Vote for Lewis and Stripling - today

ALA Election Polls open today, March 19th, and will close on April 27th.

This is a year that all AASL members really, really need to vote. For two good reasons.

The first is that my friend and library-supervisor extraordinaire Kathryn Lewis from Norman OK is running for SPVS Chair. SPVS Committee supports library supervisors - those that are left, anyway. Why anyone would want this organizational role (I was chair some years ago), I have no idea. And I don't know the fellow Kathryn is running against.

But I will assure you this - anything Kathryn does is done exceptionally well. Here is a bit of her vitae:

Kathryn Roots Lewis 
Member of ALA since 1989

Director of Media Services and Instructional Technology, Norman Public Schools, Norman, Oklahoma

ALA and/or ALA-APA Activities: 

• American Association of School Librarians National School Library Media Program of the Year Award Committee member, 2009.
• American Association of School Librarians ABC-CLIO Award Committee member, 2008.
• American Library Association Preconference Creating Library Leaders, Oklahoma Library Association Representative, Midwinter 2002.

Offices held in the ALA-APA, state, & regional library associations, and other associations:

• Co-Chair, Oklahoma Library Association (OLA) Endowment Committee, 2009-Present.
• Executive Board Member, Oklahoma Technology Association (OTA), 1995-Present.
• Outside Evaluator, World Literature Today Magazine, 2010-Present.
• Co-Chair, OLA Scholarship Committee, 2008-2009.
• Chair, OLA Awards Committee, 2006-2007.
• Member, Subcommittee, Accreditation Review by ALA Committee on Accreditation, University of Oklahoma (OU) MLIS Program, 2006-2007.
• Member, Norman PFLAG Selection Committee for Book Donation to Norman Public Schools libraries, 2003-2004.
• Past President, OLA, 2003-2004.
• Chair, OLA Budget Committee, 2003-2004
• President, Oklahoma Library Association (OLA), 2002-2003.
• And about 20 more ....

Honors and Awards (library and non-library, including DATES):

• Oklahoma Library Association Library Legend Award, 2010. One award may be given each year and is for recognition based on significant contributions to the growth, development, and excellence of Oklahoma's libraries.
• Oklahoma Library Association Special Project Award for the Oklahoma Library Association GOLD Leadership Retreat, 2008.
• Norman Public Schools-Winner of the American Association of School Librarians National School Library Media Program of the Year-District Winner, 2007.
• Oklahoma Library Association Special Project Award for the Oklahoma Library Association Centennial Endowment, 2007.
• Hitachi Teacher Exchange Delegate to Japan, 2007

Statement of Professional Concerns: 
As librarians, we strive to develop information literate students, voracious readers, and successful citizens.  As supervisors, our challenge is to provide leadership and support for these endeavors.  As we navigate the 21st century, our section must embrace the charge to implement the AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner.  To use David Loertscher’s phrase, this requires a focus on “pushing the learning up.”   Paramount in this endeavor must be the goal to validate the relevancy between the Common Core Standards, the AASL Standards, and the school library: where librarians engage students, promote thinking, and use assessment.  To ensure quality education that students deserve and demand, we must be a passionate voice for fully staffed and resourced libraries in all schools.  As chair, I hope to provide opportunities and programming for supervisors to discuss, address, and learn about issues that shape our work and, more importantly, the lives of our students.  

Vote for Kathryn Lewis, OK?

________________________________

The second reason and other vote you need to cast is for ALA President. This year we have one of our own, Barbara Stripling, running for the office.

If you don't know Barbara or the work she's done for kids and libraries, I am not real sure where you've been living. Not in LibraryLand, that's for sure.  Read all about Barbara here. 

Personally, I believe and have so stated that ALA treats school libriarians like red-headed stepchildren. (Just do a search with the term ALA on this blog.) Although we comprise a very, very large percentage of the ALA membership, we and our youthful patrons do not receive a proportionally large percentage of the organization's resources and attention.

I'm hoping that having Barbara as ALA president might begin to change this unfortunate condition.

Did I mention you should vote today?

Comments

[Dan Kleinman of SafeLibraries]

I say vote for Barbara Stripling as well. Here's why: http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2009/02/playboy-for-children-says-gina-millsap.html.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Dan,

Your argument seems to be more of reason to vote against someone rather than for someone. I hope your statement about Millsap is accurate. Personally, I believe parents, not libraries, should determine what children should access, so you won't find much of an advocate in me.

Doug

[Dan Kleinman of SafeLibraries]

Thanks, Doug. Yes, I quoted Gina Millsap, accurately. She said what she said. I reported it.

Set that aside. Imagine if Gina becomes ALA President and carries her interest in Playboy, her word, for Topeka children into an ALA policy for children nationwide. There is a serious possibility this could be a train wreck for the ALA. We already know what the Office for Intellectual Freedom policy is on that topic. Imagine if that spreads to the ALA generally via the ALA President.

I sincerely hope Barbara Stripling wins the ALA presidency. I really don't want to see the ALA heading for a train wreck, or getting there. And I know many in the profession feel the same way.

By the way, I can see Gina Millsap is smart, funny, and personable. I have nothing against her personally. But her policy, if applied to the ALA generally, would hurt the ALA and, at the same time, children nationwide.

As John Stuart Mill said in On Liberty:

"It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to say that this doctrine is meant to apply only to human beings in the maturity of their faculties. We are not speaking of children, or of young persons below the age which the law may fix as that of manhood or womanhood. Those who are still in a state to require being taken care of by others, must be protected against their own actions as well as against external injury."

Or, as the US Supreme Court said in that big case the ALA lost big, US v. ALA:

"The interest in protecting young library users from material inappropriate for minors is legitimate, and even compelling, as all Members of the Court appear to agree."