Author Kevin Starr Named State Librarian

Kevin Starr, the historian and pundit whose essays have lauded “that special refreshment of mind that a great public library offers,” was appointed Tuesday to the post of state librarian by Gov. Pete Wilson.

Starr, 53, a professor of urban and regional planning at USC, is perhaps best known for his work as a contributing editor for the Los Angeles Times and his series of books chronicling the social and cultural history of California.

However, Starr also has served as the San Francisco city librarian, and holds a master of library science degree from UC Berkeley. In articles for The Times opinion pages, he has argued, among other things, against the decline of university library science departments and the demands of Central Library employees that they be paid double-time for working Sundays.

“Like the ministry, like social welfare, like primary and secondary education, librarianship is not a shortcut to riches or prestige,” Starr wrote in a 1993 opinion piece. “It is a mode of service, a vital branch of education, connected via its gift of self-instruction to the information needs, the intellectual and imaginative needs, of a lifetime.”

In another article this year, Starr said that “librarians--public librarians especially--stand for the idea that all Americans, regardless of income or social status, should have access to books and information, as a matter of economic and intellectual survival.”

In naming Starr as the seventh state librarian in the 144-year history of the California State Library, Wilson lauded his “statewide and national reputation as an expert on California,” and his work as a librarian, historian, journalist and communications consultant.

“The State Library will require each of these skills in the years to come,” Wilson said.

Starr said his first priorities in the $83,868-a-year post will be moving the California Braille and Talking Books collection into the state’s new Library-Courts II Building and the development of the California Research Bureau.

“Never have the libraries of California faced a greater challenge than the present,” Starr said. “We have the information highway, to be sure, but we also have millions of Californians who must be assisted and encouraged in their literacy.”