Library Director

How better to brighten up a party than with a guest famous for his utter lack of joy! Ah, but this was a party to thank supporters of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, on opening night of the Baltimore Book Festival. And the guest of honor? The Baltimore-connected writer Edgar Allan Poe, as portrayed by actor David Keltz."They don't make melancholics like they used to in the 19th century," sighed Dr. Sarah Begus, as she listened to Keltz recite Poe's "The Raven."Among those sharing the good cheer in the Literary Salon tent at the Mount Vernon book festival site were Carla Hayden, library director; Ronald Owens, president of Friends of the Enoch Pratt Free Library; Bob Hillman and Peggy Heller, library board trustees; Primus St. John, poet; Fred L. Miller and Sujata Massey, authors; and Charles Longo and Willis White, vice presidents of SlingShot Publishing Co.

Success in extending services and upgrading technology at Carroll County Public Library is best understood by reviewing their six-year master plan for capital improvements and projected operating costs, library officials say.The board of trustees for Carroll County Public Library has done its homework, using county planning and development growth projections to establish priorities and prepare a budget plan that will seek $6.3 million in capital improvements through...

WHEN TEEN-AGE students at Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore were working on homework last spring, they didn't go to the library.They went to the mall.Across the street from the high school at Mondawmin Mall, amid fast-food restaurants and clothing stores, sits an Internet terminal that the Enoch Pratt Free Library set up in June. With a few keystrokes, even the touch of a finger to a screen, users can access a stream of knowledge from cyberspace.Enoch Pratt, a 19th-century philanthropist who made a fortune in shipping and railroads, didn't envision students researching term papers at the mall when he donated books, buildings and the echoing sum of $833,333.

College and university libraries are grappling with an electronic revolution that is turning librarians into "cybrarians" and beginning to erode the centuries-old primacy of print.Academic libraries still have "stacks" -- row upon row of shelved books -- and they still buy and circulate printed material, but electronic substitutes are proliferating as online research on the Internet becomes commonplace.Almost all college and university libraries are "wired," or are planning to become wired, for modern technology that puts the World Wide Web at the fingertips of students and faculty.

The conviction of a man who raped a Columbia teen-ager has brought a sense of relief to many area residents, but the crime's impact still resonates.Assistant State's Attorney Janine L. Rice said the Columbia honors student -- who was raped March 20 behind the Howard County Central Library in Columbia -- seemed relieved when she heard the verdict after 3 1/2 hours of deliberation Saturday."

Reading help available in public librariesCongratulations on your "Reading by 9" series.I was especially heartened that you included the research from Marilyn Jager Adams' "Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print." As a public library director, I quote Adams' research every chance I get; especially the following conclusion from that study: "The single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills eventually required for reading appears to be reading aloud to children."

The Howard County library is selling a cutting-edge database service designed to enhance how the knowledge-hungry gather information while chiseling a new niche for area libraries.For $85 a year, 'Round the Clock DataNet can connect library patrons throughout Maryland to 27 business and educational databases 24 hours a day in their homes and offices.Heralded by library administrators as a one-of-a-kind information system, DataNet illustrates the changing role of libraries -- from free purveyors of books and periodicals to sellers of expanded technology used beyond the library's walls.

Last year, when Howard County Library Director Marvin Thomas relocated his office to the east Columbia branch, he never bothered to settle in. That's because he knew that, after 33 years heading the library system, he'd be retiring this year.In fact, by last July the seven-member county Board of Library Trustees already had interviewed and tapped the library's assistant director, Norma L. Hill, to replace him -- without a public search or much public notice.Thomas, 65, officially retires tomorrow, handing over the library's reins to his longtime assistant, Hill.

The Howard County Library director -- who oversaw a dramatic expansion of the system in the past four years -- is retiring this summer, he told county officials this week in a surprise announcement.Marvin Thomas sent a letter to members of the library's board of trustees, the Howard County Council and County Executive Charles I. Ecker confirming that he would retire at the end of June.Assistant Director Norma Hill will succeed Mr. Thomas.Both Mr. Thomas and Ms. Hill were unavailable for comment yesterday.

Skip Auld didn't expect to be leaving Carroll County after nearly six years as branch manager of the North Carroll library.But when he had the chance to become assistant director of the nine branch libraries in Chesterfield County, Va., the job was too good to pass up.Mr. Auld, who joined the Carroll County public library system when the North Carroll branch opened in February 1990, starts his new position Monday. His family is set to join him after Christmas."I hated starting to look elsewhere," Mr. Auld said, noting that he and his wife, Noreen Cullen, moved to Carroll County before their older child started school several years ago to avoid having to switch schools.

As Harford County Library nears a circulation record, deep budget cuts have forced administrators to lay off staff, reduce purchases of new materials and limit hours. Audra L. Caplan, library director, spent Friday delivering layoff notices to several of her staff and trying to find a way to keep all 11 branches open. Caplan would not say how many employees she had to let go, but they were in addition to the 34 dismissals that County Executive David R. Craig announced Thursday. The library already had frozen 20 vacant positions.

Valerie Gross is the first to acknowledge that she spends some of her free time working, but she finds time to read. A short list of books the library director would recommend includes: The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon. A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini. Words that Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear, Frank Luntz. The Pursuit of Alice Thrift, Elinor Lipman. My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult. "I have read Words that Work at least 10 times and would read anything by Lipman or Picoult," said Gross.

Howard County library officials are planning to expand their five-year-old partnership with county schools to include Howard Community College, they announced late yesterday at Cradlerock School. Called the A-Plus Partners in Education, the program has sought to mesh services that the county's libraries offer with public school needs, and now also include students at the college. Estimates are that about a quarter of county public school graduates attend the community college. "Expanding the A-Plus Partnership with the college serves more comprehensively the students of Howard County," said Valerie Gross, the library director.

The birds have come home to roost. Come Wednesday, two distinctly Maryland birds - the Baltimore oriole and the raven - will await admirers from their unusual perch in the Maryland State Law Library in Annapolis. The ruby-throated hummingbird and the summer red bird sit there now. They are part of the library's rare collection of John James Audubon's 19th-century Birds of America prints, newly returned from desperately needed art conservation. The $300,000 restoration was part of an $854,000 project to tend to preservation of the library's rare collections.

Linda J. Mielke, director of the Carroll County Public Library for 11 years, has accepted a job leading a Midwestern library system that has four times as many branches and serves more than 800,000 residents. Mielke, 57, announced her resignation, effective in mid-August, at a board meeting last night. In September, she will become chief executive officer of the Indianapolis-Marion County libraries in Indiana, a system with a central library, 22 branches and three bookmobiles. "Without a doubt, I have regrets about leaving Carroll County," Mielke said.

From fights to thefts to destruction of property, the Westminster library made nearly 100 calls to city police last year. Exasperated library officials turned to the Carroll County commissioners yesterday and asked for $26,000 to hire a security guard for the busiest branch in the five-branch system. The "unsafe environment" is taking a toll on staff and patrons, said Linda Mielke, library director. Lois Leasure, Westminster branch manager, told the commissioners that she had broken up three fights in the past two months, one between two homeless adults.

The Carroll County Public Library's bookmobile has been out of service since mid-December and is being repaired again, and the library director would like to see money in the county budget to buy a new one in the next few years. Otherwise, said Linda Mielke, the director, ""I'm going to get beat out by a snowplow." "I'm trying to find a way to get a new" bookmobile, said Mielke, who pitched the idea to the county commissioners in the fall but said she didn't get a definite response. "We've put a lot of money into it in the past few years in maintenance and repairs.

Carroll County's library director has assured Finksburg residents that the community will have a library branch, although she is unsure where. "I have all good news," library director Linda Mielke said last week at a meeting of the Finksburg Planning Area Council. "We have the official support we need, money in the budget and we are trying to buy property." The county needs about 5 acres to build a $3.5 million library branch and a headquarters for the system, which now includes five branches.

Carroll County's library director has assured Finksburg residents that the community will have a library branch, although she is unsure where. "I have all good news," library director Linda Mielke said last week at a meeting of the Finksburg Planning Area Council. "We have the official support we need, money in the budget and we are trying to buy property." The county needs about 5 acres to build a $3.5 million library branch and a headquarters for the system, which now includes five branches.

Abingdon's new library, which has faced construction setbacks because of the winter's harsh weather, is also going to see service cuts as a result of the county's harsh budget forecast for the coming year. The 35,000-square-foot building, originally scheduled to open in the fall, will not be ready until spring 2004, said Audra Caplan, Harford County Public Library director. Doors will likely open at the beginning of April, she said, in part because of months-long construction delays this year, but also because the program received only one-third of its requested operating budget.