Loida Garcia-Febo, international library consultant and president of Information New Wave in Brooklyn, New York, has been elected president-elect of the American Library Association.
Garcia-Febo received 3,278 votes, while her opponents, Scott Walter, university librarian, DePaul University, Chicago, received 3,209 votes, and Terri Grief, school librarian at McCracken County High School in Paducah, Kentucky, received 2,636 votes.
As ALA president, Garcia-Febo will be the chief elected officer for the oldest and largest library association in the world. She will serve as president-elect for one year before stepping into her role as president at the close of the 2018 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans.
Upon learning the outcome of the election, Garcia-Febo remarked:
“I am honored to serve as president-elect of the American Library Association. Together with ALA members, we will bring change to impact public policy, benefit our profession, and our communities. ALA will be the leading voice advocating for libraries and library users while maintaining our core values; will have a place and a voice at the decision makers’ table, particularly for those in our communities with no voice; and will amplify their concerns to Congress, at the state house, in city councils, and school boards; will build coalitions with like-minded partners sharing our values; will facilitate joint work among its units to promote diversity and equity in our profession and association; will train our members to flourish throughout our careers, to lead, serve, and empower our libraries, patrons, and communities; and will advance our concerns through actions conveyed by pillars of ALA’s Strategic Plan: Advocacy, Information Policies, Professional and Leadership Development, and Diversity and Inclusion.”
An ALA member for 15 years, Garcia-Febo has served the library profession both domestically and internationally. Her organization, Information New Wave, is a non-profit organization seeking to bring access to information to underserved populations.
Garcia-Febo has served on the ALA Council from 2011–present and was elected to the ALA Executive Board 2015–18. In addition, she has held numerous committee appointments within ALA, including the Committee on Diversity, Intellectual Freedom Committee, and Nominating Committee; she has chaired the Intellectual Freedom Round Table, the International Relations Committee, and the Committee on Membership meetings and is currently the chair-elect of the International Relations Round Table.
She is also very active in IFLA (the International Federation of Library Associations) and currently sits on their governing board, and Reforma (The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking) where she served on the executive board from 2008-11, including president from 2009-10.
Garcia-Febo is the recipient of the 2015 Reforma Elizabeth Martinez Lifetime Achievement Award. She was named a Notable Member on ALA’s International Relations Round Table, received the Elizabeth Futas Catalyst for Change Award in 2010 and was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker Freedom Fighter in 2007. She was also awarded an ALA/IFLA Fellowship for the 2004 IFLA Congress where she co-established the IFLA New Professionals.
