ALA Presidential Candidates Archives | American Libraries Magazine

ALA Presidential Candidates Emily Drabinski and Kelvin Watson

Drabinski, Watson Seek 2023–2024 ALA Presidency

October 5, 2021

The October 5 presidential candidates statement reads as follows: Emily Drabinski, interim chief librarian at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and Kelvin Watson, executive director of Las Vegas–Clark County (Nev.) Library District, are the candidates for the 2023–2024 presidency of the American Library Association (ALA). Drabinski has served as chair of the … Continue reading Drabinski, Watson Seek 2023–2024 ALA Presidency →

Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Stacey A. Aldrich

By Stacey A. Aldrich | March 1, 2021

I am honored to be on the ballot for ALA president for the 2022–2023 term. When I began my career in college as assistant to the Slavic cataloger at University of Pittsburgh, little did I know that libraries would afford me experiences unlike any other field. I have worked in academic, special, public, and state … Continue reading Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Stacey A. Aldrich →

Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Ed Garcia

By Ed Garcia | March 1, 2021

Our Association is facing internal and external challenges that can only be overcome by strong leadership and collaborative effort. I bring proven leadership and experience in corporate, nonprofit, and library settings to help navigate these challenges. I was a 2010 Emerging Leader and have served three terms on Council. I was a member of key … Continue reading Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Ed Garcia →

Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada

By Lessa Kanani'opua Pelayo-Lozada | March 1, 2021

As your president, I will lead with the Association’s core values, centering equity, strengthening advocacy, and promoting organizational excellence through connection and collaboration. I have and will continue to seek out, listen to, and act on the varied perspectives and experiences of our members to move ALA forward. As a 14-year member, past ALA Executive … Continue reading Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada →

ALA presidential candidates for the 2022–2023 term, from left: Stacey A. Aldrich, Ed Garcia, and Lessa Kanani'opua Pelayo-Lozada

ALA Presidential Candidates Announced

October 26, 2020

“Stacey A. Aldrich, state librarian, Hawaii State Public Library System, Honolulu; Ed Garcia, director, Cranston (R.I.) Public Library; and Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada, adult services assistant manager, Palos Verdes Library District in Rolling Hills Estates, California, are candidates for the 2022–2023 presidency of the American Library Association (ALA). Aldrich currently serves on the ALA Center for the … Continue reading ALA Presidential Candidates Announced →

Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Steven Yates

By Steven Yates | March 2, 2020

This year has already been historic for ALA. We have a new executive director and soon a new home in Chicago. These changes, along with the organizational review process, call for all of us to lend a hand. As a dedicated volunteer with leadership experience, I would like to work alongside you as your 2021–2022 … Continue reading Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Steven Yates →

Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Patricia “Patty” Wong

By Patty Wong | March 2, 2020

America’s libraries are the cornerstones of social democracy. We face many challenges as a nation: changing demographics and how to provide equitable access and service to all differing views about public support for public services privatization challenges to the freedom to read, write, and speak barriers to access shifting landscapes for publishing and digital access … Continue reading Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Patricia “Patty” Wong →

Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Julius C. Jefferson Jr.

By Julius C. Jefferson Jr. | March 1, 2019

It is an exciting time to be a member of the American Library Association (ALA). ALA can and will play an important role at this critical juncture in the history of our profession and our country, and it must stand united to speak with one voice: to advocate for the education of an informed citizenry; … Continue reading Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Julius C. Jefferson Jr. →

Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Lance Werner

By Lance Werner | March 1, 2019

The American Library Association (ALA) and libraries are in a unique position to help, heal, and lead. We must bring more civility and critical thought into the world through kindness, empathy, and love. Libraries are on the front line, doing an outstanding job of serving the underserved. But there is also an opportunity to bring … Continue reading Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Lance Werner →

Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Peter Hepburn

By Peter Hepburn | March 1, 2018

To thrive, libraries and library workers need a strong and healthy professional association that advocates for us and for those who come to our facilities or who use our online resources, enabling them to benefit from the wide range of services we offer. Within our library community, we must have an association that is itself … Continue reading Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Peter Hepburn →

Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Wanda Brown

By Wanda Kay Brown | March 1, 2018

Many of our funders and constituents do not understand the role of the modern library and the tremendous impact we have on the communities we serve. As members of a profession that has so much influence and shares in the dissemination of information, librarians and library workers need to demonstrate the value and relevance of … Continue reading Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Wanda Brown →

Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Scott Walter

By Scott Walter | March 1, 2017

Given this reality, every one of us faces choices about the work we want to do, the institutions we hope to save, and the world we wish to build for our friends, family, neighbors, and children. Libraries, archives, museums, and schools have a special role to play in the coming years in defense of informed … Continue reading Meet the Candidates for ALA President: Scott Walter →

Latest Library Links

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ALA invites library advocates to apply online to join the fourth cohort of ALA Policy Corps members. The deadline for applications is December 1. The Policy Corps initiative aims to strengthen advocacy related to key national library policy areas—ranging from broadband equity and copyright/licensing to federal funding and privacy and cybersecurity. Preference will be given to applicants with prior engagement in ALA and state chapters, such as service on boards, committees, or other entities and/or participation in professional development or scholarship programs.

ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, Oct. 26
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Phil Morehart writes: “School administrators from across the US opened the second day of the 2021 American Association of School Librarians National Conference in Salt Lake City with a general session full of frank, insightful conversations about what they need and expect from school librarians—and how administrators can empower school librarians in their work.”

AL: The Scoop, Oct. 25
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As a Chattanooga school board debated who has the authority to approve, or remove, books in school libraries this week, Tennessee librarians are speaking out. Representatives from the Tennessee Association of School Librarians, the Tennessee Library Association and Friends of the Tennessee Libraries are calling out recent censorship attempts by Hamilton County school board Rhonda Thurman. Thurman, a long-time board member, expressed concerns in an op-ed earlier this month over the use of curse words and references to sex and violence depicted in library books found in Hamilton County schools.

The Tennessean, Oct. 21
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Eleanor J. Bader writes: “Since the 2008 recession, many library budgets have been significantly reduced, and the political right has increasingly organized campaigns to challenge library promotion of antiracist and pro-LGBTQ+ events, whether through Black History Month programs, Pride displays, or speaker series. This includes disruptions of Drag Queen Story Hour, a six-year-old reading program where drag queens read to kids, to the sabotage of ballot initiatives that would authorize the expansion or renovation of crumbling library facilities, to vocal campaigns against books that address racism, gender identity, or sexuality.”

The Progressive, Oct. 19
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Dave Shumaker writes: “At a recent professional meeting, I was dismayed to find myself witnessing yet another discussion on whether those present should call themselves ‘librarians.’ The program that hosted this discussion opened with the observation that library spaces are shrinking in the postpandemic world and the question of whether the participants might stop calling themselves librarians if they no longer work ‘in a [physical] library.’ Everything I heard was a repetition of arguments I’ve heard over and over in the almost 50 years since I was working on my first professional degree.”

Information Today, Oct. 19
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Suzanne LaPierre writes: “The Thanksgiving season seems an appropriate time to express gratitude for the citizens-turned-activists who succeeded in desegregating US public libraries, many of which remained segregated even after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling finding separate-but-equal unconstitutional. Through the 1950s, and even into the 1960s, many public libraries remained whites-only until Black citizens protested and/or sued to rectify the situation.”

Public Libraries Online, Oct. 19
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Francis Agustin writes: “Speculation on the identity of one of Spain’s most prominent crime thriller writers, who wrote under the name Carmen Mola, ended October 15 when three men rose to accept the 2021 Premio Planeta literary prize—worth 1 million euros—for Mola’s currently unreleased work The Beast. Jorge Díaz, Agustín Martínez, and Antonio Mercero are writers in their own right, having penned numerous scripts for television between them. They decided to write under the pseudonym for no particular reason and without consideration of the name’s gender.”

Business Insider, Oct. 17

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