Readers & Mystery Reading at the Popular Culture Association

By Barbara Fister

As I was saying, my panel at the Popular Culture Association Meeting in San Antonio focused on mystery readers.

First up, Mary Bendel-Simso and LeRoy Panek of McDaniel College in Maryland talked about an amazing project that anyone interested in the history of the mystery will want to check out: the Westminster Detective Library. They are documenting 19th century detective fiction published in the popular press, with the goal of making available online all short fiction dealing with detection published in the United States before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1891 publication of “A Scandal in Bohemia.”

Crime stories were enormously popular and had a huge audience in newspapers and magazines. The trick is to find the old newspapers and comb through them for stories and poems. Their research shows that the mystery was a beloved genre long before most histories indicate, and includes some surprises such as the use of fingerprints in a story in 1861 and women detectives featuring in stories from the 1860s onward.

The second speaker was a dynamo named Katherine Clark, whose topic was “Who is the American Mystery Reader and Why Does it Matter?” For her dissertation research she surveyed more than 700 mystery readers, who she found tend to be avid readers, loyal fans of the genre, and devoted to it throughout their lives, starting in childhood. Unlike the readership for the romance genre, which tends to fall off in middle age, mystery readers are fans for life. She had fascinating things to say about readers and their tastes, as well as insights into the publishing industry. I was entrusted with keeping time for the panel, so was crushed when I had to give her the “five minute warning.” I could have listened to her for hours!

Finally, I spoke about Sisters in Crime, taking a look at its origins, reporting some of the findings of the Sisters in Crime/Bowker study of the mystery consumer, and sharing results from a member survey. I was fortunate beforehand to have the help of archivists at both Rutgers University, which houses the organization’s papers, and the Newberry Library in Chicago, which has a collection of Sara Paretsky’s papers, some of which deal with the formation of the organization. (It’s pretty exciting to get an e-mail with .pdfs of early memos and meeting minutes from our founding! Okay, I admit it, I’m a nerd.)

Looking back, I found that our mission remains remarkably consistent and that, in spite of progress, the issues that led to the founding of the group remain relevant. If you’re curious, you can read the paper here. The fact that Sara Paretsky was just about to be recognized as a Grand Master at the Edgar awards was a happy note on which to end my brief history.

At this conference, I was delighted to find a thriving and close-knit community of mystery fans who happen to be academics. Like most mystery fans, the members of the Mystery and Detective Fiction area of the association are welcoming and enthusiastic about the genre. I’ve already been unofficially declared a Sisters in Crime liaison to the group and will try to attend next year’s conference in Boston.

There will be opportunities for writers to participate, and plans are afoot for Frankie Bailey, our next president and a member of the Popular Culture Association, to be on the program. That reminds me: I suppose I should warn her.

Barbara Fister is the author of the Anni Koskinen mysteries. The most recent title in the series is Through the Cracks. She is an academic librarian and serves on the SinC board as Secretary.

Presenting 25 Years of Sisters in Crime to the Popular Culture Association

By Barbara Fister

I recently attended the national meeting of the Popular Culture Association in San Antonio, Texas where I gave a paper titled “Sisters in Crime at the Quarter Century: Advocacy, Community, and Change.”

I was on a panel with two other fabulous presentations, had a chance to attend other sessions organized by the wonderful andwelcoming Mystery and Detective Fiction section of the association -- and had the opportunity to hang out with some dedicated and smart fans of the genre.

This was my first experience of the Popular Culture Association meeting, and what a trip this gathering is! There are panels on film, fashion, fan studies and fan culture, or you can focus on pulp studies, punk culture, or even the vampire in literature, culture and film. Lest you think this some peculiar grab-bag of obsessions, well . .. it sort of is, but the obsessions are backed up with serious scholarship. And there’s plenty to think about when it comes to our favorite genre.

Among the sessions I attended were one on the armchair detective and mysteries with a strong sense of place. John Scaggs pointed out that there are a number of features of this kind of book: a focus on authenticity, local food and wine, the presence of a foreigner, conflict between tradition and change, and a picture postcard quality that sometimes conflicts with the ugliness of the crimes that arise from the setting. What was particularly fun for me was that he focused on Martin Walker’s Bruno Courrèges series, which we were just discussing in a reading group that I belong to. It gave me lots of ideas to bring back to our discussion.

Barbara Emrys talked about the cross-genre mixing of horror and supernatural elements with the conventions of the mystery genre demonstrated in Crimes by Moonlight, an MWA short story anthology edited by Charlaine Harris. One of my favorite take-away points from the ensuing discussion was when Barbara Emrys compared the detective in the serial killer story to the archetypal slayer of monsters. It was one of those light bulb moments.

Among the events organized by the Mystery and Detective Fiction group was a presentation by Susan Wittig Albert, who gave a fascinating talk about her start as an academic, teaching college, becoming an administrator and rising to university vice president before turning full-time to writing.

She got her heart’s desire when she was hired to reincarnate Carolyn Keene by writing new adventures for Nancy Drew. But she was also happy to create her own series character in China Bayles and to write additional series, including the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, the new Darling Dahlias series, and with her husband Bill Albert, a Victorian series written under the name Robin Paige.

She described her busy calendar writing and promoting her work (emphasizing her start as a “production writer” – though I would call her a productive writer) and gave a stirring short history of the genre since 1980, with a shout-out to Sisters in Crime. Yes, she is a member, and I notice her biography in Wikipedia features a photo of her wearing a Sisters in Crime t-shirt.

After that event, the incredibly welcoming people of the Mystery and Detective Fiction group went to dinner at Rosarios, where we ate Tex Mex food, sipped Margaritas, and talked about mysteries. After that, a group went to do some sightseeing and get ice cream, but I was wiped out and only made it as far as the plaza in front of the Alamo before having to call it a night.

My panel, “Readers Reading Mysteries,” was early the next morning, and in addition to my talk on Sisters in Crime, there was a fascinating presentation by Mary Bendel-Simso and LeRoy Lad Panek on the Westminster Detective Library and an extraordinary talk by Katherine Clark on “Who is the American Mystery Reader and Why Does it Matter?” But I think I’d better save this for another blog post.


Barbara Fister is the author of the Anni Koskinen mysteries. The most recent title in the series is Through the Cracks. She is an academic librarian and serves on the SinC board as Secretary.

The 2011 Edgar Awards Banquet & Grand Master Sara Paretsky

On Thursday, April 28, Mystery Writers of America presented its Grand Master Award to Sisters in Crime founding sister Sara Paretsky at the annual Edgar Awards banquet.

SinC President and MWA board member Cathy Pickens introduced Sara at the ceremony.

Pictured at left are Sara Paretsky (l) and Cathy Pickens (r) at the banquet. (Photo by Matt Peyton Photography.)

According to SinC immediate past president Marcia Talley, the room was filled with an array of positive feminine energy generated by Paretsky, Pickens, outgoing MWA president Laura Lippman and incoming MWA president Lisa Scottoline.

The complete text of Cathy Pickens' introduction to Sara Paretsky, 2011 MWA Grand Master, appears below:

"In 1980, with the visionary thinking we know to expect in publishing, 13 publishers rejected Indemnity Only. The first V. I. Warshawski novel "does not meet our needs at this time," they said. Visionary indeed.

Fortunately, V. I. hit the streets of Chicago and bookshelves in 1982, breaking the barriers that said women in mysteries could be only victims or vamps.

That would've been enough, creating a body of work that does what the best of fiction should do in keeping the genre alive and relevant.

But social justice can't always be sought only on the pages of a novel. In the mid-1980s, Sara Paretsky saw that, while women wrote one-third of the mystery novels published, they were receiving less than 10% of the review space. So she gathered a group of like-minded women mystery writers and began monitoring reviews and educating reviewers.

Today, women write roughly half of the mysteries published. The gap in review coverage still exists, but it is much smaller than it was. And it is significantly smaller for mysteries than the recently publicized and debated gap that exists in the reviews of literary fiction.

And that would've been enough. But Sara and this band of Sisters in Crime didn't think it was enough. They set about educating writers about what it means to be a professional in this business, and they encouraged and mentored and shared their wisdom.

I remember poring over my copy of Shameless Promotion for Brazen Hussies (you've got to buy a book with a title like that! It's now available in its third edition). And I've learned much from countless Sisters who have become my mentors and friends.

Sisters in Crime has grown to 3,000 members, an inclusive group of writers and readers, booksellers and librarians, women and men, who continue to encourage the professional development of writers.

So, as a reader, I thank you for V. I. Warshawski, who has shown us how tough women can be and how we all should be, fighting for things that matter.

As a writer, I thank you for the mentoring, education and support.

And, as the 24th president of Sisters in Crime and on behalf of MWA, it is with delight that I present to Sara Paretsky this much-deserved Grand Master Award."

The following are Sara Paretsky's acceptance remarks for the Grand Master Award at the 2011 Edgar Allen Poe Dinner:

"I went to my first Edgar dinner in 1982. I watched the icons of my reading life talking and joking, but I was painfully shy and didn’t try to introduce myself to anyone. I was seated at a table at the outermost reach of the Sheraton ballroom, and the high point of the meal was when a waiter slugged one of my tablemates for not relinquishing his salad plate on schedule.

I’m amazed, and grateful, to join the company of Grand Masters whose work I have long admired, but it is unsettling to realize how quickly 29 years have passed.

Many people helped me reach this point. Stuart Kaminsky, whom we mourn, mentored me as I wrote my first book. My agent, Dominick Abel, agreed to represent me all those years ago; he has never faltered in his support.

Thanks to my editor, Chris Pepe, and my publishers, Putnam, for their hard work, and their presence at the banquet. (Although the company is known as GP Putnam’s Sons, it was George Putnam’s daughter, Mary, who was a leading 19th century writer and feminist. It seems fitting that my novels bear the name of the woman who forced England to accept women as doctors.)
I have been fortunate in the friendship of Dorothy Salisbury Davis. Her advice as a writer, and her guidance in the business of living, have been my lodestar for many years.

Above all, I thank my husband, the distinguished physicist Courtenay Wright, who has listened to 29 years of fears and self-doubts; his steadfast support has kept the wind beneath my sails. To him and to Dorothy, this award and these remarks are equally dedicated.

The world of books has seen major changes since my first Edgar dinner. It had been hard for me to find a publisher for a woman PI in America’s heartland; now, as a result of the revolution I helped start, detectives of all stripes and locations are commonplace.

I was lucky: in 1982, there were many more publishers to approach than exist today.

We live in a world of conglomerated publishers and distributors; we writers are often told that we are not creating stories or characters, but brands, as if the chief difference between our stories and toilet paper is that you can’t upload Charmin to your iPad. At least, not yet. In such a world it is hard to remember that we are storytellers, not accountants, marketers or vending machines.

This is not a new problem. When Melville published Moby Dick in 1851, the reception by both public and critics was hostile: he had left his brand, his travelogue novels. During Melville’s life, this astonishing masterpiece sold 500 copies. In a bitter weariness, Melville wrote Hawthorne:
The silent grass-growing mood in which a [person] ought to compose – that can seldom be mine. Dollars damn me.

Melville lived through times as turbulent as ours—slavery, the Civil War, the changes wrought by industrialization. But ours is also a time that thrives on slick one-liners, and on lies, made easier to swallow because we devalue literacy.

Today, close to one in four American adults can’t read or write well enough to handle a job application, let alone read a novel.

It took a 12th-grade vocabulary for Melville to follow the Lincoln-Douglas debates, but our most recent presidential debates use the language of sixth graders. Some candidates have devolved to the pre-school level.

We writers owe a duty to our gifts. We’ve been given the gift of language, and we need to dig deep into words. We need to relish wordplay, not rely on clichés as we stumble toward the marketplace, or settle for the slick, repackaged street-talk we pick up from rap and TV.

And we owe a duty to our other gift, our stories. In the cacophony of sound that fills our broadband waves, amid the lies and shrill self-promotions, it is essential that we writers return to Melville’s silent grass-growing place and find the truths that fiction can lay bare.

Our fictions are myths, of course, not histories: they show heroes vanquishing monsters. Theseus versus the wicked Minotaur, Marlowe versus the wicked temptress, V. I. Warshawski versus the wicked corporation, they’re all the same story.

But these fictions tell essential truths, about our emotional lives, what we fear, what we want, what we need. Writing is a form of auto-surgery: the closer we cut to our own bones, force ourselves to emotional truth, the more authentic will our voices become.

As the poet Sappho wrote, more than 2600 years ago,

'Although they are only breath
Words, which I command
Are immortal.'

What we remember from Sappho’s time, and from Melville’s, are not brand names or spreadsheets, but poets. For in the end, it is that word which is only breath which endures."


Sara Paretsky, the 2011 MWA Grand Master, is the award-winning author of the 14-book mystery series featuring female detective V.I. Warshawski. The newest title in the series is Body Work. Sara is the founding sister of Sisters in Crime.

Cathy Pickens, the national president of Sisters in Crime, is the author of the award-winning Southern Fried mystery series featuring South Carolina attorney Avery Andrews. The most recent title in the series is Can’t Never Tell.

Mystery Dinner Game: Hyenas, Tuskers, Chaos

By Ann Littlewood

[Originally posted at annlittlewood.blogspot.com]

Shortly before we left on our huge-deal safari to Kenya, one of the trip organizers suggested I dash off one of those role-playing mystery dinner games for a group activity.

"You write mysteries, right?"

Yes, but I'd never seen, much less played, such a game, and I was trying to draft the first 100 pages of the next zoo mystery so it could steep while we were gone, and meanwhile pack, finish a bathroom remodel, get typhoid shots, and arrange dog and house care and ...

So I said, "Sure!"

I resuscitated my corporate communications chops and welded them to mystery conventions and worked my aging ass off. I stole freely from a game I bought and customized it for a zoo keeper group in Kenya. The final package had invitations with a rhino logo, instructions, name tags, clues in envelopes, and player booklets. The setting was, of course, a safari camp. The game had a cunning murder, wacky characters, a false confession, gunshots, and plenty more. Naturally there was no time for a rehearsal before we left.

One night it was raining too hard for a red-light game drive, so instead of lurching around in an open van looking for leopards and hippos, we gave the game a try. I was a little trepidatious. Not nearly enough, it turned out.

On the plus side, we were all pretty well lubricated -- Tusker beer for many, wine for some. The women were keen to do it and argued over who got which of the four female parts. On the other hand, the men were not so enthusiastic. My husband and two other men agreed to give it a try after some arm-twisting, but we were a guy short.

We were staging this at the dining area of the camp and several of the Kenyan staff were on duty to open beers and so on. They thought this game sounded great.

One of them was John (not his real name), a tall young Maasai warrior (apparently all Maasai men are warriors), draped in his red robe and beaded head covering. He's learning the safari business from the ground up, waiting tables on his way to become a driver/guide, for which he will also need three years at the university in Nairobi. (The drivers had extensive training and knew everything.)

Aside from being a sweet, wide-eyed heart-throb (I say that in a motherly way), John was fearless, and he stepped in to take the last role.

I whipped up name tags for people who wanted a role and didn't have one -- the murdered woman's ghost (a brilliant idea, if I say so myself), hyena, leopard, lion, bushbaby, giraffe (a non-speaking part), tortoise (also non-speaking), and so on. Everyone who wanted to get in on it had a part, even if it was mostly to growl at random intervals.

And so we commenced. But, honestly, I had no way to know that the illumination at this eco-resort would be dimmer than candlelight. Reading 12 point type meant standing right next to one of the scarce little light bulbs. So we had a few issues with the script.

John had a key role, a big part. He speaks at least three languages (his tribe's, Kiswahili and English), but reading English was a tiny bit challenging. He got the words, but some of the flavor fell overboard. We applauded and kept the momentum. People loved hamming up their character. They vamped and whined and boasted and sneered and mostly forgot the player booklets.

And every time really crucial clues were about to be revealed, the two bartenders, hunched under a blanket together, ran through the middle of the group whooping like hyenas (exactly like hyenas). This aroused the leopard (in her spotted pajamas) to snarl and claw at them which set off the rest of the animals. I think the giraffe stampeded and the tortoise may have been trampled. It was hard to tell in the dark.

After extended chaos and considerable hysteria, the murderer threw her hands in the air and shouted a confession. We cheered.

So all you mystery writers, learn from my tale.

• Need I say "Tuskers?"

• Set up characters to be either gender.

• Be ready for audience participation.

• Don't expect anything complicated to work at all the way you intended.

And bring a flashlight.


Ann Littlewood is the author of the Zoo Mysteries featuring zookeeper Iris Oakley. The newest title in the series is Did Not Survive. Ann began her career at the Oregon Zoo where, as a nursery keeper for 12 years, she reared a variety of mammals and birds. She left the zoo to work in corporate America as a technical writer and publications manager. These days, she writes mysteries and short stories.

Mystery game photos by Liz Quinlan.

Spring Reading

By Cathy Pickens

It’s springtime, and a mystery reader’s fancy turns to good books. Okay, no requirement that it be springtime for that to happen. A hard-core reader doesn’t need much of an excuse.

Which leads me to my question: What books have you bought from an independent bookstore lately? We began a focus on independent bookstores in the late fall, following the lead of SinC member Dana Stabenow. Inquiring minds would like to know what you’ve added to your reading list—and where your favorite independent bookstores are!

For my list, I recently had a wonderful visit with the Friends of the Library in Clemson-Central, South Carolina, a real old-home week for me. Tricia Lightweis of Booksmith in Seneca took care of book sales. Her staff members are great friends of local writers and great sources for good reads.

At Park Road Books in Charlotte this week, I bought Murder in Italy (about the Amanda Knox case) by Seattle writer Candace Dempsey and The Brain That Changes Itself, featured on PBS’s The Brain Fitness Program. [Store owner Sally Brewster and I agreed that we needed to know how to be kind to our brains, to make up for past abuses.]

So where have you been? What have you bought? Let us in on some good secrets!

Cathy Pickens, the national president of Sisters in Crime, is the author of the award-winning Southern Fried mystery series featuring South Carolina attorney Avery Andrews. The most recent title in the series is Can’t Never Tell.

A Bouchercon Survival Guide

By Jon Jordan

Here's some information based on my own experiences and stories I've heard from others.

Pre-Bouchercon

Packing:
As you prepare for your trip, there are a few things to remember. Leave room in your bag, you'll be bringing home more than you take with you. Bring some aspirin, maybe some stomach medicine. You are in a strange town, eating out a lot and your schedule will be out of sorts. Better to have some things with you than to have to run to the gift shop and pay $22 dollars for three Excedrin. Bring extra socks and comfy shoes. Happy feet equal happy convention attendee. I also like to bring a few snack items for the room -- good late-at-night munchies can be hard to find.

At Bouchercon:

On the ground at the convention:
When hitting the hotel, especially somewhere I haven't been before, I like to scope out the surroundings. Is coffee available in the hotel? (In St. Louis, yes.) Are there stores and restaurants within walking distance? (Again, yes.) It's nice to have a good feel of the place before it all starts to get crazy.

Before you leave home, you should be able to see a schedule of the panels. Who is doing what and when. There will be a schedule up before the convention starts, most likely around early August. It's nice to have a game plan, but don't be too rigid. Flexibility is key. Seeing panels is great, but if you get into a good discussion with fans or an author, it may be worth missing a panel.

The one thing that my wife and I have found over the years is that it is a good idea to make a little time for quiet. Maybe a lunch away from the convention, or even an hour up in your room soaking in the tub. It can really help the whole thing from becoming overwhelming.

If you are getting books signed that you bring from home, I've found that it's best to keep the numbers down a bit. If I know authors will be in my home town, I wait until they come around again. Generally we bring books by those authors we don't see often. My first Bouchercon, I missed out on some cool things because I got caught up in the signing room.

Even if you aren't an author, it might be a good idea to make up some business cards. If you meet people you will want to keep in touch. Trading business cards is the easiest way. And it's easy enough to do on your own computer: just your name and email address is enough. Plus they
don't get lost like a bar napkin might.

A number of people have asked how to dress. One word: Comfortable. This is supposed to be fun, a vacation of sorts, though a crazy active one. There are no dress codes. Even to the Anthony Awards, I've seen people in t-shirts sitting next to people in a tux. Wear what feels good for you. I will suggest something with pockets :)

A couple quick points about authors:
Generally speaking, if an author is out and about in the convention area or bar, they are more than happy to talk to you and usually sign things. But be reasonable. Sliding a manuscript under a bathroom stall door is a bad idea. (And yes, it's been done.) Also, if people are eating, wait till they finish. If an author is talking to someone and you'd like to join in, if you wait for them to notice you, they will be more than happy to converse, but try not to interrupt a conversation in midpoint. (I've seen people interrupt a discussion between author and agent/editor.) It's really just basic courtesies.

To wrap up, my two biggest convention rules for myself are:
a) Eat a big breakfast.
b) I can sleep when I get home.

Our goal is for people to leave Bouchercon St. Louis tired and happy.


Jon Jordan is the publisher of Crimespree Magazine and the host of Bouchercon 2011. In the coming months, he will be "Blogging Bouchercon" on the SinC blog. For more information on Bouchercon, see http://bouchercon2011.com/.

The State of America's Libraries: The 2011 Report

By Kathie Felix

During this week's observance of National Library Week, the American Library Association released its annual “The State of America's Libraries" report.

The report provides information on current library trends including budget cuts, library use, the use of wireless internet services and computer access, the ebook evolution and related controversies, the most challenged books in the country and recent legislation affecting America’s libraries. The pdf version of the report is available on the ALA website here.

Some key components of the document appear below.

Budget Cuts

Taxpayers approved 87 percent of library operating measures on ballots across the country. However, according to U.S. mayors, local library hours, staff or services ranked number two in budget cuts, second only to cuts in maintenance and services at parks and gardens.

Library Use

A January 2011 poll conducted for the ALA by Harris Interactive found that:

• More than two-thirds of adults said a library’s assistance in starting a business or finding a job was important to them.

• 65 percent of those polled had visited the library in the past year (72 percent women, 58 percent men)

• 58 percent of those surveyed had a library card (mostly women and mostly working women and working mothers)

• 31 percent of adults ranked the library at the top of their list of tax-supported services

Increased Technology Offerings

Nearly 85 percent of public libraries offer wireless internet access and nearly two-thirds of these libraries extend wireless access outside the library. Computer usage at public libraries continues to increase.

Ebooks

For most libraries, ebooks are a small percentage of circulated items, although they represent the fastest-growing segment of borrowing. More than two-thirds of public libraries offer ebooks; almost all academic libraries offer them.

Last month’s announcement that HarperCollins will institute a 26-checkout policy for library ebooks raises the possibility that ebooks that are not repurchased would be available at a library for only about one year.

Most Challenged Books

The Top Ten List of Frequently Challenged Books published annually by the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom:

And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (which has been a target of censors since its publication in 1932)
Crank by Ellen Hopkins
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Lush by Natasha Friend
What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Revolutionary Voices edited by Amy Sonnie
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Recent Legislation

The legislative topics examined in the report include:

• The Library Services and Technology Act

• Legislation authorizing the use of libraries as relocation centers during disasters and emergencies

• Broadband-related issues such as an FCC-commissioned study that found libraries and other community organizations fill the gap between low home adoption of broadband internet technology and high community demand, library broadband funding via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the National Broadband Plan’s suggestions for the technology needs of libraries.

The American Library Association releases the State of America’s Libraries report each year during National Library Week.

In Praise of Bookmobiles

By Kathie Felix

National Library Week continues today, April 13, with National Bookmobile Day.

Nearly all of us have an earliest bookmobile memory. Mine replays a long-ago sunny day in the southwest U.S., as I stood on a neighborhood street corner with my mother and younger sisters. I can still picture my first look at the inside of that bookmobile – a most amazing place.

It seemed too good to be true when I heard that the library had a truck full of books that would be coming regularly to our neighborhood so that we could get something to read. To my great surprise and amazement, the bookmobile showed up exactly as scheduled. And, as I had hoped, it turned out to be the most fantastic – and convenient – place I’d ever seen.

To this day, I doubt I’ve seen a better idea for a delivery system. Although I’m a big fan of technology, e-readers just don’t seem to strike the same chord of wonder, possibly because I can’t actually see the books inside of them.

I think I will always remember walking away from that van on that summer day, as my five-year-old self imagined which books I’d stock on the shelves if that bookmobile was my very own.

In celebration of National Bookmobile Day, the American Library Association has posted an array of bookmobile-related information online at http://www.atyourlibrary.org/celebrate-national-bookmobile-day. The content includes information on the history of the bookmobile, a bookmobile slide show featuring vintage images and a video of the Parade of Bookmobiles at the 2009 American Library Association convention.

Do you have a bookmobile story that you'd like to share?

Celebrating National Library Workers Day -- and Equal Pay Day

By Kathie Felix

The National Library Week (April 10 – 16) celebration continues on Tuesday, April 12, with the observance of National Library Workers Day (NLWD).

The day was created to help library staff, users, administrators and Friends groups recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers.

The January 25, 2003 resolution establishing National Library Workers Day said:

“That in order to recognize the hard work, dedication, and expertise of library support staff and librarians that the Tuesday of National Library Week be designated National Library Workers Day; and, that on that day, interested library workers, library groups, and libraries should advocate for better compensation for all library workers and, if the day coincides with National Pay Equity Day, these individuals, groups, and libraries should recognize both days together.”

This year, both National Library Workers Day and Equal Pay Day will be observed on April 12.

The date for Equal Pay Day was chosen by the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) to symbolize how long into 2011 it takes on average for women to earn the same pay as men did in 2010. The NCPE reports that the U.S. Census showed the gender gap relatively unchanged, with women earning 77 cents for every dollar a man earned in 2009.

According to the American Library Association (ALA), library workers’ salaries on average are improving. The 2010 edition of the American Library Association – Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA) Salary Survey reports average increases across all six library position types, ranging from two percent for managers of support staff to 13 percent for directors of public and academic libraries.

Even so, a recent ALA statement pointed out that, “However in these tough times there is a need for special emphasis on the pay equity for library workers.”

For ideas on ways to advocate for pay equity, go to the NCPE website and see the ALA-APA Better Salaries and Pay Equity Toolkit.

Keep in mind that many individuals will be wearing red today to symbolize that women and minorities are "in the red" with their pay.

A variety of National Library Workers Day celebrations are taking place across the country today. The ALA-APA is hosting a contest designed to showcase the states that are celebrating their library workers publicly on National Library Workers Day. To find a complete list of these NLWD stars, check out the Library Star map on the ALA-APA website. Make sure your state is represented. Last week, 13 states had no nominations submitted for the Library Star project.

ALA-APA will accept Library Star nominations through the end of the day on Tuesday, April 12. The nominations will be posted online by Friday, April 15.

The National Library Workers Day website offers ideas about ways to celebrate the holiday. In addition, the NLWD Facebook page provides the opportunity to share information about National Library Workers Day celebrations.

Here at Sisters in Crime, we love library workers – and the libraries that employ them.

What are you doing on National Library Workers Day?