So within ULU, we put our heads together, debated and discussed, and finally agreed on five broad but succinct questions. We sent to all contenders for mayor, and followed up with a courtesy phone call to their campaign offices. We’ll be following up again with each candidate before questionnaires are due back by May 30th.

Stay tuned–we’ll be posting the candidates’ answers here as they roll in.

Here is the final questionnaire:

1. In your opinion, what is the role of the library in the City?

2. Libraries in New York City are facing $106.7M in cuts in the current executive budget. As mayor, what would you do to prevent the “budget dance” of proposed cuts and restorations that New York’s libraries have been forced to endure for the past four years?

Source: http://www.nypl.org/press/press-release/2013/03/08/nypl-president-testifies-proposed-city-budget-cuts

3. In March of this year, District Council 37 launched a campaign for the establishment of a permanent funding stream for the City’s public library systems, proposing “city legislation to allocate 2.5 percent of existing citywide property tax levies for dedicated, baseline public library funding.” Would your administration support such a baseline funding model for our libraries, and why or why not?

Source: http://brooklyneagle.com/articles/union-says-city-should-start-new-chapter-library-funding-2013-03-14-173000

4. New York City’s three public library systems are open an average of 43 hours a week, compared to roughly 50 hours a week in Chicago and Boston, 55 in Toronto and 70 at the Columbus Metropolitan Library (Ohio). How would your administration support public libraries in New York City in order to expand hours and services?

Source: http://nycfuture.org/research/publications/branches-of-opportunity

5. Public libraries are commonly known as “the people’s university,” providing resources and services for young adults, English-language learners, small businesses, job seekers, seniors, and more. As mayor, what would you do to help libraries in their work to support lifelong learning for all ages?

 In a few weeks, the Volunteer Library Brigade will be rolling out to the sidewalks, parks, and subway stations of New York City. These small teams will set up tiny mobile library carts in public spaces around the city and to do on site-volunteer library work as needed for the citizens of New York City. They will look stuff up, hand out books, run storytimes for kids, offer directions, advocate for libraries, and more. The carts (kindly donated by Demco, thanks Demco!), will stocked with reference books, maps, giveaways, WiFi, and free eBook downloads.

This is going to be a great service, great fun, and great outreach for libraries. You DO NOT have to be a librarian to sign up for the Volunteer Library Brigade. In fact we want lots (and lots) of non-librarians to try this out. If you have ever about working in a library, wondered what it would be like to lead a storytime for kids, or just enjoy helping people … even if it’s just finding the right answer to a question, then the Volunteer Library Brigade is for you.

Still, to keep things professional, each team will include at least one library professional and all volunteers will have to undergo VLB training before they are sent out with the carts. But we hope to give all VLB members the chance to read to kids, help people who are lost, and generally perform the dozens of acts of small heroism that make up a librarian’s day.

Please sign up here today!

You will NOT be asked to wear a costume, but let us know if you want to and we will see what we can do.

Urban Librarians Unite is pleased to announce its own small network of little libraries. These bright orange newspaper boxes have been set up outside of library branches in Brooklyn and Queens closed due to damage from Hurricane Sandy. These tiny, all-weather libraries house about a hundred books each at a time and there is no expectation whatsoever that the books need to come back.

These Mini Libraries are a great way to get reading materials out to those who are still recovering from the storm. It is still an utter mess out there and a lot of people are still struggling. These books are a tiny spark of entertainment, they provide some distraction, and they remind people that the library has not forgotten them or their community. Our Children’s Book Campaign has been wildly successful and we have thousands of books to distribute. These little libraries are a direct pipeline to the public, a way of putting books right into their hands.

Some of us at ULU have had a very complicated relationship with the little library movement. As library professionals it can be difficult to see a static pile of books referred to as a “library.” While the circulation model is synonymous with the modern library it is, in some ways, the least of the work that we do. Yes, it is important to circulate information and entertainment and free access to take these materials away is at the heart of the library compact with its patrons. For many of us however the essence of the work is finding the RIGHT book. That is what drives us. It becomes difficult to embrace the little library movement when that aspect of service is removed. A library without a librarian is a pile of books. It lacks a life spark, an essential curation component and thus a dynamic inspiration.

The fear that library advocates have is that these little libraries will be seen as an alternative to public libraries. Why should taxpayers pay for a service that they can set up in their own front yards? What happens if the public decides to create these themselves and the public library is lost, diminished, or forgotten? This fear is, upon reflection, a juvenile one. Nobody could mistake any of the hundreds of delightful little libraries out there for that of a professionally run public library. Advocates of little libraries are often rabid supporters of big libraries as well and it is their respect for the institution that makes them want to emulate it. It is impossible to mistake a citizen’s reading exchange for a well run reference desk.

Our Mini Libraries will suffer from the same limitations as any little library. They could never be mistaken as an alternative to the branch libraries they substitute and intended to support. They do offer some comfort and succor, especially to kids and families, and they remind people that libraries–and their librarians–are nimble, caring and quick to respond to the needs of their communities.

We hope that our Mini Libraries will evolve. They are out and working but we want to augment them as we go as well. Should we put counters in them so we could track how often they are being used? How about if we could install some lighting? Let’s take it further and directly attack the base limitations on the little library model. What if we had teams dispatched to the Mini Libraries for a few hours on the weekend so people could get direct reference and library services? What if, as well as providing information and entertainment in the form of books, these libraries were transformed into library advocacy resources where people could get information about what was happening with their library and how they can support it? What if we could install a Library Box in each unit so in addition to being a repository for physical books each Mini Library can provide digital resources in a wireless radius around itself?

The Mini Libraries are a resource for our communities, a chance to experiment in library science, and a reminder to the public that even if the library itself is in ruins, the librarians are still thinking of them. We are excited about the possibilities and hope you will join us as we try new things with our teeny tiny libraries.

Here is what Andy submitted in response to the question: “What is the role of the librarian in the city?”

To be a librarian in the city is to be many things, to play not one role, but to play many roles and to play them well. The string that ties it all together is the ability to welcome the patron, the researcher, the reader – whoever walks through the library doors – to the resources and expertise that you have at your fingertips. The city is sometimes a cacophony to the senses, as librarians we are instrumental in helping make sense out of questions as mundane as “where are the bathrooms” to as intensive as “I am trying to understand how education can impact rates of recidivism in New York State.” In each and every interaction our role should be one that not only answers a question, but whenever possible answers it in a way that opens this question to further dialogue, instruction, and reflection. To do this effectively we must “listen” to the questions being asked. And, as we all know, this is no small task in our busy multi-tasking environments.

How do we learn to listen? I would suggest it begins before we hear any sound. Listening means to anticipate and to trying to greet the patron before they even arrive at the Reference Desk. It is as simple and subtle as making eye contact and saying a quiet hello to a patron waiting in line as you help the two or three persons before them. Perhaps, most importantly, it means that we must learn to listen to ourselves and know our limitations, weaknesses, and strengths. One of the hardest things when at a Reference Desk or answering a question via chat, or phone (traditional or cell or text!) or whichever new method we create or encounter is admitting that we do not know the answer. It is an impulse that is hard to resist and yet how else can we ever truly collaborate with our colleagues if we don’t ask them for help? In a way, this means that we need to be more like our patrons, learning to ask questions and knowing that it is OK to learn the answers to questions together.

I remember one of the first trips that I ever took to the main branch of the New York Public Library at 42nd street. What I recall vividly was that the space opened up before me when I entered the building and I encountered a seriousness, a feeling that something important was happening there. I was only there to look at a book, but the atmosphere and the help that I received from the librarians made me feel like I was there for a reason – that I had arrived at the right place. I think one of the most important scenes that we must help create as librarians in the city is this space for awe and wonder. To become part of a journey for anyone who comes into this space. Buildings themselves can be wonderful places, but devoid of collections and people they are nothing more than hollow shells filled with potential. Librarians fill this void, picking up the shell and bringing it up to the patron’s ear and letting them listen to all that is inside. With every reference interaction there is an opportunity to make a change in not only that person’s life, but countless others, by simply pointing them in the right direction. By helping them understand their questions better. By being a partner in their quest for knowledge.

To be a librarian in the city is to be many things, but the most important thing, in a way, is to help bring into relief all of those things that make each and every library so important – the collections, the people, and services that they all provide. In this way, the hardest role that a librarian can assume is one in which they disappear so that all those other facets of the library appear. I don’t want to argue that a librarian’s role is that of a magician. But, I will argue that there is something magical about providing access to knowledge. And this is one role that we should all take pride in enacting.

Here is what Anne submitted in response to the question: “What is the role of the librarian in the city?”

curator, n.

Pronunciation: /kjʊˈreɪtə(r)/ /ˈkjʊərətə(r)/

Etymology: overseer, guardian, agent-n.

The role of the urban librarian is both formal (organization –> curator) and informal
(develop –> incubator). Long gone are the days when librarians would point to a
book for an answer. The interrelationship of curator and incubator is keenly seen in the urban librarian as they compete with iPhones to generate authoritative sources, develop entertaining and educational programs, partner with teachers in producing curriculum and serve a variety of changing community-based needs. Urban librarians exploit new techniques (digit- (fill in the blank)) while continuing to maintain the old.

In today’s 21st century, information has become a style. And like any style, it need
incubation and curation to become useful. The urban librarian provides those roles to today’s ‘customer-driven’, ‘learner-centric’, ‘participant-centered’ library by revolving around the question “does this information really ‘suit’ my patron’s method/fashion?”. Content is filtered and selected and takes into account quality, originality and relevance. Some content needs development before it becomes trustworthy and then deemed accessible and fit for use.

Since the main customers of urban librarians are information consumers, the librarians must always be aware of how to bring information with integrated context to their audience. The librarians select, classify, enrich and distribute it in a way that it can be readily consumed. At times, the librarians may have to normalize the information or incubate it to a stage until it is ready to be delivered. Finding one’s way through requires expert knowledge in knowing what is flawed, what is in a development stage and what is relevant.

Urban librarians identify, group, nurture and organize content and strategically place it into a variety of programs and sources most relevant to their audiences. Often it means thinking ‘way-out-of-the-walls’. In return, new and existing audiences become engaged and can often participate in creating continuing content.

Whether or not the actual terms of curator and incubator will replace “librarian” is still to be seen. But his or her actions are easily discernible to anyone who walks into any urban library.

Attention NYC Library School Students: Urban Librarians Unite Book Scholarship Essay Contest (Winter Quarter, 2013) is officially open. Once again we challenge the library school community of New York City to write an essay addressing a topic common to urban librarianship. The topic this season is something many working librarians have been thinking and talking about a great deal:

What is the role of the librarian in the city?

Our panel of judges are looking for bold and creative thoughts tied to well-written professional writing. Show us your best and brightest ideas. Join the dialog of urban librarianship. And in the end, the author of the best essay will win a gift card for books and supplies worth $200.

RULES
- Submit essays to as a .doc attachment to uluessaycontest@gmail.com
- All essays must be submitted by end of day (11:59pm) February 15th, 2013
- All entrants must either live in New York City or attend a Library/Information Science
program at an accredited library school based in New York City
- All entrants must be presently enrolled in a course of study pursuant to postgraduate education in
Library/Information Science (“Library School”)
- Essays should be between 1000 – 1200 words
- Essays should be on the topic/question given for that semester only
- One essay per person, per semester
- No repeat submissions of the same essay in different semesters
- Essay winners may compete again in subsequent semesters
- All essays will be considered anonymously
- Winning essay will be published on urbanlibrariansunite.org
- Runner up essays will be published on urbanlibraiansunite.org at the discretion of the
organization and the essay author
- Contest winners shall receive a $200 cash prize for use in purchasing books and
supplies for the pursuit of postgraduate library and information science education.

FORMATTING RULES
- Submit essays as Microsoft Word documents (.doc)
- Put your name and the name of your institution at the top of the first page of your essay
- Do not put your name in the header or footer of the essay
- Use APA formatting for text and citations

Please pay careful attention to all contest rules. Essays not within boundaries of the rules may be disqualified. Winner will be contacted by email and announced on this website in March 2013.

And – we’re also proud to share the winning essay for Urban Librarians Unite Book Scholarship Essay Contest (Fall Quarter, 2012), written by Haruko Yamauchi. We’ll be posting the runner ups from last year’s contest in the weeks to come.

Good Luck!

What is the role of the librarian in the city?

Essays were reviewed by a panel of judges made up of working urban librarians, and were evaluated on their relevance to the topic, quality of writing and on matter of bold thought and imagination.

Haruko Yamauchi

Finally, we are thrilled to announce that Haruko Yamauchi, with her eloquent essay on the role of the librarian in New York City, has been named the winner of our Book Scholarship. Congrats, Haruko! In her own words,

“Haruko Yamauchi is a library student who spent two years as a weekly volunteer lending a hand in every service provided by a busy NYPL branch on the Lower East Side. She has also led dynamic storytimes for pre-schoolers and their parents at a Brooklyn Public Library branch, and has interned for the past year in cataloging, reference, and instruction at Columbia University’s Butler Library.  She has loved learning about many facets of library work and meeting librarians, is a big fan of ULU’s creative advocacy, and looks forward to more discovery, service, research, and adventure in the library world after she earns her MLS in December 2012.

And now, without further ado, Haruko’s winning essay.

Gorgeous clouds of the sun-set! drench with your splendor me, or the men and women
generations after me;
Cross from shore to shore, countless crowds of passengers!
Stand up, tall masts of Mannahatta!—stand up, beautiful hills of Brooklyn!
Throb, baffled and curious brain! throw out questions and answers!
- Walt Whitman, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”

The role of the librarian in the city is to embrace life in its multitudes, and to make it
possible for all of our patrons to do the same. We are not only crossing Brooklyn Ferry, we are the ferry, we are the IRT, BMT, and IND subways, we are the potholed streets and bike lanes that allow the city’s residents to move through time and space, get to places they know they need to go, and discover neighborhoods they didn’t even know existed.

Let’s back it up. Our libraries are the roads and the places, and librarians make the
maps, to help people make sense of the seeming chaos before them, to put in context the corners that they already know so well.

The real trouble with any metaphor is that the librarian in the city is by necessity a shape-
shifter, taking on dozens of roles every day, responding to the needs and interests of everyone from the three-year old (who just vomited on the block books), to the older man who reads five newspapers every day, as well as the homeless man whose presence newspaper man is complaining about, and the ninth grader with a ten-page paper due tomorrow who hasn’t started yet, and the woman standing before you now threatening a boycott if certain books stay on your Young Adult shelves–but you can’t talk to her right now, because there’s the man shouting that the internet is broken, and the newly-immigrated mother struggling to read the application for the library card she wants so much for her daughter, so that her kid will grow up loving books.

On exasperating days, we hear librarians say what we are not: we are not babysitters, not
social workers, not cops. Can we claim to be teachers, or caretakers, or guides? Do we aspire to be community organizers, or revolutionaries, or even good old fashioned defenders of the civic ideal? Because while we write our manifesto for upholding the public library as an endangered democratic institution, and brainstorm how to counter political attacks on the notion of individual and government commitment to the public good—that three-year-old has thrown up again, and it’s time to haul out the mop. But if reality may crash down on top of our ideals at times, those ideals serve as a compass to make our way through the rock quarry of daily demands. So, which compass(es) to use?

When the idea of public libraries was first promoted in this country, there were
arguments over a librarian’s role: were we to be guardians of a morally uplifting and enriching collection, to help poor people learn virtues that (in theory) would enable them to rise out of poverty, or to raise immigrants’ literacy so they could integrate into mainstream American society? Or should we just give the people what they want, which then as now often meant “trashy” books, and what was wrong with that, with seeking pleasure at the end of a long day? This question of where librarians should stand on the spectrum between being didactic or neutral still stands today. We may not speak in Sunday school terms of moral instruction, but any kind of outreach program assumes that our libraries are not only repositories for materials, but proponents of doing good. The librarian in the city today is not a bystander.

We may strive for some objectivity, displaying side by side books by political writers
whose views we find noxious and works of writers we think are right on. A mapmaker doesn’t make maps that only show those roads she likes best. But sometimes we’re making maps, and sometimes guidebooks, as librarians not only select, but weed out, showcase, recommend, and a mechanical lack of judgment is not a principle worth defending. What we should insist on upholding are the positive values of openness, of complexity, of providing not only information patrons know they want, but resources they might not have considered otherwise.

The librarian in the city must live outside the library walls, too. We must speak not
only with our patrons but find people who aren’t coming to the library–yet. Social networking and digital media can be useful tools, but may not be the most urgent ways to reach future library patrons. I believe in the power of flesh and blood, and have seen the surprise of people encountering librarians speaking out on the streets. Librarians should and some already do make an effort to meet with schools, community gardens, daycares, and other vital neighborhood centers to create partnerships for dynamic programs. But we could go further: Alinsky-style doorknocking for libraries, asking people what would draw them to their library and how their public library can serve them, and if what the people want is beyond the library’s current resources, we should strategize together to figure out how to leverage the resources we need.

Beyond that kind of deep, long-term relationship building, we could market our libraries’
worth better. Librarians could have tables at street fairs, take morning shifts like free newspaper distributors, standing outside subway stops to give out (well-designed and beautiful) flyers, whether to promote library programs and resources or call people to action when the budget is on the chopping block again. Librarians can reach out not just to arts organizations about creating murals on our walls, but to, say, the boxing gyms and beauty salons, where we could bring rotating sets of books that the owners think would be of interest to their customers, and leave them on loan to these locations outside the library. Many places where people wait–doctor’s offices, restaurants, barber shops–could be a point of contact between people and library materials that advertise where they come from and invite people who want more to visit and get involved with the local library. Librarians could take over subway cars and create flash-bookmobiles, where riders could browse and check out books, apply for library cards, and get information about resources at their local library or central branch. We live in a big, glorious, cacophonic city and need to think constantly how to make connections beyond our walls.

Librarians, in embracing knowledge in all its forms, in spreading the word about new
opportunities, in promoting inquisitiveness and exploration, in training people with tools to
follow their own paths, in nurturing not merely literacy but discovery and wonder in children, in showing new ideas to trying-to-be-jaded teenagers so that as they grow into adults, instead of narrowing their deepest selves for protection from judgment, they expand their hearts to greater possibilities—we are not only on the side of knowledge as power, we are on the side of joy, and of life. Librarians move forward into the world while waving others over to join us, and say: let us explore, together.

Due to the sheer volume of materials we have received, we are closing the book drive for the time being. Right now we have been SWAMPED by your generosity. We are working very hard to distribute donated books to kids and families at need in the storm-impacted areas. ULU has already passed on thousands of books directly to kids, families, and libraries impacted by the storm. Urban Librarians Unite is hard at work setting a system of mini libraries and throughout storm-damaged areas of Brooklyn and Queens.

We have truly been shocked and humbled by this campaign. Although we have had to scramble to handle the level of support we have received, it has been a huge lift for us. This campaign has been the single largest success for our tiny little organization. Thank you to all of our donors and contributors. You will be hearing directly from us in the next couple of weeks (as we dig our way through this incredible mountain of books).

Thank you again to everyone. Although we are closing the campaign now, we may call upon your kindness again in the future.

Biblioball 2012: Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Winter Formal Dance Party & Fundraiser

Saturday, December 8, 2012 at The Bell House

8:00 p.m. – 3:00 a.m.

Tickets $23 – $30

Buy tickets: http://biblioball.brownpapertickets.com

Proceeds Go To Literacy for Incarcerated Teens (LIT)

Serving Incarcerated and Detained Youth in New York

and Urban Librarians Unite’s Sandy Children’s Book Relief Fund.

ALL PEOPLE EVERYWHERE SHOULD GO TO BIBLIOBALL!

Biblioball is simply the funnest literary/library party of the year. It is a book nerd prom where the literary kids are the super cool ones. It’s the fun winter formal that you have been pining for. This year is gonna be utterly utterly fab and if you miss it you will be both mad and very very sad. Once again this event is in support of Literacy for Incarcerated Teens, who work to support reading for juveniles in detention. These are some brilliant and hardworking librarians who benefit and every dollar counts and has every penny squeezed out of it (twice).

There is going to be great live music. There will be this ridiculously fantastic band there, like Los Encantos, and the Lucky Chops Brass Band. These people play outrageously fun music which is rockin and super classy and danceable. When the live music ain’t blowing your mind Djs DJ Duane Harriott, Brian Blackout, John XI, Marty McSorley, and Mikey Post spin 40s, 50s & 60s Soul, 70s Funk, Pre-Punk Psych, Juke-Joint, Bogooloo, New-Wave and more.

Desk Set is working the Post Office theme (which we thoroughly approve of), and the pageant is a run for Postmaster General. Four talented and brilliant library and literary types will compete for the prize including our own incredibly talented Ingrid (go Ingrid GO!).

We are super lucky that this year half the proceeds of the Fancy Pants Raffle will be going to our own Sandy Childrens Book Campaign (and boy can we use it). These raffles really are a whole other level of raffledom every year. It always features super fun stuff from local supporters and we hope that lots and lots and lots of you come out and buy tickets.

There is going to be a interactive postcard writing installation Words, Words, Words: Greatings from New York City by Joy Tomasko. Guests can take hope a copy of Zinester Alycia Sellie‘s fourth installment of the Biblioball Zine, The Borough Is My Library. Of course you have to make sure and have your picture taken by photographer Jeremy Balderson in front of illustrator Gilbert Ford’s original Biblioball backdrop.

“Wow” you say. “Holy smokes, that is a lot at one event,” and you are right. That is the thing with Biblioball. It is just this whirling time of dancing and drinking and music and you go and get your picture taken with your friends, and you buy a bunch of tickets for the raffle, then you go and you dance some more, which makes you thirsty so you try out another one of the cocktails for the night and talk to your friends while you check out the art installation, on your way back to the dance floor you buy a bunch more raffle tickets from a cute roving seller, and you dance like mad to this great band, then cheer on the pageant, get another picture with a new friend, and you hope for a win at the raffle but if you don’t win you drown your sorrows in another fun cocktail and all of a sudden it is 4AM.

Please, do yourself this one favor this year. Buy a ticket, get dressed up, and come dance with a librarian.

Buy your tickets here: http://biblioball.brownpapertickets.com