Directly, Forthrightly, and with Care

Hey! I’m running for President-Elect of Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures because I think I’d do a good job. Do you want a different kind of ALA experience? Do you want a division that understands and celebrates your work? That’s the Core we can make together. Remember to cast your vote October 5-25th!

Here’s my candidate statement:

I’m passionate about the work that differentiates a library from a museum or a community center- the often unseen but critical labor that goes into organizing, managing, and maintaining library collections and services. Core work makes libraries libraries, and we should be swaggering on that labor—celebrating and trumpeting its intrinsic value.

In its first years, Core will realize its promise as the first genuinely member-focused division of ALA. Taking the powerful opportunity to right congenital wrongs embedded in ALA’s current structures (inequity, nepotism, whiteness), Core will model a better way forward. Vote for me—I’d love to work with you to co-create something mighty, sustainable, and principled for all of us.

Here are three key opportunities I would hope to address in my term:

1)    Core can and should leverage our collective heft on behalf of vulnerable library workers, particularly Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Core should explore direct actions to alleviate burdens to participation through dues reduction and mitigation, prioritizing representation in awards and volunteer opportunities, and pursuing social justice in our initiatives explicitly.
2)    There is a specific lack of recognition for the foundational work of maintenance and ongoing efforts in libraries, a Maintainers Award, built with the robust ALCTS Awards model as a counterpoint to the Movers and Shakers honors from Library Journal, could help change perceptions both within and beyond the profession.
3)    ALA’s precarious financial position has implications for the new division that we must address directly, forthrightly, and with care. As part of my work, I intend to be open and clear about Core’s finances and efforts to ensure its long-term sustainability under ALA’s umbrella or beyond.

Never forget—libraries are radical, and so are you. Let’s build something better for one another.