Annual Meeting Speaker Is Announced

We hope you’ll plan on joining the NNYLN for this year’s Annual Meeting. It will be held on May 27 at the Holiday Inn Lake Placid Resort in Lake Placid. In addition to a full morning schedule of meetings and discussion groups, we look forward to the opportunity to welcome as our luncheon speaker Ms. Nora Rawlinson.

Ms. Rawlinson has been editor-in-chief of Publishers Weekly since 1992. During her tenure, she has refocused the magazine towards more coverage of the book market and the business of publishing, increased the coverage of technology, and helped to launch the first web site for the publishing business. Under her direction, the magazine has launched two additional electronic newsletters and a streaming audio show on the web.

She has also introduced two major redesigns to the magazine, and helped to launch, with sister publications Library Journal and School Library Journal, a Spanish-language review publication, Criticas.

As a reference librarian in the Baltimore (MD) County Public Library, Ms. Rawlinson was a major proponent of the theory that library collections should contain what people most want to read, rather than what librarians think they should want to read. At that time, she wrote "Give 'Em What They Want" for Library Journal, which was included in a series of LJ Classics.

Make your reservations for this year’s Annual Meeting now!

"Library Friends" Web Page Is Updated

The "NNY Library Friends" web site, found at www.nnylibraryfriends.org/, has been updated with information on the Governor’s proposed budget for 2004, which calls to cut $4.4 million from library funding.

Library staff and board members are encouraged to contact their legislators to inform them of the detrimental effects this could have on library services.

Staff and board members are also advised to tell their patrons about this web site, so they too can let their voices be heard. Libraries may wish to post notices about this web site at their computer stations, at the front desk, and anywhere else it may attract attention.