ALA Presidential Candidates Sound Off

Crowe, Roy address technology, lack of diversity in the profession, intelligent design

By Laura B. Weiss -- School Library Journal, 12/1/2005

The race for the 2007–2008 presidency of the American Library Association (ALA) has begun. School Library Journal recently spoke to candidates Loriene Roy, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Information and founder of “If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything,” a national reading club for Native American children, and William Crowe, head of the University of Kansas’s Kenneth Spencer Research Library.

If elected, how would you support school and children’s librarians?

Crowe: [My first experience with school libraries] was as a parent, which has reinforced the importance of school librarians and what children need. I’m amazed at the range of responsibilities and the skills they need today. The other contact has come because of our library’s interest in special collections and the interest of schools in teaching to primary sources.

Roy: There needs to be greater visibility for school librarians. Even our own faculty are not aware of the requirements for [becoming a] school librarian. In some locations, school librarians are not included in the merit system within school systems.

Teens love technology, like video games and blogs. How do you approach these kids?

Crowe: For YA librarians, the most important thing is visibility. I’m not an expert; I have to listen to people. The foundation of everything we do comes out of young people. The fact is that school libraries are in desperate straits. Academic librarians don’t know this.

Roy: I’m the mother of a 15-year-old, one of these gamer kids. But he’s a terrific reader. He’s very heavily into anime and manga. Rather than fear the role of gaming, [librarians should acknowledge] it has a strong social role. Kids don’t necessarily read award-winning books. [There needs to be] more visibility for books kids are actually reading, like graphic novels.

Blogs are becoming increasingly popular among teens. What’s the challenge for librarians?

Crowe: If you’re in a school library, then you’re governed by a school’s mission—protecting the privacy of young people but explaining to them and their parents what the rules of the road are, teaching what the responsibilities are, and the consequences. In a public library environment, we need to be aware of what the law is. I’m always concerned about safety issues.

Roy: We have to filter content for kids, and parents are involved in those decisions. Kids need the opportunity to express themselves. If it’s blogging, the library would be missing out if they didn’t do that.

How can public and school libraries better work together?

Crowe: The user doesn’t care; they simply want us to [provide services] effectively. As president, I would showcase the experiments going on. I would call attention to something wonderful happening in Montana or rural Louisiana.

Roy: I’d like to see a national homework help [project] that’s a partnership between public libraries and school libraries. The more cross-institutional collaboration, the better. One of my students did a project… to assist fifth graders to prepare for their transition to middle schools. It was advertised in the school, and the kids met in the public library after class.

How does the lack of diversity in the profession affect kids, and how can we attract more people of color?

Crowe: I’m almost 60, with graying hair and dimmed eyes. It’s so hard to put myself in the shoes of someone who’s 10 years old and African American. [It’s important to] treat people with respect for who they are.

Roy: One of the reasons I decided to finally run for ALA president is that I would be the first native person to run for this office. A child might think some day of a career in librarianship. Many people of color don’t have mentors.

How should school librarians react to a recent decision by the Kansas Board of Education to add intelligent design theory to the state’s science standards?

Crowe: [We should make] sure the evidence is out there so students and teachers have access to all this stuff, and that includes current news. Intelligent design should be in a library collection. If I were putting it in a curriculum, it needs to be explained why people are advocating this. I don’t think this is science; it’s a point of view.

Roy: We’re back at the Scopes trial. It’s alarming. In times of uncertainty, when there are things that really frighten people, they respond by wanting extreme control. There’s an opportunity for libraries to let people know what the collection development process is in terms of intellectual freedom. It feels like a minority in a position of power; I think kids are a lot smarter than that.