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White Plains Library Chief Has Publishers Weekly Role

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – The Dec. 3 issue of Publisher’s Weekly (PW) will feature a column by White Plains Library Director Brian Kenney, who is now a contributing editor and blogger for the magazine.

Brian Kenney became the White Plains Library director in  2011.

Brian Kenney became the White Plains Library director in 2011.

Photo Credit: File photo

The former editorial director for Library Journal, School Library Journal and The Horn Book will begin writing a monthly column for PW exploring the relationship between publishers and libraries. He will also contribute blog posts, commentary and reports from library conferences.

“I’ve always had great respect for the PW team, and I’m really pleased to be joining them,” Kenney, a Queens resident, said. “Best of all, I’ll be writing about what interests me the most—the transformations at work in publishing and libraries, and how the changes in one industry can ricochet into the other.”

The library was one of few resources available to Kenney growing up in Lawrence, a poor city in Massachusetts.

“Like a lot of librarians, I grew up in the library,” he said. “I became literate, grew as a learner and even began to understand my own identity through the public library.”

After earning his master’s in library science from Pratt Institute and doctoral degree in information science from the University of North Texas, Kenney worked in several New York City Libraries. He spent ten years working with Library Journal and School Library Journal, where he expanded their reach by launching new publications, including Library By Design, School Library Journal Teen, Extra Helping and Patron Profiles.

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Brian in the past, and I’m thrilled to have the chance to do so again,” said Andrew Richard Albanese, senior writer and features editor at PW. ‘He’ll bring valuable, and entertaining, insight to our library coverage, both from his experience as a hands-on, working librarian, and from his years in publishing.”

Kenney is also a long-time book review, and has chaired the American Library Association’s (ALA) Notable Books Council. He is joining the 2013 committee of ALA’s Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction.

As director of the White Plains Library, Kenney is overseeing a multi-year renovation of the library, which he said, “is as much a chance to recreate library service as it is to update a great building.”

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