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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 is the first in a series of posts from librarians in
Hawaii which I am sharing with all of you and which I hope will
help answer some of the many questions I continue to get
regarding the details of the contract between Baker & Taylor
and all Hawaii State Public Libraries.
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From: Norman Fitzpatrick <gutent@hgea.org>
Young Adult Librarian, Kaneohe Public Library, Oahu, Hi
To:  "Patricia Wallace" <DENWALL@aol.com>,
cc.  "Laurel L. Indalecio" <laindale@leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu>,
       "Kelly King" <keking@makani.k12.hi.us>
Subject: Questions for Bart Kane
Date: Jan 7, 1997

As a Young Adult librarian, over the past six months I have
continually asked questions of the administration and the state
librarian, Bart Kane. These questions have been ignored or given
trite and irrelevant answers.

1)  Why did Mr. Kane so blatantly ignore Young Adult Services
when the new contract with Baker&Taylor was written?

Only 1.8% of the fy96 budget of 1,900,000 was spent on YA books.
This is only a token amount considering the large percentage of
teens that use the library on a daily basis.  Mr . Kane's answer has
been - if the teens read more we would order more YA books.
If we want teens to read more, and if we are truly concerned about
teen performance in school, we must first provide the books they
need and want.  For AY in 1996 an apallingly low 34 units for only
FIVE 1995 Best Books for YA titles were ordered!

2)  Why did Mr. Kane not take into consideration the effect of unit
pricing on the Young Adult Collection when the B&T contract was
written?

The across -the -board $20.94 per unit cost discriminates
against YA since the majority of teen books are paperback format.
To hear that  this unit  pricing  balances out  because of the other
high price books such as reference books only means that YA
is subsidizing the purchase of Adult materials.  And we haven't
seen  much of the expensive ones, either!  This unit pricing has hurt
the YA collection tremendously.  We will receive 2/3rds fewer books
as a result.  Teen books that cost $5.00 or less will all cost $20.94.

3)  Why does Mr. Kane feel he can ignore the needs of the teens?

Book selection for YA has been POOR to Totally Inadequate.  No
science fiction or fantasy paperbacks were ordered for YA.  These
popular genres attract many teens to reading.  No graphic Novels
were ordered.  These draw in many reluctant readers.  Almost no
current YA best sellers have been received.  We continually receive
duplicates of books we already have.  Or administration has called
YA books "timeless", and said they can be ordered later.  Teen books
are not "timeless".  They have current best sellers the same as adults.
Teens have a right to the same treatment we give adult  Best sellers.
If we continue with this attitude toward teens, how can we  expect
them to change their attitudes?  In order to meet the needs of the
teens, book selection must be returned to the individual libraries,
and not given to some commercial vendor whose priority is a profit
margin.

4)   Why was it necessary for Mr. Kane to place the entire book budget
with a mainland  outsourcer?

Regardless of how small our budget, we could have kept a percentage
of funds available for local purchase.  In the past we had an account
with the local bookstore.  If a new book came out that was really popular
with teens, we could just go and purchase it.  Even this was taken away.
Why?  Mr. Kane did not have to give our entire budget for the next FIVE
YEARS to a mainland firm.  This has severely hurt  the teen book
collection.

No more than a dozen titles of the books received for teens from B&T
have been popular with our local teens.  Most of the books they have
asked for I have been unable to provide.  The above questions only
touch on this problem.  To list them all would take many pages.  Suffice
it to say that Young adult Services has been horribly hurt by the B&T
contract initiated by Bart Kane.

Norman Fitzpatrick
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