The record attendance at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago dispelled any notions that the meeting would garner the same negative reviews as last year's annual meeting, in Miami Beach.
The June 24-27 convention drew nearly 25,000 attendees, dwarfing the 12,627 who braved the heat and poor access to Miami Beach's convention center.
To staffers who worked the Library of Congress booth at McCormick Place, the increase was very apparent. Not only was there a sense among those working in the booth that traffic was heavier, the numbers bore their suspicions out. For example, more than 2,000 copies of a special issue of this publication, focusing on LC's Digital Library Program, were distributed. Some 1,000 issues of Civilization, the magazine of the Library, also went quickly.
ALA President Arthur Curley, who opened the June 24 General Session, introduced Sheldon Hackney, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
"Times have changed since Nov. 8," Mr. Hackney glumly declared. Proposed budget cuts for his agency as well as the National Endowment for the Arts have caused "a great deal of anxiety, [which] has caused sectors of the humanities to turn against each other" in the scramble for scarce funds, he said.
In what has become a collective mantra among speakers at American Library Association (ALA) conferences, Mr. Hackney noted that libraries are "increasingly endangered."
One of the most essential roles that libraries play, according to Mr. Hackney, is "converting information into knowledge. Information is somewhat incoherent in the way it is stored," and librarians must organize it into useful bodies of material.
"Even on my darkest days in Washington I try to keep my spirits alive [with] my belief in the transforming power of the humanities."
Rita Dove, Poet Laureate at the Library of Congress in 1993- 95, followed Mr. Hackney with a proclamation that "people like you have accompanied me through my life."
The Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia spoke of "getting lost in a book," and how the spines of books on a shelf hold forth the "possibilities of worlds within worlds."
While growing up in Akron, Ohio, "books were my companions. I grew to regard them as illuminators of life. My first trip to a public library was a yearned-for reward."
Her encomiums continued: "Public libraries provide something that television and sports do not. They are more democratic than the Electoral College, and their pleasures are infinitely renewable. Their arena of possibilities opens a window into the soul and a door on the world. Librarians are emissaries and ambassadors" for the information age.
Ms. Dove then turned to her experience at the Library of Congress. She recounted how she had told a reporter that the laureateship will "ruin my life, but I'd be crazy not to accept it."
What she had meant to say, she told the audience, was that "accepting the duties would wreak havoc on my writing life, but to turn it down would be to abdicate my responsibilities as a humanist, educator and, yes, an artist."
The poet laureate has an obligation to raise awareness of the need for serious literature "in this age of pop culture."
Many letters poured in while Ms. Dove was at the Library asking her how to promote literature. "This cornucopia of mail confirmed my belief that literature can change lives," she said, echoing a familiar Center for the Book theme.
She urged that poetry be taught to young people "before they get the idea that they can't read it, understand it or write it." Literature, according to Ms. Dove, allows one to realize that "one is not alone in one's feelings. There is no greater empowerment."
The following day, at the President's Program, ALA Executive Director Elizabeth Martinez thanked attendees for approving the Goals 2000 initiative, which raised annual dues to increase the effectiveness -- and size -- of the association's Washington Office.
"Whether we're called cyberbrarians or [libraries are called] cyberbraries, the issue is access in the Information Age," said Ms. Martinez.
Access to libraries was a theme of the featured speaker, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, national correspondent for the "MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour."
Ms. Hunter-Gault, who was the first African American to break the color barrier at the University of Georgia, told about the "separate but equal schools" in a small Georgia town where she grew up, using "substandard" textbooks.
"The library was an affirming place, a window into my past and future." Her future as a journalist was sealed when she discovered the girl reporter Brenda Starr. The library "provided the fuel for my dreams."
Ms. Hunter-Gault also anchors "Rights and Wrongs: Human Rights Television," a weekly newsmagazine on PBS.
She told the audience that "there are few organizations before which I speak whose institutions have been such an important part of my life. The values that you cherish are, have been and will continue to be important to me."
