In an effort to help ALSC members make an informed decision before they vote, the blog posts today consist of interviews with the candidates for 2014-15 ALSC Vice President/President-Elect: Tim Wadham and Andrew Medlar. Each candidate was given ten questions and submitted written answers.
This morning’s interview is with Tim Wadham:
1. What do you consider the most important role of the ALSC President?
One of the most important aspects of the ALSC’s President’s role is to be the face of the organization to the general public. Certainly, the ALSC President shapes the makeup of committees through their appointments, but more important than that is being able to be articulate as they act in the role of spokesperson.
2. What skills & strengths would you bring to the office?
As a library director, one of my primary responsibilities is to be the face of the library in the community and to build community support in order to advocate for the library with elected officials. This is a strength I would bring as I filled a similar role for ALSC. The office also requires someone who is an advocate. I would bring to the office the fact that, for me, children’s librarianship has not been just a profession but rather a life long passion. I think I first knew I wanted to be a children’s librarian when I was still a kid participating in summer reading club in my local public library. I would call the ALA press office at Midwinter to find out which books had won the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, then I would bike the dozen or so blocks to the library so I could be the first to tell my librarians of the winners (this was in the days before internet and the webcast).
Professionally, I started out as a children’s librarian and have always sought positions that would allow me to keep my hand and heart active in children’s services. I would bring the political skills that I have developed as a library administrator, working with library boards and challenging city councils. One of my strengths is leading effective meetings (know when to stop and make sure that meetings result in actionable assignments and that real decision-making occurs). Through my experience as a deputy director and library director I have learned the skills necessary to get consensus within diverse, challenging groups.
Beyond these skills and strengths, I would bring to the office a passion and enthusiasm for the work of ALSC. I was once asked if I could describe myself in two words, and I asked if one of the words could be hyphenated. Receiving a positive response, I replied: “Enthusiastic book-missionary.”
3. What area of library service to children is your favorite?
I suppose that my favorite area of library service to children has to be the programming aspect. One of the appeals of being a children’s librarian is the opportunity it affords to indulge all your artistic impulses. You can be an actor, a producer, a musician, a puppeteer, a storyteller and an artist. I love doing storytimes. Creating voices for the characters in picture books reminds me of the fun I had in high school doing humorous interpretations of selections from plays. I enjoy producing and presenting puppet shows–including finding the right book, writing an adaptation, finding the background music, along with all of the other challenges such as building a puppet stage and finding the funding for custom puppets. And I love doing author programs and introducing kids to their favorite authors.
4. Why should someone choose to join ALSC? What services do you feel ALSC provides that are valuable to new members? To long-term members?
Membership in ALSC is incredibly rewarding. ALSC provides the opportunity for like-minded children’s services librarians to share ideas, and most importantly become friends. I was able to attend my first ALA annual conference due to ALSC and the Penguin Young Readers Group Award which helped cover my expenses to travel to New Orleans. It didn’t hurt that Penguin was the winning publisher of the Caldecott winner that year (Owl Moon), and that my first conference was also my first opportunity to attend the Newbery/Caldecott banquet. Over my 27 years as an ALSC member, I have made wonderful friends who I look forward to seeing twice a year at conference. In that regard, ALSC is better than both Facebook and LinkedIn. It provides a network of both colleagues and friends who you can know face to face and on whom you can call for assistance or advice. It has also provided me, as a long-term member, an opportunity to give back by mentoring new librarians coming into the profession.
5. What are your ideas for reaching and involving members? What are your ideas to recruit new members?
Long years of doing outreach have convinced me that the best way of reaching and involving anyone in an organization or institution is to go where the people are rather than waiting for them to come to you. That may not be practical on a national scale, but I would certainly consider ways of reaching and involving members by finding them where they hang out virtually, rather than expecting them to come to the ALSC listserv or other official methods of communication. Reaching out to them first may bring them to tools such as ALA Connect. This outreach can also be a focus for recruitment efforts. Perhaps there needs to be a way for ALSC to have ambassadors at state library conferences who can do recruiting–passionate members who know the value of being involved professionally.
The emergence of virtual committees has gone better than I ever anticipated when I was on the ALSC board working on the idea. With the right chair, a virtual committee can be the perfect way to involve more members and to make them feel more a part of the association. Recruitment of new members has to emphasize that there are more opportunities than ever to be a fully participating member of ALSC. Our ALSC ambassadors can promote how important professional involvement is for career advancement.
6. How has ALSC membership impacted your life? How has your membership in ALSC impacted library service to children?
ALSC membership allowed me to fulfill a dream I have had since I was a child, which was to be on the Newbery committee. That alone was a huge accomplishment for a kid who was first challenged to read all the Newbery Medal winners by his middle-school librarian. The level of discussion on the Newbery committee forever changed the way I think about and evaluate books and share books with kids. ALSC membership gave me the motivation to apply for and host two May Hill Arbuthnot lectures: Lois Lowry at the St. Louis County Library, and Ursula K. LeGuin at the Maricopa County Library in partnership with the Arizona State Library.
My many committee assignments have impacted my library service to children in ways as simple as providing me with information on titles, such as my service on the Notable Videos and Carnegie Medal committees, which gave me invaluable help with video collection development and exposed me to wonderful films I might not have known about otherwise. Many librarians value the “stamp of approval” that comes with the notable lists and other award lists and rely heavily on titles recommended by ALSC committees in their collection development. Beyond that, my experiences as a participating member of ALSC have given me tools to be a better librarian.
7. Changes in the economy and advances in technology are dramatically impacting libraries. What are your thoughts on how ALSC can best continue to be a positive force for librarians, for libraries, and for children?
My experience as an adjunct professor for the University of Arizona teaching children’s literature and youth services in public libraries taught me that what new professionals most want is practical education about what they can expect in the field. They don’t want abstract theory. ALSC can be most effective by providing practical information to children’s librarians on the front lines. When I began my first job in the Dallas Public Library system, I was never given a mentor to demonstrate best practices for storytimes, and I had to learn what worked on my own. The best way ALSC can continue to be a positive force is to find ways to disseminate practical information to practicing professionals. We can be creative in the ways and locations we put out this information, and equally inventive in prioritizing the kinds of information that can come from ALSC. As an example, the association can disseminate information on best practices for using technology in the day to day work of children’s librarians. My staff are experimenting with creative new ways of using tablets for storytimes and finding that this technology allows us to think of storytimes in a way we never had previously. We are able to project books that formerly we couldn’t share with a large group because of their size. We can show films, or even use book apps in storytime. These are the kinds of things that should be shared as widely as possible. Focusing on this will result in librarians with more tools in their tool belt, able to advocate articulately for their libraries, and ultimately enriching the lives of children who come in to their libraries.
8. What strengths would you bring to help ALSC attain the goals of the ALSC Strategic Plan?
I was part of the 2010 meeting that resulted in the strategic plan and I strongly support the three strategic goals that resulted from the process. 1) Advocacy. Being an advocate is one of my strengths. I love libraries and I believe in children’s books. I am happy to tell anyone at any time why they should read out loud to their child and why libraries are important and not passé. Advocacy begins with the education, training, and mentoring of new librarians coming into the profession. 2) Education. ALSC plays an important role in the ongoing education of professionals who serve children in libraries. ALSC can expand that role and find new ways to accomplish it. As someone who has taught children’s services to prospective professionals, I have a clear vision of what effective teaching can accomplish. 3) Access to Library Services. I have always believed that libraries are the great equalizer. I can bring my experience expanding library and book access for children speaking languages other than English. Parents from cultures where there is not a strong tradition of public library service need to feel that they’ve been given permission to come into the public library along with their children.
9. What is your motivation in running for this position?
I have been inspired watching many past presidents serve with class and with grace and I’ve seen the impacts that they were able to make in their presidential years. My three years of service on the ALSC board gave me insight into how the board works, and taught me how I can be an effective president. Being asked to run for ALSC President has given me the opportunity for some introspection as to the issues that I truly and deeply care about. I am motivated by the opportunity that being ALSC President would give to focus on these priorities: 1) Building a better relationship between ALSC and our sister youth divisions. 2) Advocating for the rich legacy of books that should be part of every child’s life, to keep them from being slowly weeded from our collective memory, and encouraging children to appreciate the value of fiction in their lives. 3) Library service to Spanish-speaking children has been a strong professional interest of mine, and I want to advocate for the provision of multi-cultural literature (and library service) to all children and families that equitably bridges the barriers of culture and language. 4) I am concerned that we may be neglecting our middle graders and I believe that we can build on the success of our early literacy efforts to provide literature-based programs for 8-11 year-olds. Finally, I am motivated by the opportunity of a national platform to speak out about the power that books and stories have in the lives of young people to whoever will listen.
10. What else would you like the voting ALSC membership to know about you before they vote?
My ultimate goal when providing any library service is always to make a difference and to change the lives of those served in some small way. Following are two of the many experiences that I feel have achieved this goal:
In partnership with Childsplay Children’s Theater, I commissioned and participated in the writing and development of a play based on the children’s book Tomí¡s and the Library Lady, which was performed for over 70,000 children within the Maricopa County Library District. Since that time, the play has been performed before countless other children on national tour and in productions by children’s theater companies across the country–including a performance in Hampton, Iowa, where the original story actually took place. To this day I feel that this has been one of the most important things I have done in my career in terms of the number of children impacted by it and the way it impacted them. This was encapsulated by the simple response of one child after seeing the show: “I speak Spanish, just like Tomí¡s!”
I commissioned Bill Harley, James Deem and Wendelin Van Draanen to write original novels for which I developed interactive websites, creating the concept of the “online novel.” New chapters were put up on the web on a regular basis, and the websites included curriculum connections for teachers using the novel in their classrooms. This project won the John Cotton Dana Public Relations Award, the NAACO (National Association of County Organizations) Best of Category Award, and Highsmith Award for Library Innovation. Two of the novels were later published for the trade market, after appearing first exclusively on our library website.