looking to do more of this. This year, IL's Jenna Nemec-Loise shared ALSC's Everyday Advocacy message and it was wowza!

For those of us who think about proposing programs for a national audience at PLA, ALA, symposiums and institutes, I hope we also propose great programs for our local and regional conferences. And I hope we look for new voices in our states and invite them to present with us - or instead of us. Everyone needs great CE and sometimes the gift of a great program is no farther than our own backyard.

Small is Beautiful

The last few weeks have given me a chance to celebrate and network with librarians working in small libraries at two special events that reminded me again of my abiding respect and enthusiasm for those working in libraries serving small communities.

In September, I was one of the teaching facilitators for an intensive three day Wisconsin Youth Services Leadership Institute. Twenty-five library staffers involved with youth work, almost all from small libraries, were selected from over sixty applicants.

At the beginning, many felt that they didn't deserve to be called librarians because they lacked a master's degree. Over the course of the three days, through workshops on history, advocacy, leadership and more; through many individual and group conversations and expressions of mutual support for each other; and through some eye-opening goal setting, all the participants claimed their title as librarians and leaders doing great things for their communities in libraries.

Then I attended the recent Association of Rural and Small Libraries conference. I had long heard that this was one of the best library conferences out there and I can't disagree. Fifty-nine break-out session presentations; five major speakers at meals throughout the 2.5 day conference; and plenty of support for everyone to network and talk together during breaks, dine-arounds and receptions. The organizers made sure everyone felt welcomed.

I heard over and over people talking about colleagues they met from all over the country with similar situations (both triumphs and tears) and how great it was to touch base and connect. The focus on issues and concerns specific to the those working in small libraries had alot of meat for people from larger libraries and I found myself tugged between many great sessions scheduled opposite each other (eight programs per time slot!!).

Perhaps my favorite part was how many presenters were from small libraries sharing their expertise. It was great to hear new voices and ideas and perspectives and worth the price of admission. When I go to conferences, I love to hear from people working in many different library situations and my favorite panels are those that are made up of voices from multiple libraries of various sizes and regions.

As a longtime freelance storyteller in my state, I had the opportunity to go to many, very small libraries over the years. Each time I learned some new cool idea, some tip or trick, an arrangement of collections or services that was, well, completely brilliant. The creative librarians at many of these libraries became my role models, my go-to inspiration and pals.

Their work was echoed again in these two conferences and reinforces one of my deep and abiding beliefs. We are all librarians - regardless of education, all community advocates, all dedicated altruists who believe in the power of reading to change lives and that librarians from medium and large libraries have a TON to learn from our colleagues in small libraries.

Small is beautiful!

Thing 1 and Thing 2 = Empowerment

Hafuboti expresses what everyone feels in the CE class

Two things are happening that make me happy and excited and proud and want to run in circles of OCD happiness (I am controlling myself).

Thing 1.
I am teaching an online CE course for UW-Madison on issues in youth library management. In the description I lay out the narrow set of issues we can address in a four week course - some good stuff but by no means ALL. THE. THINGS. I also, as in all my CE classes, made it known that this isn't a guru-to-grasshoppers paradigm: "The course will be collaborative as you share your experiences and ideas that have worked in managing your youth services area."

Bless the participants. They are taking me seriously! In our first week, over 300 posts flew back and forth. Questions, answers, ideas, sadness, happiness, problems, solutions, thoughts and support, support, support for each other. It is clear that a community of practice is budding. We are all learning a ton. And I think we are all learning to be unafraid to put our thoughts and fears out there. The graphic in this post is from Rebecca Brooks who blogs at Hafuboti. It's her meme on how she feels about wanting to jump in. That's what I'm talking about!

Thing 2.
Our state youth library consultant, Tessa Michaelson Schmidt, is deservedly being named Wisconsin Library Association Librarian of the Year in a few weeks. Right there that is a Thing 2. It is very rare to have a youth person win this award and it makes my heart very happy.

Happier still, though, is what brings Tessa to this award. In just 2.5 years on the job, she created a statewide initiative, Growing Wisconsin Readers, that supports early literacy throughout our state with ready-made materials. She planned a Youth leadership Institute in 2013 that brought non-MLIS children's librarians together and gave them information and power that have made these people mighty. She has created shared system workshops and powered a new look at youth statistics that honors not just active programs and SLP statistics but all the ways we program and bring children to literacy.

But best, best, best of all??? Tessa has been a mighty person who has given voice and power to youth librarians (whether MLISed or not) throughout our state. She has empowered staffers from our smallest libraries to share their amazing work - through blog posts, through invites to present at statewide conferences and as part of webinars. She has opened the door and invited everyone through. As she says, "You're only leading if you're extending forward as much as you are reaching behind and pulling up others."

Word.

You ARE a Youth Librarian

For those of you who follow me on Twitter and wondered what all the frenzied action at #WIYSDI was last week, please let me share.

I was fortunate enough to be a presenter at a three day wonderment called the Wisconsin Youth Development Institute at a northern Wisconsin retreat center. Twenty-five participants applied and were accepted from a pool twice as big. They came together to learn about the history of youth librarianship, advocacy, collaboration, programming, planning, collection development, social media and much much more.

Our state Department of Public Instruction Division for Public Libraries Youth Consultant  (say that really fast five times!), Tessa Michaelson Schmidt had the dream that resulted in this reality.  Influenced by the Calli leadership model in Colorado and Oregon's leadership development institutes, she thought that offering an intensive two or three day retreat to give non-MLIS degree youth librarians a chance to sharpen their game would be a boon for those librarians, their community, and ultimately, for youth services in our state.

Tessa asked for and received LSTA money to fund what she hopes will be a biennial learning experience. Applicants needed to get permission from their board and director to attend the Sunday afternoon through Wednesday noon intensive institute. Each participant was asked to come up with a goal and project, work on that for the following year and report back their progress. She also asked that anyone coming commit to the institute fully - no skipping sessions to visit friends or relatives or hide away.  Evaluations, notes and goal setting would be on-going at each session. Her hope was that everyone, sharing and reflecting on the same experiences, would more fully be able to support each other- and themselves.

It was a major commitment. And what would participants receive in return? A chance to work together with each other and presenters to boost their knowledge and skills and develop a network of colleagues to assist them as a Personal Learning Network. A beautiful location and facilities to help them center themselves and focus their participation. Constant access to mentors and peers to work, eat, play, think, learn and laugh with.

Tessa did the lion's share of the preparation - poll participants for what sessions they wanted to have; booking the venue and all the arrangements that entails; phone-meet with her presenters to map out lectures and activities; kept in contact with participants to prepare the for the day; gather supplies and stuff packets. Answer many emails from participants and presenters dipping their toes into this totally -new-for-Wisconsin adventure.

So on Sunday afternoon, presenters Tessa, Sue Abrahamson, Lean Langby and I gathered and welcomed the inaugural cohort to this most excellent adventure. We were joined halfway through by Merri Lindgren and Megan Schliesman of the CCBC. It was eye-opening, rewarding, fascinating, fun, emotionally uplifting and EMPOWERING!  Both presenters and participants learned from each other over those four days.

Many of the people who came felt like - or had been told - they weren't "real" librarians because they didn't have an MLIS. We smashed that stereotype and invited everyone to step up into their real titles as librarians.  The change was...electric. And very emotional. We all could see and support the change that we saw happening in each of us. Through formal and informal sharing at sessions, meals, on walks, in rooms, around the firepit, people's confidence and knowledge were visibly boosted.

Our final session sharing the goals each person was going to go after was powerful and powerfully emotional. People shared their project and their dreams for themselves and most shared the profound support and change they felt personally and professionally. The presenters, too, shared their gratitude to everyone for all that had been offered back to us.  My own message echoed them and I reminded everyone to share this feeling and support with co-workers in their library, neighboring libraries and around the state. Find ways to lift others as they - and I-  had been lifted by this experience.

Thank you Amy, Andrea, Ann, Arin, Arlene, Barb, Cindy B and Cindy T ("the Hooligan"). Thank you Cole and Davy, Deb, Diane, Essie, Gina, Jody, Judy, Kaye, Leah, Lisa, Lyn, Maria, Mary, Monica, Sally ("Baby"), and Tammy. Now you know and I know and we know very much more of who we all are. Your journeys were mine as well.  Thank you Sue, Leah, Tessa, Merri and Megan for all you shared and did.  You blew me so far away in such a great way I hope I never touch down.

I will carry all thirty of you with me always - amazing youth librarian colleagues all.

Y U No Respect Youth Reference?

I contribute to a statewide youth services blog and in the process of sharing a link recently and tagging the blog post, I used the label "reference". To my surprise, even after 578 posts on that blog, this was the first time that term had been used. I checked my own blog of 418 posts. Same thing.

It really stopped me short. And it made me think about whether and why- with all our discussion, posts, sharing and chat on programming and children's literature in the youth librarianship blogosphere - as practitioners we don't give props to youth reference, a less glamorous but very vital part of our work.

We are not alone in this.

When I first came to my present job, I know staff around the library didn't really respect the skills our youth services team had in the youth reference area.  I consciously began to look at what we did at our stand-alone youth services desk and compare it to our stand-alone adult information services (we have a separate circulation department).  What I discovered was...disconcerting.

Our Youth Services desk staff were expected to do many circulation functions (renew books; pursue missing pieces; decide on lost book and large fine forgiveness issues; hire and oversee shelvers of our collections). Adult Information services were not expected to do any of this.  Their desk time involved reference, reader's advisory, research - so did ours. But on top of that were layered functions that took time away from our programming, collection development, planning and RA and ref.

I began to ask at management meetings why there was this tremendous discrepancy in job duties between the adult and youth reference desks. It surprised my management colleagues. Those were questions that hadn't been asked before. The more I probed and brought up the subject, the clearer it became to my colleagues that there was a fundamental inequity in the perception of youth service librarians' skills and work expectations for the service desks. "Do you do this at the adult reference desk?" became a question that was answered by realigning job duties to create parity between the two reference desks and returning circ functions to the circ department.

During this process, I also had to ask myself if a lack of respect among our own YS team for our professional skills and perhaps our acceptance of the "you work with kids, you are therefore a child and less powerful" paradigm, fed into expectations of our reference work being perceived as less valued. Certainly the team loved and adored programming and collection development work. But did we love the dig-into-the guts reference work we did with kids, teens and caregivers as much?

The YS team has worked on this over the years and I have seen a definite but subtle shift away from seeing themselves as a adjunct Circ point and more as the MLIS librarians and reference/reader's advisory superheroes that they are. But again it strikes me that we are not alone in struggling with this part of our professional lives in youth services.

What value do we - and our colleagues serving adults in the rest of the library - place on our reference and research skills in youth services? What do you think?

The Sleeping Lionesses Awake...

That's the way it feels to me lately. The issue of gender in librarianship, especially as it relates to those of us who work in youth librarianship, has been sleepily in the background for a long time.

A number of issues that have cropped up recently have brought the subject back to the forefront and women and men are standing up and saying, "Whoa! Wait! Stop!" "Let's back up here and get real again!". It feels as if powerful people who have long been sleeping are once again awakening and looking around - and want to claim -or reclaim -some power that has long been lost or trivialized.

Part of the discussion has been in the blogosophere; part on twitter and part on a librarian group on Facebook, Think Tank. What started in a somewhat rancorous way is building to something slightly different - an open and honest exploration of the roots of discourse on gender in librarianship. People are talking, exploring and sharing.

Kate Kosturski over at Librarian Kate blog has written two posts in the last few days tracing the scholarly research on gender and librarianship (here and here) and they are fascinating.  Her part 3 will be on youth librarianship as it relates to gender issues.  Please read the posts and consider sharing your experiences of gender bias in youth work with her at librariankate7578 at gmail dot com. I think we need to read more.

I can imagine the research is might thin on this topic. Other than recent blog posts , some of which I cited in my last post,  I have seldom read of youth librarianship and bias issues in my almost 40 years in the business. What there is probably was published in small presses and gathered in the marvelous Alternative Library Literature anthologies (edited by Jim Danky and Sandy Berman) of the '80s through early part of this century.

I, for one, am glad we're waking up to have this discussion.

Image: 'Open wide.....'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/66164549@N00/2884630721 Found on flickrcc.net

Everything Old is New Again

I always think it's funny - and a little bit sad - when bug-eyed articles come out about some aspect of adult library programming being trendy and pushing the envelope. What stands out is it's usually something that, in some format, youth services librarians have been doing for decades in their programs.

When I first read the Wall Street Journal article on programs being held on hog butchering and blacksmithing, I thought ho-hum. We've been bringing in sheep, snakes, horses, cows, giant shopping cart go-carts and heavy equipment vehicles for kids to explore and discover since forever.  Programming that informs kids by sharing stories or information books and then hands-on experience with an IRL thing has long been a staple of most youth programs.

I feel the same way about gaming. While most adult services folks think of gaming as avant-garde and new, new, new, I would argue that again, gaming has had a respected place in libraries for a long time in youth areas. When I first came to our library, we had a robust tech gaming program - wii, lan; computer games; multi-player games. But our gaming assistants also developed the seeds of Lego Club, board game night, giant Candyland and Pokemon Club; card games - to the dismay of the manager who oversaw the gaming. He insisted that wasn't "real" gaming.  I always disagreed.

Libraries have been providing and playing games with kids from almost the beginning of their existence. Think of chess and checkers clubs; scavenger hunts; book bingo; game-based SLP reading programs; Lego and Pokemon Clubs; board games available in the room for kids to play with. They have engaged kids in skills-building - math; engineering; problem solving; planning; and cooperation to name a few. When our city council balked at funding the computers and video games, our director used that argument to win them over. Electronic gaming is just another face of what we've always been doing in youth services.

Makerspaces are the new glamor-boy. Uh-huh. This blog post was jump-started by Amy over at Show Me Librarian who shared some thoughtful comments on arts and crafts and the nature of maker spaces.  I'm with her. Youth librarians have been doing makerspaces, again, for decades. Programs that provide kids with hands on time to create paper airplanes or tissue box racecars; moebius strip making; knitting; crafting; building; Legos; science experiments...I could go on and on. Youth librarians have been working with kids to grow skills, to create opportunities for them to create and make since forever.

In many ways, it's all in the branding. Here at our library, we tend to embrace any new paradigm that comes along (Harlem Shake dance next?). I think of it in the same way as hopping on the PR train for children's book film premiers or debuts of popular children's books and creating a program to capitalize on the hype. So, for these new adult bandwagon efforts: DIY? Re-brand craft programs and scrapbooking. Gaming? Re-brand Pokemon club. Tech Creator Space? Re-brand cartooning; writing; creating book trailer programs. Makerspaces? Re-brand Legos clubs; science discovery programs and more.

But, in a deeper way, this "second-coming" hype also speaks to me about the disdain or dismissal or outright ignorance by others in our profession of efforts by youth folks. It's echoes what Julie was speaking about at Hi Miss Julie when she addressed the issue of power and youth librarianship (and the plethora of commentators who.so.missed.the.point). There may be some adult services librarians who realize that the programs and spaces they are now creating are based on efforts in programming that youth librarians (and others who work with kids in schools and youth serving organizations) have been doing since the beginning of children's spaces in libraries in the last century. People have come before. In the same way I admire, emulate and credit great efforts by colleagues serving all ages in all types of libraries, I hope to see that same reciprocity from all my colleagues serving other ages.

Will it happen?  You tell me.
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