- Fran Spielman/Sun-Times Media
- Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett haven’t found a way to hire school librarians.
I was reading a collection of Kurt Vonnegut’s letters—great book, by the way—when I came across a missive from February of 1983 that sort of sums up Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s curious attitude toward libraries.
“I have complied with this request. Since books are to libraries what asphalt is to highway departments, I assume that Indiana is also asking donations from suppliers of asphalt for her roads. Or has it been decided that asphalt is worth good money, and that books are not?”
But he clearly doesn’t want to spend the money to hire librarians to run the libraries.
A concept straight out of Orwell, speaking of great novelists.
That’s because the principal, when cutting the budget, had to decide—hmm, what goes first, the librarian or the Spanish teacher?
“If Barbara Byrd-Bennett is looking for certified librarians, I can send her a bunch of resumes of librarians who are looking for jobs,” Merola said. “There are many universities graduating librarians every year.”
