Duke has shown up UNC once again.
After the University successfully hosted the North Carolina Literary Festival in 2006-calling it the North Carolina Festival of the Book-the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has failed to coordinate a follow-up to the biennial festival set for 2008.
"We took a really hard look at this in the context of our priorities and our budget for 2008, and we certainly wouldn't be planning to do anything next year at this point," said Judith Panitch, director of library communications at UNC.
Although the initial reaction for many was to point an angry finger, some colleagues admit that UNC is not fully to blame.
"It's a very major event to organize," said Deborah Jakubs, the Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway university librarian and vice provost for library affairs at Duke. "It takes well over a year to really get it together to do it right. The reservations of the people at UNC are not based on any lack of appreciation for what a fabulous event it is or any lack of commitment to it. It's really been a question of timing."
Aaron Greenwald, now interim director of Duke Performances, was hired by Duke to be program director of the 2006 festival. He mirrored Jakub's opinion.
"To have a festival that staffs up and staffs down on a biannual basis is a very difficult model to make work," he said. "We really went after it and we pulled off a near-miraculous project."
The festival, founded in 1998, rotates between North Carolina State University, UNC, North Carolina Central University and Duke as the hosting schools. The festival has been praised in featuring both national and local writers and has become a symbol of collaborative spirit between the universities.
Many book lovers in the community have expressed disappointment in the festival's suspension.
"UNC or the state of North Carolina should find out some way to make it work because it reflects horribly on the institution and the state for not being able to pull it off because we had gained attention and visibility," said John Valentine, Trinity '71, Grad '76 and co-owner of the Regulator Bookshop on Ninth Street. "For North Carolina not to make it work, it looks shabby and second-rate. I'm holding if they can find $291,000 to pay a football coach for a mediocre year, they can find enough money to support a bunch of writers."
Librarians from the four hosting universities said they realize the importance of the festival to students and community members and are working on an alternative plan.
Susan Nutter, vice provost and director of libraries administration at NCSU, said ideas are being thrown around for an alternate program that would replace the festival, possibly in 2009. She said the program would take place over the course of one year and would feature separate, smaller events at each of the four campuses.
"Logistically it would be far easier to pull off," she said. "I'm optimistic."
Panitch maintained that this change of plans may be a small setback but will not damage future projects between the schools' libraries.
"We have a very long-standing collaborative and cooperative relationship," she said. "We have a foundation of building and sharing collections. We have very closely tied programming. Collaboration between libraries goes way beyond a festival."
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