{"id":1119,"date":"2008-02-06T13:26:27","date_gmt":"2008-02-06T19:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1119"},"modified":"2008-02-06T14:19:30","modified_gmt":"2008-02-06T20:19:30","slug":"new-york-public-librarys-central-children%e2%80%99s-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1119","title":{"rendered":"New York Public Library’s Central Children\u2019s Room"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you are a big reader of the kidlitosphere, you have likely seen posts like this passionate one from Robin Brande<\/a><\/strong> or this post<\/a><\/strong> from Elizabeth Burns at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy<\/em> about the fate of the New York Public Library’s<\/a><\/strong> Donnell Branch<\/a><\/strong>. This<\/a><\/strong> November ’07 article from The New York Times<\/em> explains, in case you’ve not heard about this, that the library signed an agreement to sell the property and the building housing its Donnell branch to a hotel (thanks to Liz at Tea Cozy<\/em> for that link). The Donnell branch will close in May, leaving people to wonder if the resources in the Central Children’s Room<\/a><\/strong> (home of the original Winnie-the-Pooh, for one thing) and Teen Central<\/a><\/strong> will still be available. <\/p>\n

For the latest, you can read this “Talkback”<\/a><\/strong> piece at School Library Journal<\/em>, posted yesterday. Here’s an excerpt: <\/p>\n

News that Donnell could lose its Central Children\u2019s Room greatly disturbs award-winning author Jon Scieszka, who was recently named the new National Ambassador for Young People\u2019s Literature. \u201cI think it would be a loss for everybody in children\u2019s books if there wasn\u2019t a real dedicated Children\u2019s Room,\u201d says Scieszka, who says he edited The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales<\/em> (Scholastic, 1993), conducted research, and even wrote some of his early works in the room. \u201cIt would really be a loss for kids and send a message that kids\u2019 books aren\u2019t really that important.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, what he said. So, if you’re keeping up with this issue, that’s the latest, as we understand it, and we’re stickin’ to that. As Robin wrote in the aforementioned post,<\/p>\n

So what can we, ordinary citizens, do? Be big-mouthed complainers, that\u2019s what. Whether it\u2019s on our blogs or in letters or e-mails, we can be big pains-in-the-butts. When we read articles like the ones I linked to above, we can take the time to comment and make a record\u2013treat it like an on-line petition. Or if you really want to be radical, you can actually write to the people in charge over at the NYPL and say that even you, a resident of (not NYC), care about keeping a resource like that alive.<\/p>\n

Who knows if we can do anything at this point, but I think it pays to stay awake.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, what she said, too (this issue’s been covered so well elsewhere). But we at 7-Imp are doing our little part to make the issue known for anyone who perhaps hasn’t read about it yet. I (Jules, that is) may be way down near Nashville (and, indeed, was not swept up by a tornado last night), but I still care about that legendary Central Children’s Room and . . . well, any and all public libraries losing funding, losing valuable space, losing face. And I can safely speak on behalf of Eisha when I say that, too. Here’s hoping it will work out well in the end. It’s probably safe to say that School Library Journal<\/em> will continue to keep us all updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you are a big reader of the kidlitosphere, you have likely seen posts like this passionate one from Robin Brande or this post from Elizabeth Burns at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy about the fate of the New York Public Library’s Donnell Branch. This November ’07 article from The New York […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-etcetera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}