New Leadership Elected to AASL, ALSC, YALSA
RSSBy Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 05/02/2010
The American Library Association’s youth services divisions have new presidents—Carl Harvey, a school librarian at North Elementary School, in Noblesville, IN, was elected president of the American Association of School Librarians; Mary Fellows of the Upper Hudson Library System in Albany, NY, was elected president of the Association for Library Services for Children; and Sarah Flowers, a retired deputy county librarian at the Santa Clara County Library in California, was elected president of Young Adult Library Services Association.
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Carl Harvey |
Meanwhile Molly Raphael, a retired public library director from Oregon, has been elected president of the American Library Association, defeating Sara Kelly Johns, a school librarian from Lake Placid, NY.
Raphael will become president-elect of the nation’s oldest and largest library organization in June 2010 and will assume the ALA presidency in June 2011, following the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA. She will serve a one-year term as president and a one-year term as immediate past president.
“Libraries are truly essential for learning and essential for life,” Raphael says. “Today, libraries face serious economic, political, social, and technological challenges. ALA is the only organization that speaks for all libraries; therefore, I call on all those who work in, use, and support libraries to join together to ensure that the critical roles of libraries in our society are sustained.”
Raphael, who began her career as a children’s librarian, was named Multnomah County library director in the fall of 2003 and retired last May. Prior to that, she spent 33 years with the District of Columbia Public Library.
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Mary Fellows |
Raphael has spent 35 years advocating for the profession. Most recently, she was president of ALA’s Library Leadership and Management division.
This year, candidates used Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media to reach voters. But with one week left before the close of the election, less than 20 percent of eligible voters had cast a vote.
On April 23, Raphael was dismayed that so much support was being posted on the AASL Forum in Support of Johns. “It saddens me to read that some think only school librarians can understand the needs and serve the interests of school librarians.” Raphael wrote. “I publicly and actively worked for the election of three of the last four school librarians who ran for ALA president, including two with public librarian opponents.”
Election results indicate that of 55,330 eligible voters, only 11,069, or 20 percent, voted, compared to 23.4 percent last year.
