Action for Libraries
Member News
LaRue Elected to Members Council Executive Committee
Jamie LaRue, director of Douglas County Libraries in Colorado and BCR's senior delegate on OCLC Members Council, has been elected to Members Council Executive Committee as a delegate-at-large. The Executive Committee is responsible for scheduling Members Council three annual meetings and setting the agenda for each. The Executive Committee also is responsible for acting for the Council between the regularly scheduled meetings.
Election to the Executive Committee is for a one-year term, with the elected delegates eligible to serve two consecutive terms.
Wichita Tips Hat to Berner Harris
Cynthia Berner Harris, director of libraries for the Wichita Public Library, was selected as the 2007 Excellence in Public Service honoree for the city of Wichita. She was selected out of more than 1,000 eligible employees for "her strong work ethic, high performance, commitment to community and leadership qualities." She was acknowledged for the opening of two new library branches; the adoption of a new maser plan for library facilities; four consecutive years of increased circulation; and leadership in statewide library issues.
Berner Harris is a former member of the BCR Board of Trustees. She served as an at-large trustee from 2001-to-2005, including a stint on the Executive Committee.
State Library Organizations Recognize Their Own
Library-related groups in states throughout the BCR region recognized library staff this past spring.
Norma Glock of Columbus Schools was named the Sheila Cates Librarian of 2007 by the Montana Library Association. The Sheila Cates Award is given in recognition of outstanding leadership and accomplishment in library service. Johanna Freivalds of Lockwood Middle School was awarded the Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom Award by MLA.
The Oregon Library Association honored Teresa Landers, deputy library director of the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, with its Oregon Librarian of the Year award. Marcia Poehler, Adult Services senior assistant at the Salem Public Library, received the OLA Employee of the Year Award, and Carol Reich, Youth Services manager for the Hillsboro Public Library, was awarded the Evelyn Sibley Lampman Award for demonstrated leadership in inspiring children to be readers.
The Alaska Association of School Librarians honored two of its own this spring. Lyn Ballam, at North Pole Middle School in Fairbanks, was named School Librarian of the Year. Valerie Oliver, school librarian at Trailside Elementary in Anchorage, was awarded the AKASL's Linda K. Barrett Service Award.
Cindi Hickey, Continuing Education librarian and WebJunction Kansas coordinator at the State Library of Kansas, was presented with the 2007 Mountain Plains Library Association Intellectual Freedom Award. Hickey was honored for organizing a task force to develop the first online edition of the Kansas Library Association Intellectual Freedom Handbook. The Web site is used not only by Kansas librarians, but the larger library community.
The Friends of Kansas Libraries presented Vikki Jo Stewart, Special Projects director at the State Library of Kansas, with this year's Duane Johnson Library Leadership Award.
BCR Member Libraries are Bookapalooza Winners The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) a division of ALA, named three BCR member libraries as winners of its first annual Bookapalooza program. College Gate Elementary School Library in Anchorage, Alaska, Custer County School District Library in Westcliffe, Colorado, and the Creswell Library in Lane Library District in Oregon each will receive a collection of children's books, videos, audiobooks and recordings produced in 2006. The libraries are to use the materials in their communities in "creative and innovative ways."