An Interview with Ginny Moore Kruse
by Amy E. Brandt
Ginny Moore Kruse became Director of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center in 1976. Ginny is respected throughout Wisconsin and nationally as an expert in children’s and young adult literature, and as a staunch advocate of intellectual freedom. Ginny retired from the CCBC in August 2002. In this interview on the eve of her retirment, she offered a glimpse of her dynamic career at the CCBC and the people who helped make the CCBC such a vital place.
AEB: When you began as Director of the CCBC in July 1976, your position was deemed a one-year appointment, as there were plans to close the CCBC within a year. Twenty-six years later, the CCBC is a vital and invaluable institution. What happened?
GMK: Funding from the state education agency at that time had what we
would today label as start-up funding, and it was going to end in June
1977. Period. For logical reasons, too. Along with funding from the University
of Wisconsin School of Education and the Library School, this Division
for Libraries funding had been the third source of CCBC “cooperative” funding
since its doors first opened in 1963 in the State Capitol building.
Even so, it seemed to me that we could view most of 1976-1977 as a “project” year,
an opportunity to meet the specific current information needs about children’s
literature of our “public” or “service population” which
was UW-Madison university students, Wisconsin teachers, and Wisconsin
librarians. This was fine with the CCBC Executive Board, as long as the
CCBC didn’t go into the red by June 1977.
During the summer of 1976 I conducted an informal needs assessment. Dr.
Sally Davis had also just arrived on campus to head the UW-Madison Library
School Library. Because she had previously been the Oconomowoc district
media coordinator, Sally’s wise, generous counsel was extremely
helpful, and she was also well connected with the Wisconsin library community.
Sally became chair of the CCBC Advisory Board, which soon evolved from
being a group of busy presidents of state organizations to representing
a cross-section of the CCBC’s service population across the state,
more or less as it functions today. Along with Sally and Professor Muriel
Fuller, who had responsibility for UW-Extension continuing education
programs for librarians, somehow I was invited to speak at the October
Wisconsin Library Association conference. Several one-day winter and
spring workshops for librarians and teachers were planned with the help
of Susan C. Griffith, a Library School student with a CCBC Project Assistant
appointment. Before I came to the CCBC I had been invited by Ronnie Hess
to develop and tape weekly commentaries about children’s books
for broadcast on Wisconsin Public Radio. There was no plan in place to
continue or “save” the CCBC. The CCBC simply became more
visible across the campus and state.
That evolving visibility caused a number of people who weren’t
previously very acquainted with the CCBC, or with each other for that
matter, to begin saying that the CCBC must not be closed down. Some of
them then worked alongside Department of Public Instruction (DPI) colleagues
Lyle Eberhart and others to support a new kind of funding commitment.
Many pitched into the effort during that time, including Pat Bakula,
Nancy Elsmo, Vida Stanton, Eliza Dresang, Joan Thron, Carolyn Cain, Rose
Holmes, Kay Knauer, Mary Elizabeth Ledlie, Tekla Bekkedal, Bette Peltola,
and Sandy Robbers—and that doesn’t begin to name everyone!
Meanwhile, Susan and I focused on providing reliable, high quality CCBC
services both on and off-campus. Although it wasn’t until June
1977 that continued cooperative funding from DPI was confirmed, it was
always clear that the University’s School of Education and Library
School remained committed to the CCBC and its expanded service emphasis.
If the CCBC hadn’t been supremely well organized and administered
internally since 1963, due to the former leadership of Elizabeth Burr
and others, such progress could never have been accomplished in that
short length of time. If it weren’t for the on-going support of
past Education Deans John Palmer and Henry Trueba and now that of Dean
Charles Read, the commitment to the CCBC could not have been sustained
over the years. DPI support has always been critical to the outreach
mission of the CCBC since then, with crucial leadership coming from Leslyn
Shires, Bill Wilson, Larry Nix, Sally Drew, Carolyn Folke, and Cal Potter,
to mention only a few. Direct annual funding from the School of Library
and Information Studies ceased in 1986, due to decisions made elsewhere
on campus; in-kind support has come from many on that faculty then and
since, including that of former director Jane Robbins and current director
Louise S. Robbins.
Absolutely all credit must be shared with those named and so many others,
especially with Susan C. Griffith, Carol Langenburg, Michele Seipp, Kathleen
Horning, Mary Jo Cleaver, Deana Grobe, Merri Lindgren, and Megan Schliesman
AEB: Since the 1970s, the universe of children’s and young adult literature has expanded and evolved. Of course, the CCBC has responded to myriad changes in the literature as well as in how the literature is read and used by children, students, teachers, and librarians. In your opinion, what have been the most significant changes in the CCBC’s past three decades?
GMK: Despite its unwieldy, confusing name, the Cooperative Children’s
Book Center now focuses on young adult literature, as well as books for
children. Also, the CCBC’s reference collection of print materials
about children’s and young adult literature has grown enormously
in scope, format, and size.
The CCBC has found additional ways to do what no other state library
or agency does, which is to document, archive, and provide information
about authors and artists who are current and past Wisconsin residents.
The nationally unique Alternative Press Collection and related information
services begun in 1980 have made a huge impact on what the CCBC can offer
to its users on and off-campus.
CCBC Book Discussion Guidelines, developed in 1981 and written down by
Katy and me in 1989, are now used in annual book award discussions here
and nationally, as well.
We’ve expanded the emphasis on multicultural literature, documented
as far back as 1963 in CCBC files.
Educators on and off campus have invited us to collaborate in so many
ways, such as the splendid thematic conferences we began developing in
the late 1970s with Professors Gertrude Herman and Jack Kean; projects
with groups within WLA, WEMA, WSRA, and WCTE; and the SERC satellite
TV courses with DPI and the Educational Communications Board (ECB) in
1993 and 1995. The CCBC has developed an ever-growing network of colleagues
and kindred spirits on campus, in regional and state organizations, and
across the nation. This, too, has been significant.
Thanks to emerging technologies and the strong support of the School
of Education, the CCBC now has access to many ways of providing information
wanted by students, faculty, and staff on campus, and any adult with
an academic, professional or career interest in literature for the young.
These include the CCBC website, with a Book of the Week review and video
streamed speeches by CCBC guests, and much more. The topical CCBC-Net
discussions begun in June, 1995, with Michael Streibel and Chris Dowling’s
support, now involve more than 1,700 people in this nation and beyond.
The CCBC now administers the annual Charlotte Zolotow Lecture and Award,
each of which is an exciting recent dimension of service honoring one
of the University’s former students with a distinguished career
as a writer, editor and publisher. We couldn’t have accomplished
this without the insight and guidance of our UW Foundation colleague
Jane Urbaska, of donors, and of the Friends. People probably have no
idea of the impact of our very active, fantastic Friends organization,
which is another story in itself!
AEB: Throughout your career, you have been a strong advocate for intellectual freedom. You have served on national boards of directors and committees, received state and national awards, and are now part of organizing a network for intellectual freedom advocates here in Wisconsin. However, one of your most enduring accomplishments has been the establishment of the CCBC Intellectual Freedom Information Services. What prompted you to start the Intellectual Freedom services at the CCBC?
GMK: During my first week at the CCBC, I examined administrative files
and tried to become acquainted with the Reference Collection. I remember
thinking to myself how helpful some of those very reference resources
could have been to me as a former teacher and librarian whenever a book
in my classroom or library was questioned by a parent or administrator.
I knew from personal experience how it feels to defend a book to which access
is threatened. Once I had experienced an internal challenge when, as the head
of a junior high library, I was denied the right to order a new novel, The
Outsiders. At another time I had served as a parent member of a review committee
when a book was questioned in an elementary school. I understood the environments
in which this can happen, and I was familiar with the potential “players,” as
it were.
It seemed to me that these vast CCBC resources might be helpful to Wisconsin
teachers and librarians having similar experiences. During the fall of 1977
I began thinking seriously how such an information service might be administered.
How might the same CCBC resources used by students and others for academic
purposes be used in an specific extension of CCBC information services whenever
they might be requested by individual Wisconsin librarians and educators? People
didn’t have access then to backfiles of bound periodicals and certainly
not to the databases available today. At the CCBC we not only had access to
those backfiles, we were steeped in thinking about and working with literature
for the young every single day. As specialists we were perfectly positioned
to provide immediate, in-depth information. We didn’t have to shift gears
in order to think about why a book could be professionally valued from any
number of perspectives.
When new DPI administrator Dianne M. Williams (now Dianne M. Hopkins) scheduled
an appointment to become acquainted with CCBC resources and its professional
staff—which was me at that time—I mentioned my idea to her. Dianne
immediately expressed interest in what such an information service might mean
for Wisconsin school librarians. She subsequently developed a network still
in place for DPI consultants to be linked to this CCBC service.
Professor Charles Bunge applied for and secured an Evjue Foundation grant so
the service could get underway. Barbara Holme Wilson was hired part time to
offer staff support. Jack Kean’s nationally acknowledged expertise in
curriculum development and academic freedom, and his long-standing involvement
on behalf of his students with the CCBC, were invaluable.
The first Intellectual Freedom Information Service transaction occurred on
January 18, 1978. The CCBC’s Intellectual Freedom Information Services
have been used as many as 140 and as few as 70 times during a calendar year
by Wisconsin teachers and librarians. What the CCBC can do now at the time
of a Wisconsin book complaint has evolved substantially beyond what could be
provided when we began!
AEB: Each year, thousands of people look forward to the publication
of CCBC Choices, an extensive bibliography of children’s and young adult books
published during the previous year and recommended by CCBC staff (The Friends
of CCBC print 6,500 copies of Choices each year). With thousands of children’s
and young adult books being reviewed in professional journals and the popular
press, how is CCBC Choices unique?
GMK: Although I had previously thought that there were enough “best
of the year” lists to go around, my mind began to change during
1979. Susan and I realized that the newly formed CCBC monthly book discussions
along with our daily access to and use of the CCBC Current Collection
of recently published books gave us insights about new books that might
be helpful to CCBC users. We noticed that most “best of the year” lists
and publishers’ ads seemed to focus on a pool of almost the same
books. Then, as now, there are always so many other books we deemed excellent
from a variety of perspectives each year. People have little or no way
to have these books brought to their attention. Here at the CCBC we were
using these new books in many ways all year. We could so easily make
comparisons with other new books and with the books published in earlier
years, too. We had access to content specialists, and we could seek informal
feedback from the librarians and teachers using the CCBC for book selection
or curriculum development.
CCBC Choices 1980 was published in 1981. It was a modest seven-page stapled
8x11 handout, and it was typed, perhaps on stencils. Incidentally, after
several years of Choices, it was members of the Friends Board who pointed
out that the format of Choices needed to reflect the quality of the contents.
The 1983 issue was indexed. In 1985 we included observations about publishing.
In 1986 Bill Kasdorf at Impressions created a professional design for
Choices, and the Friends funded the production. The 1994 issue contained
the first professional index created by Friends member Tana Elias. In
1995 Choices simply needed a fresh look, and our colleagues at UW Publications
assisted us to take that step. Lois Ehlert created the fine cover design
you’ve enjoyed since then.
And now the annotated citations from CCBC Choices 1990 to the present
issue are available in the Children’s Literature Comprehensive
Database. Wow!
Some things haven’t changed. CCBC Choices continues to be created
within the environment of the CCBC and all its resources and services.
It’s still a volunteer effort of the CCBC librarians. And most
of the “best of the year” lists and publishers’ ads
still seem to feature a more or less similar pool of books. The Friends
now underwrite the expenses of publishing Choices, and it has become
their biggest annual budget item. The CCBC librarians continue to develop
and refine new ways to make Choices known and available to anyone who
might find it useful. We never expect every person who uses Choices to
appreciate or want every book we recommend, but we always hope there
will be books important for each individual each year.
AEB: In addition to writing for CCBC Choices, you have authored and
co-authored (with Kathleen T. Horning) several bibliographies about multicultural
literature for youth. Please tell us a little bit about your ongoing
commitment to multicultural literature.
GMK: Along with its longstanding commitment to high quality writing
and artwork and to excellence in literature from a variety of perspectives,
the CCBC has always maintained a basic commitment to what is now called
multicultural literature.
Early in the 1980s it was a question from Janesville school librarian
Patty Geske Schultz that caused us to realize how very much the CCBC
can provide specialized information about children’s literature.
It was my service on the national 1985-1986 Coretta Scott King Book
Awards jury that caused us to realize we wanted to document in writing
that only 18 books were eligible for the 1986 award.
I think it was an invitation to me to speak at a convention of the
Wisconsin Council on the Social Studies that caused us to develop a
brief annotated list of recommended books on multicultural literature.
I’m certain that it was Don Crary and Margaret Jensen who later
saw that handout, and claimed that this printed bibliography needed
wider distribution. Chancellor Donna Shalala agreed when she saw many
of the books we were recommending during her visit to the CCBC in her
first year at UW-Madison.
Their support echoed the voiced needs then of classroom teachers and
librarians across the nation and of faculty and students here. This caused
us to have subsequent discussions with Barbara Bitters and others at
DPI, with the Friends Board, and with Chancellor Shalala’s representatives.
We talked about developing a professionally produced, nationally distributed
publication featuring recommended books and related information about
multicultural literature, and so the first edition of the volume one
was published in 1989.
At that time it was also important to create ways to encourage authors
and artists of color who might become interested in creating books for
the young. As always, Katy was thinking “outside of the box.” She
suggested figuring out how to provide some of the gifted authors and
authors “out there” with an opportunity to find out from
experienced mentors such as Walter Dean Myers more about the book publishing
and evaluation process. Katy and I met with Jane Pearlmutter and others
in the School of Library and Information Studies along with faculty from
the School of Education to develop “The Multicolored Mirror,” a
conference and parallel workshop for authors and artists held on campus
in 1991. Subsequently a book with the same title was published by Highsmith
at the end of the year.
AEB: You have met scores of authors and illustrators over the years,
through your participation in book award committees, conferences, continuing
education, and events at the CCBC. Can you share a couple of memorable
author/illustrator meetings or other experiences?
GMK: You probably don’t know that Nancy Ekholm Burkert encouraged
me to participate in an exchange with artists and authors from the former
USSR at Bread Loaf in Vermont in 1986 and in Lithuania and Russia the
next year. Or, that in 1989, on behalf of the Association for Library
Service to Children, I visited Iona Opie at her home in England in order
to personally invite her to give the 1991 Arbuthnot Lecture. Or, that
while I was a member of the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee, we met
in 1988 with FBI staff to discuss the FBI’s Library Awareness Program.
Or, that in 1993 I was one of four American women invited to give a paper
at a seminar in Teheran, Iran. I can go on almost indefinitely once you
start asking me about my amazing experiences within the wider book and
publishing community.
However, so much of what is actually most memorable to me involves the
people I’ve met while they’ve been using the CCBC, or while
I’ve represented the CCBC elsewhere in Wisconsin. Most of these
individuals are teachers, librarians, and UW- Madison alums whose names
you probably wouldn’t recognize; but they have given me the energy
and enthusiasm for attempting to manage the ever-expanding services of
the CCBC.
The late Ellen Raskin’s trip back to her beloved University of
Wisconsin campus in Madison in May, 1979, stands out in a major way.
Even though she lived most of her adult life in New York City, Ellen
enjoyed telling people that she was from Wisconsin. She savored every
opportunity to return to Milwaukee where she had lived as a child and
Madison where she had been a student. Ellen was adamant about wanting
some of her papers to be in the CCBC and handled as much as possible
by students on this campus and other adults who might want to know more
about the creative process. She wished she had been able to see something
like that while she was an art student here. After she made this offer
a third time, I stopped replying that the CCBC doesn’t collect
manuscripts, or that the CCBC doesn’t have the environment necessary
for archiving fragile documents.
This always highly organized writer, artist, and graphic designer had
been hanging on to every scrap of paper with the CCBC in mind while she
was creating The Westing Game. Because she created The Westing Game before
she owned a computer, everything was on paper: the proposal, drafts,
revisions and her editor’s notes. Even though that brilliantly
quirky, humorous novel subsequently won three literary awards (Newbery,
Boston Globe–Horn Book, and Banta), Ellen kept her word. She hand-carried
the manuscript and design materials for The Westing Game to the CCBC
in May 1979. I encouraged Ellen to hold a microphone while she talked
through the materials for those assembled for the first annual meeting
of the Friends of the CCBC in what is now named the Elizabeth Burr Conference
Room. As a result, the CCBC also has Ellen’s taped comments about
the precious papers she gave to the CCBC that day.
Later, Ellen returned to Wisconsin to be interviewed extensively at the
CCBC for what became a two-part series of videotapes featuring her life
and creative works. Eileen Littig of NEWIST at UW-Green Bay produced
the videotapes about this artist who was formally acknowledged with awards
for her writing. The Friends of the CCBC have since then acquired the
out-takes from those extensive interviews for the CCBC. Someone from
Texas looked at each of them only a few months ago.
Another memorable day occurred during the University’s fall registration
week in 1979 when a freshman student from Racine made an appointment
to meet with me at the suggestion of his public librarian, Nancy Elsmo.
Kevin Henkes brought his portfolio to the CCBC and said he wanted to
write and illustrate children’s books. I looked at what I remember
were lovely watercolor paintings, many of which bore award ribbons from
previous competitions.
I knew I was looking at the work of a gifted artist impatient to begin
creating books for children. I also knew he needed to deepen his understanding
of the book world. I recalled that an Oberlin professor had told one
of my daughters in regards to her creative writing that it’s important
to take time to separate oneself from one’s high school experience.
Kevin has probably forgotten exactly what was said that afternoon, but
I know it was something to that effect.
I made my usual, specific suggestions for his use of the CCBC, even though
in my experience most erstwhile book creators are unwilling to invest
that kind of time on their prospective careers. Not Kevin. He spent endless
hours in the CCBC listening to audio taped speeches of former guest speakers
such as Ellen Raskin and Susan Hirschman, attending a weekly CCBC lecture
series, and examining the typography and paper stock of books honored
by the Children’s Book Council’s annual “Showcase.” He
dummied up All Alone under Jack Kean’s tutelage and honed his understanding
of the vast body of published literature for the young with Gertrude
Herman.
Late the next spring, Kevin asked me to look with him at the ranked list
of publishers he had made after months spent scrutinizing CCBC copies
of books he admired, publisher by publisher. A visit to New York City
was in the works, and he was ready to make the necessary appointments.
He had brought his gifts as an artist and writer along with his intentions
to the environment of the CCBC, and CCBC resources were here for him.
I also remember when Lois Ehlert came to the CCBC in March 1980 to talk
about her freelance career as an artist. Lois was here that day as a
guest of the Friends of the CCBC, who had been encouraged by President
Elizabeth Burr to do something visible. That something emerged as a Dane
County Cultural Affairs project linking Wisconsin authors and artists
with Dane County audiences. People such as Florence Parry Heide and Frances
Hamerstom would and did draw huge audiences during that project.
But Lois who? Very few people outside of the Milwaukee area where she
now resided and her hometown of Beaver Dam knew Lois Ehlert’s few
books for children then. She was so far ahead of the technology of those
years that her understanding of color and design simply couldn’t
be served by the book production of those days. I was convinced that
people trusted the CCBC enough to want to hear this relatively unknown
artist speak. They did come, and they were amazed at her genius in creating
fabric art, posters for Manpower, illustrations for textbooks, and oh
yes, books for children, including Limericks by Lear, from which the
Friends later secured original artwork for the CCBC. Lois and I often
talk about her first encounter with the CCBC and the Friends of the CCBC.
We’re both glad it wasn’t her last.
AEB: What has been the most rewarding part of your tenure at the CCBC?
GMK: Two things.
Seeing and using CCBC books and resources. I’m proud to have been
given the opportunity to shepherd it and to expand the services based
upon this incomparable collection.
The people. The people with whom I’ve have had the privilege of
working, especially the CCBC librarians and student staffers. The university
students, faculty and staff. The Wisconsin teachers and librarians and
DPI colleagues whom I’ve had the opportunity to assist in one way
or another. The authors, artists, editors, publishers and reviewers with
whom I’ve had the chance to interact. Professional colleagues from
across the nation and beyond. I’ve learned so much from everyone.
AEB: You have mentioned that you plan to remain professionally active in your retirement; what are your plans?
GMK: I plan to keep on learning. John and I want to travel more and
farther, and we’ll also have greater flexibility about when we
can be at our Burnett County cabin. We’ll have more time to be
with our daughters and grandchildren. I want to be with old friends,
and I look forward to making new ones. For many years I’ve been
part of two adult reading groups, and there are shelves of other books
I’m eager to read, too. I plan to continue reading books for children
and young adults; the best of them are often far superior in quality
to highly touted books published with adult readers in mind, and they
can be taken seriously as literature.
I’m leaving the job I’ve loved, but not the career I’ve enjoyed
so much, because I’ve already made several professional commitments in
Wisconsin and nationally. Although I anticipate having CCBC virtual resources
literally at my fingertips, I’ll need to use them in person. I’m
so glad the CCBC is here for everyone, and now “everyone” includes
me, too!