To celebrate our 150th anniversary, we are inviting library luminaries who have retired from a life working in service to libraries, readers, and books to reflect on their careers, their experience with Library Journal, and their hopes for the future. Nora Rawlinson, who once ran LJ’s book review department and went on to serve as editor in chief of Publisher’s Weekly and to create EarlyWord, shares her perspective. 

You spent your career in service to librarians, readers, and books. What have been the touchstones that guided your work?

The major touchstone was working in a library that made public service the number one priority. That was Baltimore County Public Library. The associate director, Jean Barry Molz, was a genius at communicating the primary importance of public service to every one of the 300-plus staff members, from part-time shelvers to branch managers. She often wore a vintage enamel pin that said, “serve the people,” a motto that she lived. She freed staff from enforcing rules and taught us that the rules were guidelines to be applied judiciously. How often I think of her when trying to deal with “customer service” reps.

What was your first job and how has librarianship changed over the course of your career?

My first job as a librarian was in a library in a suburban shopping center. At the time it was a radical idea to build a library next to a grocery store, movie theater, and hair salon, but shopping centers offered the great advantage of lots of parking. The concept of “serve the people” also translated to “make it easy for them to get to you.” I worked the reference desk and learned that the hidden benefit of being a librarian was working with other librarians, an eclectic mix of people with quirky interests. I also learned to respect the curiosity and range of interests of the general public.

The major change over the course of my library career was led by BCPL, buying for demand and centralizing selection. Both are so accepted now that it seems amazing that it was once quite different.

What were some of the best moments of your work as a librarian?

One of my favorites was working on a committee to design a new library. The administration wanted input from people who worked the desks. It was enlightening to see the checkout staff design a circulation desk that worked efficiently. That was a great lesson in listening.

What are your future hopes for the profession? For reading and publishing?

It has to be a difficult time if you’re just starting out as a librarian, but I hope that those new to the field can remember that this is a time they are needed more than ever.

Publishers sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that libraries are competition, that every library circulation is a lost sale. They need to take the broader view that healthy library circulation sustains a book reading and therefore, buying public. I once heard a person responsible for finding new sites for a major bookstore chain say that one of their criteria was whether an area had robust libraries. If they did, that indicated a potential clientele. You could argue over which was the chicken or the egg, the strong reading population created libraries, or libraries created strong readers, but the point is that the bookstore did not see the library as competition.

I am disturbed that some publishers are reducing their library marketing staff, not realizing the vast audience that libraries reach. Publishers understand the importance of libraries to children’s books, largely because they can sell the direct influence of the Newbery, Caldecott, and the other ALA Youth Media Awards on book sales. For adult books, I hope to see all departments of publishing houses, from the CEOs on down, understand that libraries, through their programming and outreach, help keep alive the audience for books.

It’s been heartening to see publishers helping to defend libraries in the current climate and joining with libraries to get IMLS grants restored, but there is still so much to be worked out to make digital downloads affordable to libraries without wiping out publishers’ market.

Who have been your inspirations, luminaries, mentors?

As I said, Jean Barry Molz, former associate director, BCPL, shaped much of my thinking about public service. In addition, the library director, Charles Robinson, for his belief in both the public and staff. Then John Berry, whose editorials as editor in chief of LJ helped shape the profession. I fall back in love with the profession each time LJ announces its “Movers & Shakers” Awards. These librarians have taken problems that others would run from and turned them into opportunities, from figuring out how to serve the homeless, to creating new ways to serve people during the COVID shutdown, to staying open as protests swirl around their doors, to helping new immigrants. These people are inspirations. As part of your celebration of 150 years, looking back over the awards through the years would give the insights into how the profession is evolving.

As LJ turns 150, what have been your favorite LJ experiences?

The highlight actually came after I left. Francine Fialkoff had replaced me. After the Hurricane Katrina devastated a branch of the New Orleans Public Library, she spearheaded an effort to rebuild it, drawing on many library vendors. They completed the reno in record time and were able to open it when ALA held their conference there, the first one to be held in the Convention Center since the storm. In her speech, to a crowd filled with grateful residents, Francine said, “This is the best thing we’ve ever done.” She was right.

LJ’s editor in chief, John Berry became a great friend. It began when he asked me to write an article about buying for demand, which was called “Give ’Em What They Want.” Several years later, when the book review editor position was open, he recruited me, not in spite of, but because he completely disagreed with me. He called it “creative tension,” and it worked. I soon learned that John’s favorite activity was arguing. We fought over many things, so much so that he came up with the idea of “Dueling Editorials.” I think we only did a couple of them, but they were fun.

That might not have happened if it weren’t for our publisher, Fred Ciporen. He actually started work at LJ the very day I did. I didn’t know it, but he had been brought in as a last-ditch effort to save the magazine, which, despite being a force in the field and having an enviably loyal subscription base, was not making enough money in advertising to satisfy the company, which owned over 100 trade magazines at the time. Fred managed to tout the importance of reaching the library market through the pages of LJ and so successfully turned the fortunes around that another publisher in the company observed that his success should be a Harvard Business School case study. Because of the new money advertising brought in, LJ not only secured its future, but was able to go on to new heights.

The most satisfying part of working at LJ was the opportunity to create the kinds of services I had wanted as a selection librarian. I was hired as book review editor but felt that book reviews were inadequate for selectors. I introduced several other approaches, including Prepub Alert, the Collection Development series, and Word of Mouth, about readers advisory. I also advocated for librarians to go to the American Booksellers Association shows, which morphed into the now sadly defunct Book Expo America. When the show was in New York, I organized a get-together, to help librarians feel more welcome. It was a distinctly low-key event, but that evolved, under Francine Fialkoff, to the hugely successful Day of Dialog.

Can you share some books you have been delighted to read?

“Delighted” is the perfect word. I have been most delighted by books that make me see things differently. I remember vividly the first time I read A Wrinkle in Time. It had just won the Newbery, and the librarians in my local small-town public library were perplexed by it. They asked me to read it and tell them what I thought. Not only did I love the book because it introduced me to the idea of relativity, but I was thrilled to have adults take my opinions seriously, demonstrating not only the power of a book, but the power of librarians to open someone to a book.

Later on, feminist books made me recognize things about the world I had intuited, but not been able to articulate. It may sound odd, but Frommer’s Europe on $5 a Day made me realize I could experience other cultures. I feel fortunate I was able to do it when I did.