Wendy Stephens is the librarian at Cullman High School and a doctoral candidate in Information at the University of North Texas, where she was funded by an IMLS grant to prepare school and public library faculty. Her research interests include reader response theory, selection, censorship and digital inclusion. She is an AASL representative to the Office of Information Technology Policy Digital Literacy Task force, the YALSA Website Advisory Board chair, and an ALA Councilor-at-Large. She blogs at Wendy on the Web and you can follow her on Twitter @wsstephens.
EveryLibrary helps public, school, and college libraries win bonding, tax, and advisory referendum, ensuring stable funding and access to libraries for generations to come.
EveryLibrary will be the first and only national organization dedicated exclusively to political action at a local level to create, renew, and protect public funding for libraries of all types. We will provide tactical and operational support to local voter awareness campaigns, seed and sustaining monies to local ballot committees and PACs, as well as conducting direct voter advocacy in support of library taxing, bonding, and referendum.
EveryLibrary’s founder is John Chrastka, a long time library trustee, supporter, and advocate. Mr. Chrastka is a partner in AssociaDirect, a Chicago-based consultancy focused on supporting associations in membership recrutiment, conference, and goverance activities. He is also president of the Board of Trustees for the Berwyn (IL) Public Library (2006 – present) and is a former president of the Reaching Across Illinois Libraries System (RAILS) multi-type library system. Prior to his work at AssociaDirect, he was Director for Membership Development at the American Library Association (ALA), the world’s oldest and largest organization for librarians, library workers, supporters, and advocates. He is a current trustee member of ALA as well as in the Illinois Library Association (ILA), where he chairs the Fundraising Committee.
Lauren Pressley is the Head of Instruction and an Associate Librarian at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University. In this role, Lauren collaboratively manages the library’s instruction program, plans and manages professional development for librarians who teach, administers the LIB100/200 program, represents library instruction to various audiences, and serves as library representative on teaching-related committees including the Teaching and Learning Center advisory board.
Lynda Kellam is the Data Services and Government Information Librarian at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s University Libraries. In addition to providing research assistance and instruction on data and government sources, she is the library instruction and collections liaison to the Political Science Department, Environmental Studies program, and pre-Law program. In her spare time she is a co-coordinator of the Reference Department’s LIS graduate student intern and practicum programs.
Lynda received her MA in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and her MLIS from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She tweets as @lyndamk and blogs at librarianship =.
Liz Burns blogs about young adult books, TV, and other things that capture her fancy at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy at School Library Journal. By day, she is a Youth Services Librarian for an east coast regional library for the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Liz co-authored, with Sophie Brookover, Pop Goes the Library: Using Pop Culture to Connect with Your Whole Community (Information Today, Inc., 2008).Three things to know about her: her favorite television show is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she used to be a lawyer (but don’t hold that against her) and she loves to read. Liz lives at the Jersey Shore…. and it’s nothing like the TV show. Really. You can follow her on Twitter @LizB.
Kelly Jensen is a librarian, a reader, a writer, a copy editor, and compulsive consumer of all things books and blogs. She lives in a small town in Wisconsin but grew up near Chicago, spending time in rural Iowa and Austin, Texas in between. She enjoys really bad reality television, cooking, traveling, ice cream, and making art. Two crucial facts: she does not eat red meat and has not read Jane Austen. She’s probably the cruelest person you will ever know. Kelly blogs at Stacked and you can find her on Twitter @catagator.
Michelle Chronister Program Analyst U.S. General Services Administration Washington, DC
Joshua Finnell Humanities Librarian William Howard Doane Library, Denison University, Granville, OH Visiting Lecturer, School and Media Library Certification Program, McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA
Kristin Fontichiaro Clinical Assistant Professor School of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
This was my first time doing interviews face-to-face. The audio quality isn’t always the best and I apologize for that, but hopefully the quality of the speakers will make up for it!
Andy Woodworth and I discussed ebooks and the digital divide.
Barbara Stripling spoke with me about her role in Molly Raphael’s “Empowering Voices, Transforming Communities” initiative.
Gina Millsap spoke about using market segmentation to find new library users and how to better cater to your current ones.
Lindsey Levinsohn and Annie Seiler spoke with me about using Twitter at library conferences.
Maurice Coleman and I talked about his excellent podcast, T is for Training, and other sundry topics.
Barbara Stripling has recently joined the faculty at Syracuse University as an Assistant Professor of Practice. Prior to Syracuse, she was Director of Library Services for the New York City schools for seven years. Stripling brought to New York City schools the experience of a thirty-year career as a classroom teacher in Colorado and North Carolina, a school library media specialist and school district director of libraries in Arkansas, a library grant program director in Tennessee, and director of library programs at a local education fund in New York City. She received her Doctorate in Information Management from Syracuse University in May 2011 and has written or edited numerous books and articles. Stripling is a former president of the American Association of School Librarians, a former member of the American Library Association Executive Board, and a current member of ALA Council.
Gina Millsap is the Chief Executive Officer of the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library. She leads an organization of 225 incredible employees serving a library-loving community of 177,000. She served as the director of the Ames (Iowa) Public Library and at the Daniel Boone Public Library prior to making Kansas her home. She’s worked in libraries for 30+ years and received her Masters of Library Science from the University of Missouri, in the previous century. Her degree may be an antique, but her outlook isn’t; she’s been recognized as a Library Journal Mover and Shaker and is Past President of the Library Leadership and Management Association, a division of the American Library Association. She presents and writes on a variety of current topics, including market segmentation, public library trustee education, 21stcentury librarianship and process improvement.
Circulating Ideas 