I LOVE NEW YORK…The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles is offering drivers a “Love Your Library” license plate. The $25 annual fee will be deposited into the Love Your Library Fund which supports New York’s statewide summer reading program.

A RESPONSE TO STEVE JOBS… “For most of my lifetime, I’ve heard that reading is dead. In that time, disco has died, drive-in movies have nearly died, and something called the Clapper has come and gone in bedrooms across the nation. But reading? This year, about 400 million books will be sold in the United States. Overall, business is up 1% --not bad, in a rough economy, for a $15 billion industry still populated by people whose idea of how to sell books dates to Bartleby the Scrivener.”—Author Tim Egan, responding to Steve Jobs’s comment that “people don’t read anymore.”

WHAT DO WE REALLY DO, ANYWAY?... I have been a longtime subscriber to “OPL” (One-Person Library), now in its final year of publication. Judith Siess, the editor, recently ran a statistical breakdown of the topics she has covered over the past ten years. The leading category? Marketing/ PR/Publicity. This should remind all of us how important these activities are.

AND FINALLY… In the next issue of NOCALL News, I’m planning to write about John Moore, the late Financial District Branch Librarian for the SFLL. As you know, this year’s substantial NOCALL Grant for attendance at AALL has been named in memory of John. If you have memories and stories about John which you’d like me to share with readers of NOCALL News, please contact me. I’d appreciate hearing from you!