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June 15, 2009

At library festival, a call to action

Last updated: Monday June 15, 2009, 8:40 AM
BY JOAN VERDON
NorthJersey.com
STAFF WRITER
0 Comments A gathering of book lovers and New Jersey authors in Paramus on Sunday included a call for taxpayers to support municipal, state and federal funding for the state's libraries, which are doing a booming business in a time of threatened budget cuts.

"There's a famous quote: 'Books get you through times with no money better than money gets you through times with no books,' " said Arlene Sahraie, library services director for the Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS), which hosted a BooksNJ2009 festival Sunday on the grounds of the Paramus Public Library. The event drew more than 1,000 authors and readers, and also several politicians who urged the audience to become citizen lobbyists for libraries.

BCCLS has begun recruiting "library champions" through its Web site, www.bccls.org. The "champions" are then alerted via e-mail when library advocates are needed to lobby legislators to prevent budget cuts. As of Sunday, 1,029 have registered.
BCCLS is a consortium that allows 75 public libraries in Northern New Jersey to share materials and services. The system expects to circulate over 12 million items this year, said Robert White, executive director of BCCLS. Local libraries, White said, will suffer if a proposed 20 percent cut in state funding is enacted.

Assemblywoman Connie Wagner of Paramus urged attendees Sunday to contact legislators to voice support for a bill she has introduced asking for federal stimulus money to be devoted to the building of libraries. "We have it for school construction," she said. "Why not for libraries?"
The festival, originally planned as a celebration of the 30th anniversary of BCCLS, grew into an extravaganza after 93 authors, most of them current or former New Jersey residents, signed up to participate. Several dozen tents were set up on the library grounds, with authors signing books and conducting workshops under each tent. The authors joined panel discussions ranging from "The Art of Getting Published" to "That Fictional Location called New Jersey."

The latter was led by three authors, two from Montclair and one who grew up in Haworth and now teaches at Rutgers-Camden. Former Haworth resident Lauren Grodstein is the author of one novel set in Fort Lee and another, "A Friend of the Family," to be published by Algonquin in November, which is set in what she called "a thinly disguised Englewood" with a character who was a student at the "thinly disguised Dwight-Englewood" private school. In the novel, she's renamed Englewood "Round Hill."

Grodstein's father, Gerald Grodstein of Haworth, was among those attending the discussion. He admitted before the discussion that "I never wanted her to be a writer. I wanted her to earn a living."

A number of authors at the event said the economic downturn has made it tougher for them to make a living, with publishers purchasing fewer manuscripts and putting projects on hold.
Several writers at the festival are their own publishers, having chosen to self-publish their books. They said sales have been tough this year, but in most cases they have jobs that pay the bills, allowing them to do their writing as a labor of love.

Charles Caldes of Ridgefield self-publishes books and pamphlets about New Jersey railroads and rail history and is the author of a book about Jersey City's Journal Square. He said sales of his railroad-related materials are down 50 percent this year as Americans have cut spending on hobbies. "It's brutal," he said, "but I'm putting out more product so I'll be ready when times get better."

"There's no such thing as a really good economy for an author," said Lauren Grodstein, who is also an English professor at Rutgers-Camden. But events like the books festival "make it better," she said.

The festival provided inspiration for some young book lovers, including Max Garfinkle, 8, a second-grader at Warren Point School in Fair Lawn who attended a panel discussion led by children's book authors. "Where do you get your ideas?" he asked Lisa Mullarkey, author of numerous children's books including the "Katherine the Almost Great" series. "Write what makes your heart happy," Mullarkey said.

E-mail: verdon@northjersey.com

Posted by tumulty at June 15, 2009 3:03 PM

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