Word: gregorians
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...private room at the Century Association, an elite club in Manhattan, to meet their new boss. They were all senior staff members of the New York Public Library and, not knowing who the new president might be, they were all edgy. For one thing, who could possibly replace Vartan Gregorian, the charismatic fund raiser who had led them out of fiscal ruin? And, of more immediate concern, should they have a drink while waiting? Perhaps not. After all, a leading contender was known to be Timothy S. Healy, a Jesuit priest. Sure enough, when the door opened, the big, bulky...
...N.Y.P.L. Healy has his work cut out for him. Despite its name, the library is a private institution and has just come through a $304 million fund drive in which Gregorian, philanthropist Brooke Astor and board chairman Andrew Heiskell shook every money tree in the city. Gregorian restored the splendid beaux arts edifice on 42nd Street, eliminated a years-long lag in cataloging and listed all publications after 1972 on a computer. Then he departed to be president of Brown University where, presumably, he will charm the birds out of the Rhode Island foliage...
...fact, there is a slight shift in library priorities. During the '80s the emphasis was on restoration. Gregorian liked to call the main building the "people's palace"; the library became perhaps the city's most fashionable benefit cause. But, reflecting the Bush era, the new buzz word is education, the province of the branches. "Essentially, we serve grammar school and junior high kids," says Healy, "and the agenda is not what you read but that you read...
...Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev agreed to hold a summit in the United States sometime in June, both Harvard and Brown Universities reportedly tried to lure the Soviet leader for speaking engagements. Since Harvard has prominent research centers for both European and Russian Studies, and since Brown President Vartan Gregorian is said to have close ties to Soviet officials, many believed Gorbachev would accept one of the invitations. As it turns out, Gorby snubbed both Harvard and Brown, instead choosing to visit Stanford, home of the notoriously conservative Hoover Institute. Gorbachev said he chose Stanford because his foreign minister...
Some critics complain that these new roles, while worthy, have taken libraries too far from their traditional mission of providing information. "If you love everything, you love nothing," grumbles Brown University president Vartan Gregorian, former head of the New York Public Library. Perhaps. But voters across the country are making it clear that modern, multifunctional libraries are something they are more than willing to support...