Shame on Chicago Public Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey and board member Joseph Cari Jr. for attempting to minimize the importance of the significant number of errors in the library’s Chicago Historical Engagement Calendar 1996, as cited by Richard C. Bjorklund (Main news, Nov. 22).
Whether the library’s decision not to involve a qualified editor in this project was due to arrogance or cost, the result cannot be justified by the statement of Emelie Shroder, assistant commissioner for research, that the development of the calendar “was a labor of love.” Purchasers of this fund-raising effort deserved better.
Perhaps, in the 1997 calendar, the reference librarians responsible for its content might use for the Oct. 9 entry the observation by Lord Chesterfield, in a letter to his son written on that date in 1746, “Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.”
