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Does it matter who leads us?
October 28, 2007
The two candidates for ALA President
have been announced: Camila Alire and J. Linda Williams. Does it matter who leads us? Should you care?
YES! Several years ago Barbara Stripling ran for ALA President, but lost to Michael Gorman (of the 'I hate bloggers' group). Michael appreciated school librarians, but it was not the same as having one of our own lead us. School library media specialists lost a wonderful opportunity to have representation at the national level. Will we do this again?
I am positive that both candidates are wonderful people. I encourage you to learn more about both candidates. Email them. Ask them questions. Hold their feet to the fire. Ask what they intend to do to help school libraries/public libraries/all libraries.
Camila Alire is serving on the ALA Committee on Legislation which is very near and dear to my heart. She is currently professor of practice (adjunct) for Simmons College’s Ph.D. program in managerial leadership and adjunct professor for San Jose State University Library & Information Science’s executive MLIS managerial leadership program. Is this the same group that emailed me this week that "the San Jose School of Library and Information Science will enroll all of its MLIS students as members of the American Library Association (ALA) and the California Library Association (CLA)?"
J. Linda Williams is the coordinator of library media services for Anne Arundel County public schools in Annapolis, Md. She has served as AASL President and on the ALA Council Budget Analysis and Review Committee (BARC). Linda and I have worked closely together as we were both AASL Affiliate Assembly Chairs, were passionate about legislation and membership, and are both serving as ALA Councilors-at-Large right now. I know that Linda has a vision for librarianship as a profession that extends far beyond the school room walls. I hope you get to know her better during this campaign. She has my vote! (Which by the way does not imply endorsement by SLJ because I am just using my blog here to share my personal opinion not the corporate opinion. Forbid I went corporate!)
Posted by Diane Chen on October 28, 2007 | Comments (0)
