It started, like so many things, through Twitter. I've authored more than 7,000 of those brief missives, but it's the millions I've read that have been so incredibly powerful. At the ALA Midwinter Meeting, I saw a message from Aaron Dobbs about people not running for Council and then heard that a lot of youth services people were cycling off. After realizing just how many people were on council, I was seriously weighing throwing my hat in the ring when I ran into Linda Braun in the conference center and she took me to the ALA Office to get the petition I would have to submit. I asked many YALSA friends to sign for me that Monday morning at Kim Patton's Think Big program. Somehow, when the polls opened March 16, I still wasn't convinced I'd be on the ballot.
Why vote for me? I share your passions for intellectual freedom, digital equity, and support for literacy. I love technology, and connectivity, and futurism, but I also love the necessarily musty, preservationist aspects of what we do, too. I believe it is a valuable profession, and that organization is powerful. I believe in making process transparent, and that member organizations should be responsive to individuals. I am extremely service-oriented in my professional work and carry that into my professional service. I have worked on a range of projects for ALA, AASL, and YALSA, and have done some wonderful professional development through ALSC as well.
Not knowing I was going to run, I didn't campaign at midwinter. I will be Computers in Libraries, where I'm presenting at the Internet@Schools track in March, and then the Alabama Library Association will meet before the polls close in April. And I'm always available via the web... I would love to talk to anyone there about ALA and their experience with the organization. I admit, it's so monolithic it can be a difficult place to find your niche. I personally get so much from my membership, it makes me eager to show others how they can use ALA to grow as well.
