SRC Board Member Elected ALA President

Sequoyah Research Center
News Release
May 2, 2006
Contact
501-371-7585

SRC Board Member Elected ALA President

The American Library Association (ALA) announced May 1 that Loriene Roy has been elected 2006-2007 President of that group. Loriene has been a member of the Sequoyah Research Center Advisory Board since 2001 and will be a presenter at this year’s Sequoyah Research Center Symposium. Attached is the news release issued by the ALA on May 1.

(CHICAGO) Loriene Roy, professor at the University of Texas at Austin's School of Information, has been elected president of the American Library Association (ALA) for the 2007-2008 term. Roy won over William Crowe, director of the University of Kansas' (KU) Kenneth Spencer Research Library.

As ALA president, Roy will be the chief elected officer for the oldest and largest library organization in the world. Established in 1876, the ALA is the "voice of America's libraries" and has more than 66,000 members. Its mission is to provide leadership for the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.

Roy was elected with 8,898 votes. Crowe received 4,702 votes.

Roy will become president-elect in July 2006, and will assume the ALA presidency in July 2007, following the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. She will serve a one-year term as president.

"I am greatly honored to be elected to serve as your ALA President-Elect. Chi megwitch, thank you very much," Roy said. "I have been fortunate to share my campaign experience with my students, friends, family, supporters, and with fellow candidate William Crowe. Megwitch, thank you, Bill, for your generosity, optimism, and strong vision for the future of libraries.

"I look forward to working with ALA members on my platform issues: workplace wellness, supporting library and information science education through practice, and including all peoples in the circle of literacy. Together we will continue to live and practice ALA's vision and values."

Roy was elected as ALA Councilor-at-Large for two terms, 1997-2000 and 2004-2006. She chairs ALA's Committee on Education and the Education Assembly and served on Council committees and committees of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), the Public Library Association (PLA) and the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA). She is a past president of the American Indian Library Association (AILA) and on the steering committee of the 2006 Joint Conference of Librarians of Color.

In 1999, Roy founded "If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything," a national reading club for Native children. She also directs "Honoring Generations," an Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS)-funded scholarship program for indigenous students. Roy is widely published, including a festschrift in honor of Marvin Scilken. She serves on several advisory boards/steering committees, including El día de los niños/El día de los libros, the Sequoyah Research Center, and WebJunction.

Library Journal named Roy a 2005 "Mover & Shaker," and she has received four Texas Excellence Awards for teaching and student advising. Roy received a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an M.L.S. from the University of Arizona. She is Anishinabe (Ojibwe), enrolled on the White Earth Reservation, a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.

ALSC, PLA and RUSA are all divisions of the ALA. AILA is an affiliate of ALA.

For complete election results, please visit: www.ala.org/2006election.