It was with expectations of adulation that the Chicago Public Library recently released its 1996 engagement calendar. It featured pictures of memorabilia from the library’s special collections and a day-by-day recital of significant events from the city’s past.
For their part, library officials brush off such mistakes as trivialities and dismiss Bjorklund’s criticisms as meaningless bleatings from an incorrigible sourpuss with too much time on his hands. “I guess Mr. Bjorklund has nothing better to do,” says library commissioner Mary Dempsey. “These are typographical errors that were missed. It’s the spirit of the calendar that’s most important. I won’t criticize or chastise the reference librarians for coming up with a wonderful idea.”
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Many of Bjorklund’s complaints have to do with style as much as substance. “They’re inconsistent in style, and as an old copy editor that bothers me,” he says. “Sometimes they capitalize City Hall, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they use a hyphen between parts of a modifying phrase, such as ‘African-American publisher’; other times they don’t. Commas are sprinkled about as if from a saltshaker, without any rhyme or reason. They use the wrong words so many times. For May 30 they write that the opening of the Shedd Aquarium ‘allowed’ the aquarium to transport a million gallons of saltwater, when they mean it required them to do so. They’re always writing ‘first ever’–as in ‘The Chicago Cubs played their first night game ever at Wrigley Field.’ Well, it’s unnecessary to write ‘ever’ once you’ve written ‘first.’
Most embarrassing, Bjorklund says, is the calendar’s “reverence” for Mayor Daley. “They mention his 1991 election on April 2, and his 1989 election on April 4,” says Bjorklund. “They were so elated about the [1989] victory that they mention it again for April 30, as if the same thing happened on different dates. I could argue that nothing this mayor’s done merits special attention–he’s only one of 40-something mayors–but at least don’t mention the same thing twice.”
“Different sources say different things. It’s a question of which source you believe. One has to look at the magnitude of what goes on paper. Will any little children die because there’s a typographical error on this calendar? I think not.”
