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Forward from  Patricia D. Wallace,  Chair, Hawaii Working Group
(ALA Social Responsibility Round Table /Alternatives in Print Division)
SLIS graduate student, Texas Women's University
Denwall@aol.com

The following message has been cross-posted; please excuse any duplication.
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Letter from a patron in Hawaii  (Hardcopy)
From:  Dorothy Turnbull, Honolulu, HI
To:  Patricia Wallace, DeSoto, TX
Jan. 16, 1997

Dear Ms. Wallace,

        I understand that you welcome comments about  our
Hawaii State Library System.  I have no expertise about Hawaii's
state library except that I have been borrowing books for many
years.

        I don't remember what qualified Mr. Bart Kane to fill the
position of head librarian.  I do know that he immediately
created a job for an assistant and filled it with a basketball
star who had recently graduated from the University.  His
qualification was that he had been a basketball star.  I suppose
if he ever goes in a library building he can easily reach books on
the top shelf.

        I'm sure you are aware of Mr. Kane's idiotic policy of having
a  mainland firm select books for our libraries.  A librarian friend tells
me that  our regional librarians select books suitable for young readers
in their areas which may not be the same as other districts.

        I have heard complaints of books that may be popular (Dennis
Rodman: BAD AS I WANT TO BE) which have no literary value.  People
who know about it, tell me that some of the books sent by the mainland
firm have missing pages and are worthless.

        You may have heard of the arrogance of Mr. Kane a few years ago
when he  mailed threatening letters to many of us library users.  He wrote
that  if we didn't send a form showing our financial situation we were
likely to "have out database erased."  What a fate!  We were furious.  He
had to retreat and had an apology  printed in the newspapers at tax
payers' expense.  (Note:  I reported on this travesty, based on local
news accounts,  in a post to Kelly King, Head of the Library Committee
of the Hawaii Board of Education, entitled "Chickens Come Home to Roost"
and dated 11/23/96 accessible on WWW via DejaNews.--PDW)

        In my opinion, many dollars would be saved and morale improved
if Mr. Kane and his tall assistant are fired.

        There are so few new books available in the libraries now that I
frequently buy books and after I have read them I give them to one of
the branches.  Hardly a very efficient system.

        We need any help you can give us.
                                        Thanks--
                                Dorothy Turnbull
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Earlier, I forwarded a post from Beverly Katz,  Librarian of Ka'elepulu
Elementary School(School Librarian in Hawaii since 1989), which
also dealt with Kane's apparent lack of professionalism:

>Bart Kane is the head of the system and authorized committing over
>$11 million to a commercial company (Baker and Taylor) so librarians
>would have more time to "be with the public"  Back in the eighties,
>he created a stir by hiring someone named Pennybacker to be his
>second  in command, and Pennybacker had absolutely no library
>training.  His claim to fame was being a champion basketball player
>at the University of Hawaii.  People protested, but the furor calmed
>down after a while and Pennybacker stayed.  So, already it was known,
>Bart Kane had no need for people trained in library science to run the
>system......Bart Kane does not seem to understand that acquisition
>is a difficult job that requires great sensitivity to the needs of each
library.
>This is a job that librarians need Master's degrees an experience to do
>well.  He seems to have immeasurable hubris, tremendous disregard
>to the needs of the public as well as his own librarians, and great faith
>in the support of his fellow political cronies.

PERSONAL POST to me from  actone@aloha.net
on Jan. 9, 1997  (P Wallace)
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