“Ethiopia Reads” founder to keynote President’s program

Here’s ALA’s news release about the President’s Program in Boston. I hope you can make it!

CHICAGO – Yohannes Gebregeorgis, founder and executive director of Ethiopia Reads, will serve as keynote speaker for the American Library Association’s (ALA) President’s Program 3:30 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 17 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The program will take place as more than 11,000 of the nation’s library leaders convene in Boston for the ALA Midwinter Meeting held Jan. 15 – 19.

Ethiopia Reads focuses on his organization’s literacy work. The organization encourages a love of reading by establishing children’s and youth libraries in Ethiopia, free distribution of books to children and multilingual publishing. The organization’s founder, Gebregeorgis was selected as one of CNN’s Top 10 Heroes in 2008 for his work in establishing children’s libraries in Ethiopia.

“The ALA is thrilled that Mr. Gebregeorgis has accepted our invitation to speak to the nation’s library leaders on the value of libraries,” said ALA President Camila Alire. “In a world where knowledge is power, libraries make communities more powerful! By motivating children to read, librarians are creating lifelong readers, and that makes for better citizens and sets the cornerstone for democracy.

“Without reading, everything in life is harder. Low literacy is linked to poverty, crime, dependence on government assistance and poor health. And research has shown that parents who struggle with reading pass this legacy on to their children.”

In his native Ethiopia, Gebregeorgis has established libraries and literacy programs to connect Ethiopian children with books.

“Books change lives – of individuals, communities and nations for good,” said Gebregeorgis.

Forced to flee Ethiopia to the United States as a political refugee in 1981, Gebregeorgis put himself through college, obtaining a graduate degree in Library and Information Science. It wasn’t until he became a children’s librarian at the San Francisco Public Library Children’s section in 1985 that he realized what the children of his native home were missing.

Gebregeorgis quickly realized that due to prohibitive publishing, purchasing and importing costs in his home country, there were no children’s books available in Amharic, the primary language of Ethiopia, and none representing the places and characters of Ethiopian lore. This inspired him to produce an Amharic children’s book, “Silly Mammo,” the first bilingual Amharic-English children’s book. He then established Ethiopia Reads in 1988. Using proceeds from book sales and grassroots book-a-thons, the nonprofit financed his efforts to bring children’s libraries to Ethiopia.

In 2002, Gebregeorgis returned to Ethiopia with 15,000 books, most of it donated by the San Francisco Public Library. With them, he opened the Shola Children’s Library on the first floor of his home. Young readers quickly overwhelmed the three-room home, requiring the addition of two large tents to provide shade for hundreds at a time.

Ethiopia Reads established the Awassa Reading Center and Ethiopia’s first Donkey Mobile Library, which makes weekly visits to rural villages around Awassa.

For more information, see the ALA Web site at www.ala.org/midwinter. For advance press registration or to schedule interviews, call (312) 280-4393 or 5043 before January 14 or visit the ALA Press Room onsite at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

Milwaukee Public Library has it all

I was in Milwaukee a few weeks ago at an advocacy workshop sponsored by the heads of Marquette University Library, Milwaukee Public Library, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. During my trip, I had the opportunity to visit the Milwaukee Public Library in the downtown area. I have visited many public libraries – many of them recently built or libraries with major additions and renovations. I could write about each one of those, I am sure.

However, I have chosen to write about the central Milwaukee Public Library (MPL) for several reasons. First of all, it is not a new structure; in fact, the last renovation was some time ago. The building is beautiful inside, having been built in 1898. It has the most beautiful multi-story foyers off the Wisconsin Street entrance. The marble, the beautiful stairways and archways, the gorgeous ceiling, the mosaic tile floors, the views out of the upper floor windows – all of these features are breathtaking. I fell in love with the Children’s Room.

I am writing about MPL for what it is and what it does. It has chutzpah!

The leadership and staff at MPL have not let the fact that they do not have a new, contemporary building hold them back. They have a strong family literacy program; they do a marvelous annual El Dia de Los Ninos, El Dia de Los Libros celebration. These are just a few of the great programs they are doing in a grand building.

Congratulations, Milwaukee Public Library!

MEA CULPA!

I must apologize that I have neglected my blog since I became ALA president. That was never my intention. However, it has been so busy! I barely get through my email because my inbox has tripled, and almost every message requires a response. I am working at home, in the airports, and on the planes doing ALA business. In short, I haven’t been blogging because I’ve been working so hard for YOU!

So, enough excuses…. I promise I am bacccck!

Inaugural speech videos

Here are clips from Camila’s speech at the inaugural ceremony in Chicago on July 14, 2009. Apologies if the video is shaky in sections. It is in two parts.

Part One:

Part Two:

New York City – Media Day

I have been in NYC and completed my meeting with various media venues in my role as ALA president.  I think I talked for 7 hours straight!

Accompanying me were Macey Morales from ALA’s PIO office and folks from ProMedia who set up all the meetings.  My thanks to all of them for making this experience memorable.

The whole purpose of this media day was to talk to various media outlets about libraries and my presidential initiatives.   We hoped to pitch possible stories that each of the media venues could include in their publications.   We talk about a lot of topics dealing with libraries such as literacy, advocacy, diversity, serving diverse communities, the economic challenges in our country and the many ways libraries are helping, etc.

We met with representatives from More magazine, Ser Padres (Parents) magazine, Time for Kids, Ladies Home Journal, NY Daily News, O, Latina magazine.  It was wonderful to know that folks that we met with were very supportive of libraries, in general.  Many were interested in the literacy component of my presidential initiative.

Although it was an exhausting day, it was also very rewarding.  ProMedia folks will be following up with each venue for us to continue to keep them interested in libraries in the U.S.

I was honored to represent ALA in this effort.  Will keep you posted on the results of this effort.

Another Great Loss – Dr. E.J.Josey

Just a few days before we were leaving for ALA’s annual conference in Chicago, it was announced that Dr. E.J. Josey had died.  This is a great loss for our profession.

E.J. was to African American librarianship that Dr. Arnulfo Trejo was to Latino librarianship.  They singularly worked to get more people of color into our profession.

When I was in library school and afterwards, I read much of E.J.’s articles and cited his books.   I was so impressed by his work and his commitment.

I can’t remember when/where I was the first time I met E.J.   What I do remember was after that first initial meeting, he remembered who I was every time.  I was so impressed by this and never forgot the way he made you feel like you were the most important person he had ever met!

There was a time growing up in the profession when almost every African American librarian I met was touched by E.J.’s generosity and mentoring.  But E.J. didn’t exclusively mentor people of color, his mentoring included many library leaders in our profession.

My only hope is that someone in LIS education will be as committed as  E.J. was and dedicate him/herself to the recruitment and retention of minority students in LIS education.  Several people come to mind  — Dr. Kathleen de la Pena McCook,  Dr. Clara Chu, Dr. Ana Cleveland, and Dr. Em Claire Knowles.

A true leader in our profession is gone.  May his legacy live on forever.

ALA Annual – Chicago 2009

I am making the last of my preparations to attend ALA Chicago.  The programs look terrific.  The challenge for people attending will be trying to pick programs that are scheduled at the same time!   If you are attending ALA, don’t forget the unbelievable exhibits.  The opening of the exhibits is Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m.

I also wanted to take this time to thank everyone that I met or worked with during my president-elect year.  It has been a great year, and I look forward to a greater year serving as ALA President.  Many thanks to the PRL Working Group and its co-chairs, Patty Wong and Julie Todaro.  They have been working diligently on the various aspects of my presidential initiative. Plans are to have their worked rolled out this fall.

I had the opportunity to travel to various conferences and meet ALA members in their home states.   Folks everywhere have been absolutely gracious and hospitable.

It is my intention to keep this blog more updated sharing my thoughts while traveling representing ALA and ALA members.  Stay tuned….

Working the Hill — Library Legislative Advocacy

I just arrived home last night from a day on the Washington D.C. hill. It was great meeting with other Colorado delegates and visiting the offices of our various Colorado legislators. Although we met with various staff members, these trips are well worth the trouble.  Here are some highlights…..

We were really pushing for LSTA funding that includes improving literacy through school libraries and asking each legislator to sign on to the letter from several of their fellow congressmen in support of the additional appropriation for LSTA. What was interesting is that several of the legislators’ staff members thought that we were asking for earmarks. And, the mood has definitely changed on the Hill. Earmarks are “out!” We explained that the LSTA request dealt with  part of the appropriations bill and was not a request for earmarks — that is, it was additional funds to be added to the appropriations bill. Our delegation couldn’t figure out why they didn’t “get it.” All I can figure out is that, in this new administration, there is a big backlash against earmarks. Boy, I’d like to take bets to see how long that philosophy lasts!  

Because we didn’t seem to get the point across (and because I think sometimes staff think that the constituents really don’t know what we are talking about….), we asked the ALA Washington Office to contact both staff members of the two offices to explain to them clearly that the LSTA funds we were asking for were definitely now earmarks. Sometimes it takes one Washingtonian talking to the other to get the point across.  At the time of this posting, Senator Mark Udall agreed to sign onto the letter.

We also spoke about the reauthorization of the Patriot Act and asked for reform to Section 218.  This was the section that ALA and other associations took issue with.  We explained that we support national security and terrorist prevention but that we believed there had to be a balance between that and our user’s right to privacy and First Amendment rights.  That is, that any request to search library records should first go through some kind of judicial review(search warrant) and that the person whose information was requested should also be informed of this request.   These checks and balances are necessary to make sure that our users’ constitutional rights are not violated.   Stay tune on that issue…..

Additionally, we spoke against H.R. 801 which is a bill that would amend copyright law and disallow the National Institute of Health (NIH) from providing access over the Internet after a 12-month embargo to NIH research supported  by our tax dollars .  This research is critical to medical professionals and hospital staff  in small towns and rural areas who do not have access to medical libraries/librarians who can find the information for them.  Access to this research at one’s fingertips equalizes this access between the haves and the have nots.

These are just some highlights of what we shared with our legislators and their staff.  Even though there are different interests who visit this offices on a daily basis while Congress is in session, I appreciate the fact that librarians also are active advocates and sit at the table (or stand in the hallways) with these folks.   They remember us (librarians) from year to year.

Advocacy should not be underestimated and establishing a relationship with our legislators and their staff is an important part of what ALA members should be doing whether in person or virtually.  Get engaged in advocacy next legislative session.  The ALA Washington Office through its District Dispatch

http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/

is always sending notices to contact your legislators and provide you with the information you need to share with your legislators.  Sign up for the Dispatch, please.  You do not have to take the trip to “the Hill” to do this!

My Heart Gets Heavier….

This past weekend an icon within our profession, Judith Krug, passed away from a battle with cancer. Judith’s name was synonymous with intellectual freedom. As one mutual friend who is also champion of intellectual freedom wrote:

“I feel like a part of me is gone never to return. She was my inspiration, my dear friend, and impetus to do much of what I did in the area of intellectual freedom. She was always there when I needed prodding and had questions……..She pushed me when I would become discouraged, always with a smile…….I will forever be thankful for her helping me to build my philosophy of professionalism and First Amendment rights. She was indeed a godsend to the library world and to me personally. I sincerely mourn with her family in the loss of a fantastic lady.”

As the director of ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, Judith had many protégés. She commanded the respect of friends and foes alike when it came to fighting for our First Amendment rights.

I remember the day that I called Judith while I was library dean at Colorado State University. This was before the passing of the Patriot Act; and a law enforcement officer was demanding some ILL records without the appropriate search warrant. I called her after our university counsel advise me that we give the officer what he requested. Judith was not only patient and understanding, but she was also very supportive and walked me through the process to consider. Which I did!

I think there are probably hundreds of stories like mine. She will be sorely missed. However, I have all the faith in the ALA Intellectual Freedom staff to continue Judith’s fight for First Amendment rights.

Goodbye, great colleague….

Understanding the Millennials

Greetings!
I just arrived back from the ACRL (Association for College and Research Libraries) National Conference in Seattle. Like the Reforma National Conference this past fall, it was a marvelous conference because it focuses specifically on programs and events that assist academic librarians and other library staff in their professional development.

The speakers were very good. I focused my attention on programs particularly dealing with the Millennials/Next Gen folks. It’s important for ALA leaders to understand this group of young librarians (birth years – approximately 1979-1994 and around ages 15-30) and to think about how we can engage them in ALA and prepare them to be our future association leaders.

I attended a breakfast where Richard Sweeney talked about the Milennials. This was the second time I had attended Richard’s session. And, I learned new information from Richard’s second session. Besides sharing the characteristics of this generation, he also talked about how the Millennials describe the library of the future.

The second session I attended was that of Dr. Lynn Connaway, an invited speaker for the conference. Lynn is a senior research associate for OCLC and spoke on how academic librarians need to explore new opportunities for extending current services that would engage the Millennials. She and her colleague’s research focused on virtual reference services and millennial users and non-users.

Both speakers confirm my resolve to continue to reach out more to our millennial association members. After attending the two sessions, I also hosted a luncheon of three millennials (of which two were MLS students and 2 were less than 4 years in the profession) and a Generation Xer. I just sat back and mostly listened to their conversation. These folks are excited about coming into the profession; and it is important to harness that excitement and respond favorably to their professional needs from an association point of view.

How we approach the Millennial librarians/staff for professional and leadership development needs to be seriously considered. We have a generation that thinks differently than the Baby Boomers; responds differently; and communicates differently. We need to be aware of those differences (and their interests) and develop programs to fit their needs. This is no different than what we do in our libraries to determine what our users want and how we deliver those services to make our libraries relevant to those users.