Steve Thomas: Tamika and Becky, welcome to the podcast.
Tamika Barnes: Thank you so much, Steve.
Becky Calzada: Yep. Thanks for having us.
Steve Thomas: What are some of your earliest memories of libraries and what drew you to librarianship as a career? And we’ll start our first question with Tamika.
Tamika Barnes: I would say some of my earliest memories were going to the library with my dad. My dad was in the Air Force, so we moved around a lot. One of the things that I remember, I don’t remember a lot, but I do remember this, going to the library and kind of looking around and finding books. And then the other part of that were the book sales, especially the bag day where you can get as many as you want. So that was like my first recollection of really thinking about libraries and my interaction with them. I wouldn’t say that I was one of those kids that wanted to have my own library and check books out to the neighborhood or anything like that. That wasn’t me.
But what got me then thinking about the profession, so fast forward lots of years, once I was an undergrad, I worked in the undergraduate library and I did one of those 10:00 PM to 2:00-ish AM shifts before the 24 hour libraries and really liked engaging with my fellow students and helping them find stuff, the ones who work late on projects like me.
And then after graduating from college, I was in that transition moment where I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I have a biology undergraduate degree and I knew quickly that I was not going into medicine. And so because I had worked as a student, I got a job in the library full-time at another institution, and then from there realized I like this and wanna have a seat at the table to make decisions more that will impact people. And that’s how I got interested and decided to go to library school.
Becky Calzada: My path was a little different. My mom and dad immigrated to this country and eventually became naturalized, and because they didn’t have much past an eighth grade education, they understood the value of just learning and education. We didn’t have a lot of books in our house, and so my mom used to take us to the library and we would check out stacks of books from what is now called the Hector P Garcia Public Library in Mercedes. And then just built me into a reader in lots of ways because she modeled me reading it in her lap literally.
I used to go to the library and was always just a consumer of the library, and then eventually became a teacher, but it was actually another librarian that nudged me to consider becoming school librarian because she noticed that I just would always grab stacks of books and I just was always so happy when I came in and she’s like, I felt like sometimes I was like in a competition with you because you would just get, like, so excited about the library, and this was a primary school, so as a first grade teacher, you just kinda have to always like be on, right? So she encouraged me to think about becoming a librarian, and it wasn’t until right after divorce I thought, you know, maybe this is the time because the other piece of that was that the closest library school was UT Austin, which living in Corpus Christi was too far because that was before virtual opportunities and that sort of thing too. So, moved here 30 years ago, went to the iSchool here at the University of Texas and I never looked back.
I’ve been a librarian in a school, a library coordinator of the last 17, 18 years. And then I’ve also just like been more of a contributor, working on our public library strategic planning committee, when they were thinking about building a new library space, so definitely seen my evolution from like just a consumer to now being a contributor and giving back to the profession that’s been just really enriched my life.
Steve Thomas: And you both have been active in ALA as well, so in addition to the local level, at the national level as well, and that’s obviously culminated now to running for president. So what inspired you to run for ALA president at this moment, and what unique perspective would you bring to the association?
Becky Calzada: So again, it was another nudge. Like you shared, I’ve been active in ALA, mostly in AASL through my division. My entry into ALA was because of my state association and the opportunity to serve as a chapter leader within the division, but I had several people reach out and say, you should consider this, and they were really respected colleagues, leaders within the association that just said, we think you might be the right person.
A lot of it is the skillset, especially the advocacy piece that I’ve done a lot of with intellectual freedom since 2021, which came to me, not that I wasn’t doing it, but really got served on a plate for me to just really work more intensively on. I also think, too, just the leadership capacity opportunities I’ve had in, again, the state level. I was the chair for our school library division, which is a 5,000 member association alone within Texas. And then of course we’re coming to AASL with being the president.
I think the other thing is that people see that I talk about when I go speak to people that I’m a systems thinker and I think we need to look at those kinds of things right now with ALA as an association as a whole, interconnected with all that they do. I just think bringing those kinds of experience and then the connections I have in terms of like relationships with people across, not just state, but even across the country. I’ve even made some international friends by opportunities that ALA has afforded me or AASL has afforded me, or even the movie the Libraries has afforded me, which is again unexpected, but has really helped to give me an opportunity to amplify the current realities of libraries and the support that we need ’cause we can’t be the only ones coming to our defence. We need to leverage our local systems and communities to build coalitions to.
Steve Thomas: Yeah. And as a little bit of a digression before Tamika answers, I believe that The Librarians movie is available on PBS now.
Becky Calzada: Yeah, it’s on PBS, on the app and you can also go look on the YouTube channel. So it’s making its rounds. It’s exciting I think for libraries because you know, and I tell people often this isn’t just ’cause people say like, so proud of you, and I mean, I’m grateful, but I also tell people. There are so many people doing this work. So if we can be an amplifier and say, go to your communities and look there, that’s so important and critical ’cause this is not just about a couple librarians. This is about a whole group of freedom fighters across the country and now in the world because we’re seeing these same things happen across another parts of the country or another parts of the world.
Tamika Barnes: Yeah, I love that they’re able to tell the story and get it across to more people, a wider audience, so we’re not just talking to ourselves. As my parents have said, when they’ve traveled with me to conference, they’re like, you guys do amazing things, but I don’t think people really understand the types of challenges that you all may face, so definitely applaud that movie being out and reaching a wider audience.
So. Why now? I would say that a lot of people just say why now because of all the things that are going on, and I know there’s lots of things high stakes here with political and technology, like all the things that are coming. But one of the things like Becky, I was nudged. I’d be like, no thank you. No, thank you. And then they’re like, come on. And so I’m like, okay. So I would say through lots of conversations with professional colleagues that I respect, those that have been in this position or have had other leadership positions within ALA, and just kind of going through that to make sure that I wasn’t going into this unrealistically.
And then the other thing, the final nudge where I was like, it’s okay for me to do this, is I sat down with my family. My son who is 10, was like, I’ve seen what you do at conference. He’s a wise 10, and I think you can do it. And I explained to him, like, this may take away some time from us. And he was like, it’s okay. It’s time for you to do some more things for yourself. And I was like, okay, if I had a blessing from the two men in my life right now, then let’s go for this.
But I feel like just because of how the skills that I kind of bring to this would be leading in complexity here at Georgia State. We’ve gone through consolidation where I was at the two year arm of what’s now Georgia State University and just leading across multiple campuses and dealing with teams and budgets, and then also working with our communities, which are different at every location.
So between that and statewide association leadership just like Becky has had, and then some national service, I was on the Executive Board and have helped select Executive Directors and things like that, so have that understanding of the governance piece of it as well. And I feel like I can bring that experience along with my people-centered leadership at a time when I feel like members are asking for and desiring that connection and that transparency and I think I can help with that.
Steve Thomas: Yeah, and you’re gonna get some experience this year as the Georgia Library Association President, because we talked a little bit before we started recording that there’s a bill going through the Georgia legislature that’s probably going to pass that’s probably almost certainly going to affect libraries. So you have a lot of work ahead of you on that this year.
So what is one thing that you wish ALA members understood more about the role of the president in particular, but maybe ALA as a whole?
Tamika Barnes: What I wish members understood more, one, we’re involved for three years, but our presidency and what we can do is one year and anybody who has worked in any organization knows there’s only so much that you can do in one year. So helping them understand that, and then also knowing that this role is more of like leading a collective power of the profession. So it’s not just us in this single role, like it’s helping the profession move forward.
I also want them to know a little bit more that this role is to help align things and maybe accelerate some of the things that our membership wants to do, but the day-to-day operations of ALA, that’s handled by the Executive Director. Now, we work in partnership with Dan, but I don’t think sometimes people realize like we aren’t making those decisions as far as the staff that report to Dan. Like, we have things where we can have expectations for his role, but as far as those other things, that’s under his jurisdiction. So that’s one of the things that I feel like I’ve explained to people recently.
Steve Thomas: I feel like the president sometimes is the communicator, back and forth between the membership and then from the membership back up to the executive office. Like, we’ll talk a little bit about budget stuff later, but when all the budget stuff was getting a little more in the news, it’s been Sam who’s been sending out the emails. I mean there was also the transition with Dan just starting and everything, but those messages are coming from her and in her voice. I’m sure they work together to craft a message and everything. But that’s that role too, is that being that person that talks to the association more than the Executive Director does as well, but a little bit more.
Tamika Barnes: Yeah, I feel like I’m in middle management again!
Becky Calzada: A lot of what Tamika shared is exactly on point. There’s actually a job description that people can go look at, and it talks about being the chief spokesperson for the association and working closely with the Executive Director. But it also says things like promoting library issues or bringing things to light at the national, maybe even international level, and of course presiding over the executive board, council and those sorts of things too. And then of course, there’s the planning and the budget piece. I mean, it literally lists these things. Oh, and then one thing which I was like, oh, I could do that, is actually, you’re on the Board of Trustees for the Freedom to Read Foundation, which I’m already a member of so I’m like, oh, well I’m already kind of invested in that, so that works well.
But I think the big thing, there’s obvious limitations in what you can do because as Tamika shared, you’re in this position for three years, you have the one year, and I always tell people the bigger the ship, the harder just to turn. And we also have to think about like the budget stuff for instance, or we’ve just hired a new ED, offering them time, allowing them time to understand the system and stepping back and just studying and so that takes time. But just being there, I think being a member to contribute.
I think the other piece too, that I really feel I bring a strength to is the opportunities in the area of leadership influence. Leaders bring a skillset to the table, but I also think there’s something to be said about trying to listen, guide behaviors, try to inspire people to come along on these shared goals or try to build trust, to facilitate and foster relationships because the goal is to bring some change, to build collaboration, and what I know about ALA is there are a lot of invested members. They love ALA and I do too, but I also believe that we all think that there’s opportunities that we could do better on and how do we capitalize on those things, but yet remain member-informed.
We all get a lot of communications, whether it’s our work or our personal lives, and then we of course get our ALA Connect stuff and I love that too but when we send out information to people about even the most, especially the most challenging things, if we don’t loop back and send back in this time, we decided and and per our members input they said, like people start questioning, and we have a lot of new people that are coming in as members or college students that are going to school. We wanna bring everybody along, and I think everybody in general, like nobody wants anything done to them. They want it done with them so how do we help to bridge that in this leadership opportunity too as president is an opportunity that I wanna help with.
Steve Thomas: Yeah. Becky, you were talking about those leadership skills and that being important part of it. Can you tell listeners in your current role, how do you help the staff that work for you succeed and grow, and how would you use those same skills as ALA president?
Becky Calzada: When it comes to my role, for me it starts with building a partnership with an administrator ’cause I’m in a school space and so I’m not the only one doing the hiring. I’m working with the principal, and I want to hear what the vision is. I want to share what our vision is because the goal is we wanna do these together, but we also know that there’s room to expand and bring in the local campus culture into the greater vision of our school in terms of what we wanna do in our library services.
Then when we hire that person, of course the onboarding, building capacity in them, because everybody comes in different places. We have some new to profession people. We have people that have experienced that are mid-career, but maybe there’s some on the other end too. So, again, understanding where they’re coming from, their skillset, but also sharing things that are common to the local institution or our local school district.
But then the other piece too, and I think this is the most critical, is helping to build capacity and the understanding of the culture of what we wanna do and how we do this. I center a lot of our work, yes, in the capacity in terms of our certifications and stuff with regard to school librarianship, but I also think looking through the lens of serving the customer and soliciting their feedback, trying to provide opportunities where students can contribute, teachers can contribute, how can libraries be part of the greater campus improvement plans?
Because again, I could hire somebody that has a million ideas, but if they’re an outlier and doing their own thing that’s not connected to the school or to the value or the mission of our entire department, it looks like an outlier, and my goal always is we want all the fish flowing in the same direction. I used this in an earlier opportunity that I was with Tamika about Finding Nemo. We want all the fish flowing in the same direction because if we’re all flowing in different directions, we all have our different messages and we’re not making our message count so I think those are opportunities that I can bring to ALA in pulling in divisions and pulling in round tables because I think, again, communication.
We all are in our own little chambers, and I’m not saying one message is more valuable than the other, but I know in our state association, I see messages in different places. They’re all saying the same thing, but they’re in different spaces so there’s something in the legislative committee, but yet there’s something in my school library division. I think when you do that, you’re bound to catch somebody at one time, but maybe not everybody. And I think to be able to sparse it out like that and connect the dots, helps people to understand what you wanna see, what’s expected, what’s coming on the horizon, and that’s what I try to do with my people with communication too.
Tamika Barnes: So I feel like in my leadership roles, how I help those that I lead, I kind of focus on trying to set the foundation for people to succeed, whether that’s clarity of expectations and as we know, sometimes the clarity involves multiple communication between people, coaching, and then also looking at opportunities to stretch, recognizing things in them that they either didn’t know that they hadn’t known or didn’t know could be applied to our library.
And then looking at and believing in us having high standards, but not at the stake of wellness. So trying to balance that both by modeling it and in addition to encouraging it, especially for those that are reporting directly to me. I’m like, it’s time to take a break. You may not want to, but even if it’s like, leave a couple hours early, just because we’re at that point. So I feel like with that, those are the types of things, how it can translate to ALA is just as far as setting priorities and being clear about that, building supportive partnerships across the association, within all of the variations of ways that people can get involved but also with the ALA offices and staff too.
And then looking at ways to make sure, like what Becky talked about, that communication. Just like at work, I know that I can’t just communicate, especially if there’s changes or especially if it’s a challenging message, just once. It’s gonna have to be communicated multiple ways, whether that’s in an email or in a department meeting or various different ways, so using that approach also with ALA, because as Becky said, we get a lot of information just from ALA. So there are things that I know that I’ve missed and Becky and I’ve been involved with ALA for years now, so just trying to remember and imagine that person who may be new to the profession, new to the association, or new to another position, and they’ve transitioned and so the communication that they’re getting is different, trying to keep that in mind when talking about what we’re doing with the association and some of the challenges that may come along the way.
Steve Thomas: The ALA is in the middle of a restructuring now and ALA Forward is the name of this current strategic plan, moving into the 150 year celebration this year, and it’ll be well underway by the time whoever wins would be taking over, but the main five domains is the word that they use there, the sections of the strategic plan, are advocacy, member experience, organizational redesign, financial stability, and professional development. You’ve got something to say about all five of those probably, but my question is, which one aligns most closely with your interests, experience, or skillset, or if there’s multiple, just pick one and go with that, and where do you think you can make the most impact with that?
Tamika Barnes: I would say, probably just because of my strengths and my background with things would probably be on that member engagement, professional development piece, because that is something that I’ve always been a part of, have benefited from, I was part of the first cohort of Spectrum Scholars and that was something that was instilled in us in our leadership institute, which I don’t think a lot of people realize we had a leadership institute, so we were exposed to a lot of the leaders early on in the association and the messaging that they gave us to like be involved and to give back, and that all fits with who I am naturally. So I think also with that, because of that development and that membership piece of it, engagement can lead into working for those other things. I’m not trying to say all of them, Steve, but I feel like if we’re building up our members, then as far as the advocacy piece, making sure that they’re ready and developed to do whatever other part of ALA Forward that we have.
Becky Calzada: So I agree with Tamika in that like it’s hard to choose one because I feel like there’s something I can contribute in all those areas and I’m sure Tamika can too. I think the other piece too that’s positive is that they’re really, when you look at them all, they’re all interrelated. That’s intentional, and I think that’s important.
So if I had to pick one, I think, oh, I’m again just struggling ’cause I had something to say about all of them. I think I’m gonna go with.
Steve Thomas: I’m a tough interviewer. Sorry.
Becky Calzada: You are. It’s okay. It’s okay. No apologies. I think I’m gonna go with the advocacy piece again, only just because I have had experience at the local, state, and the national level. I think about the opportunities that being a part of Policy Corps afforded me in terms of even learning how to expand the advocacy work, like to go to National Legislative Day and do work there in Congress, meet with Reps. I’ve testified at the state capital. I’m sure Tamika probably has too ’cause I mean, you do state advocacy work too.
I also think too, related to that, is my work with FReadom Fighters, which we launched back in 2021. We were the first grassroots group of librarians doing this work. It wasn’t that ALA or my Texas Library Association didn’t wanna do anything. I think people thought this was gonna go away, this intellectual freedom thing. But what we know is that this started to be spread across countries and I was actually talking to a group of retired educators today and talking about little fires all over the place, and what we know about a fire is, like, it starts to spread if we don’t contain it.
So when I think about the people that I’ve met and spoken to, whether it’s here or other areas or connected them, my abilities to know different people, but then also having been in front of media and talk on panels, whether it’s a newspaper, magazine, journal. I’ve just written a book, and again, it’s not something I was actively seeking, but what I’ve always said, especially when this all started back in Leander long time ago, is that it was so intense that I wanted to pass what I was doing or what I was learning to others so that they didn’t have to go and experience because we were the first, we were the board meeting craziness, the viral moments, the props, the big heads, and so that’s just been what I wanna do is to pay it forward so that no one else has to relearn. There’s no need to do that, and I think that’s the strength of a professional learning network, a PLN, association, is that we share so that others can benefit so that we are greater and stronger standing together.
Steve Thomas: Absolutely. One of the other domains that you all didn’t touch on exactly is financial stability. I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the budget. It’s good. I think that there’s been a lot of efforts toward transparency. That’s why people know about it now. I don’t think there was intentional hiding before. Do you have ideas about what’s happening now or what you could build on for ALA to rebuild that transparency and trust around how money is spent, how financial decisions are made?
Becky Calzada: So that’s a big question because when you destroy or you or trust is unstable, it takes a lot of opportunities and interactions to rebuild. I believe that just an acknowledgment of maybe if there was things that maybe we weren’t as forthright about things, I don’t know because I wasn’t in those rooms. I can understand the intention by not trying to scare anybody, but I also know that I’m a “be real with me” person. Tell me the truth because you earn a lot more respect from me when you’re honest and you tell me, because what I know with regard, especially the budget, and I feel like everybody knows this too, like, we would never personally be allowed to be overextended on our budgets. We’d have to pay our bills, and so the association is no different.
I remember having conversations with our division for AASL because we were in the red for a while, but we were also working hard as a board to try to like, okay, we’re gonna have to cut this, mailing letters and things, we had to cut them. It wasn’t easy, but we also knew that if we didn’t do it, there could be potential that we wouldn’t stay alive as a division. Fast forward, ’cause that was when I was on the board. Now we’re great. We’ve come to the other side. It forced us to really be innovative. It forced us to really think differently. It also forced us to be really reflective on the impact and the return of the dollar in terms of how we’re spending things. Even in the work that we do as librarians, we want to know that we’re getting a return on investment. I’m not expecting like millions of dollars or anything like that, but I’m just saying, like, in schools, we scrutinize the dollar and I’m studying data like, are people using this? Are we getting the stats on the hits on this? And if we’re not, it needs to go. We have hard conversations like that in education on this. I’m sure Tamika does too. And so we have to take that time to study. We gotta have conversations with people saying, are we getting the value from this? Do we need to look at something else? Do we need something that’s more up to date even within the structures of platforms and things that we use?
I think it’s important in terms of rebuilding that trust to just be honest, but also be open and ready to hear sometimes the negative things that are coming. To me, I know those are hard to face, but I also have found in my role that, in anything that I do, when you hear even the toughest things, it gets people’s heads going and they start thinking differently and those challenges turn into opportunities. We actually have a term here in our school district ’cause we’re a continuous improvement district, and we take a challenge and an opportunity, we call ’em a “chopportunity”. I know it’s silly, but like we really talk about that because that’s what challenges present. If we pay attention, if we lean in a little instead of pull back, those are some things that could actually be a bright spot later on.
Tamika Barnes: Steve, we purposely didn’t pick that as our number one thing.
Steve Thomas: I know that. That’s why I have the follow up! Tough interviewer, I told you.
Tamika Barnes: Rebuilding trust is hard and it’s going to require some consistent, like we talked about the communication multiple times where we’re saying things. I think also sometimes being on the Executive Board in the past, sometimes I just need it in plain language. Like, what does this mean? Are we doing well or are we not? And so using some plain language transparency to help the members understand, because I feel like they don’t just wanna see the numbers, but they wanna understand the why. Why were certain decisions made? Because even if you don’t always agree, understanding the why, you’d be like, “Well, I wouldn’t have done it that way, but now I can see why they did X, Y, and Z.”
So I think that’s gonna be important moving forward. Follow that framework, understanding the why and being clear, and then knowing what the trade-offs are. Like, libraries, sometimes we like to keep doing the same things we’ve been doing, but we can’t afford it. And so, like Becky said, we’ve got to look at the numbers. As I mentioned to you, I was just recently looking at the numbers for the Georgia Libraries Association and like, why are we doing this? Things are increasing. Prices are increasing. We have external factors which we have no control over, so that means we have to make adjustments internally.
That’s one of the things that I know that the board has done recently where looking to reduce costs is whoever is in this role gets elected to this role, there is not a separate budget anymore for our presidential priorities. Our role, as we’ve talked about, will be to be that bridge and to communicate ALA Forward. So it’s not a specific project and things like that. So that’s budget that was reduced, which I don’t think a lot of the members realize has been done. So it’s on all levels that we’re looking at to make sure that we are in a better situation.
And then also circling back around, after decisions are made, reporting it back out. We know sometimes in committees and groups, there’s a long lag time between when we present it and then when the final decision is. During that time, there’s lots of narratives that could happen. So reporting that council voted on this and so we move forward. Giving the people the steps involved in making the decisions, I think will be helpful.
Becky Calzada: I love that Tamika brought up the presidential initiative. I think the other thing that’s a plus is that when you convey those very direct actions, that it also helps the members to see that nobody’s immune to budget reductions and being efficient, as it should be. It shouldn’t be only special people get money. Everybody is getting impacted by these reductions and so being transparent in those kinds of ways, again, it helps members to see like, “Oh wow, so they don’t get X, Y, Z money. I guess they understand,” and I mean, you’re talking to somebody as a division leader, I didn’t have, we didn’t have the money either to have a presidential initiative for AASL.
What I know is that, it’s not that the others didn’t matter, it’s just that there’s enough things happening in library world that we can latch on and bring everybody along that don’t cost money, that we can all anchor onto, and I think that’s what’s key. So I’m really appreciative that Tamika brought that up.
Steve Thomas: I do feel like a lot of the things that ALA is doing now are very positive. And the trust thing just comes over time, like we’re all saying, just continue what you’re doing now, continue being transparent and continue. You gotta keep explaining what you’re doing, and I appreciate the explaining. I don’t remember the details exactly, but like the lease on the ALA offices, people were like, “That’s so expensive, why did you do that? Why do you have downtown Chicago office space when you’re shrinking your staff and you don’t even use the space?” Just explain that, just say we have a 15 year lease. We signed it before COVID, before things went really bad and….”
Tamika Barnes: Who could have predicted COVID?
Becky Calzada: We had conversations here in our school district about budgets and reorganization of positions, and it was interesting ’cause we were all told in a big group and then we went into our own separate rooms. And then in one room there was clapping, we found out later that somebody got a raise and I said to somebody that was way up and asked my opinion, said, ” What are you thinking? What are your thoughts?” And I said, “well, it’s not really good optics to hear that everybody is getting cut in this, but yet somebody gets a raise.” And they were like, “good point.” I just think that we gotta think about what things look like. What’s the perception? Because perception is reality. We have to know that. If we aren’t aware of that, then people are gonna take what they know and they’re gonna fill in the gaps with what they think they know, and 9 times out of 10, it’s not positive, it’s negative against, in our case, the association. We would never want that. So we just have to think about that too.
Steve Thomas: Well, to switch a little bit, ALA is obviously a very big organization. It’s covering librarianship as a whole, academic librarians, public librarians, school librarians, all different types of libraries are all under the same roof. Everybody says everybody else gets the focus. How do you work to make sure that people don’t feel that way? They don’t feel like their, their section of librarianship is an afterthought?”
Tamika Barnes: It’s funny ’cause I’ll even hear that at our state conferences. “There are only public library sessions!” And I’m like, but I counted, there were like twice as many academic, so just kind of understanding that. We have a variety of entry points to the association, and that’s the wonderful thing about it because we can find those areas of our specialty that we can closely relate to that directly impact what we’re doing back at our organizations and things like that, but finding a way to have ALA where it’s not a hierarchy where only some voices are prioritized, even if it’s perceived, like making sure that we have it so that everyone feels like they have a voice in things.
Structured listening across sectors is a thing. Like right now, we know the advocacy and things, our school librarians were really battling it, and academic libraries are now saying, “OMG, we see what you were talking about!” And we need to make sure those things that we are supporting each other. No, it wasn’t in my backyard, but it’s somebody in our profession and making sure that we’re having that cross communication and dialogue and joint programming and communication so that we are this one organization for all of us, no matter where we are.
And also making sure that representation is real. Like, real across the board, if we’re talking about things, we need it across all of it. And then even dealing with academia and things, it’s like, we have the public services and the technical services, things are affecting, like AI, like all of us in all the various ways, and if we only have certain voices to talk about that, then we’re gonna miss out.
And of course people are gonna feel like they’re not being heard or their concerns aren’t being attended to. So I feel like we need to just start looking at more ways to put some structural, systematic things in place to make sure that we’re doing that. I know ALA has done more town hall type things, but a lot of times with those, those are one way, like getting information out because there is a lot of information to get out, but how can we evolve that a little bit where there’s a little bit more of that dialogue so that we can make sure that we’re hearing all of those voices?
Becky Calzada: It reminds me of something we call solution circles that we actually tried with our chapter leaders. In our ACT group, which is our leadership group for all the chapters, they felt like all we were doing was just sharing, but people weren’t engaged or they weren’t coming, so really studying the question again, back to that systems thinking, why not? And so talking to them to ask, and came to find out that the things that were being shared weren’t relevant to their needs. Getting to that needs-based sort of opportunities and say for instance, if there is a town hall that perhaps before we send out information regarding what’s top of mind right now, and then allowing members to up vote so that we know what we wanna talk about and then we bring in people that can help to answer those questions because I don’t wanna sit here and pretend that I know the work or the life of an academic librarian, because I may know some, but I don’t know that life, that’s not my walk and vice versa for somebody knowing the school.
So oftentimes the role of the leader is to bring those people to the table, those voices, those experts, because we have so many amazing experts within all of our different library types. Looking for those areas of expertise to bring them in. Also just having a circle of people that are in those different library types helps to bring perspective for whoever’s in this role. Like right now, Tamika and I both are on Maria’s presidential advisory committee and I think that’s great, but I also think, could a president reach out to the different division leaders, round tables? What’s top of mind, even if it’s like a survey to just get a pulse to hear.
Again, so many people hearing so many different things, but what I know about just libraries in general, regardless of your library type, we may work in different areas, but we share common problems. We are all sharing common problems in the area of intellectual freedom. We may not be able to use the same solutions, but we might be able to get some, and that’s better than starting from zero. Same thing for AI, and thinking about impacts on delivery or privacy. So again, we’ve got a lot of experts. I know I’m doing some work in my area, in my school district. If we bring these people together and then the role of the president is bringing all those thought leaders together and organizing it and packaging it and selling it so that people say, “I don’t wanna miss that!” That would be the best problem for us, if either of us were in the role of ALA president.
That’s what I see canceling out that afterthought. I want everybody to feel like they belong, that they value, that they matter to our association beyond just, “Oh, we just want you to be a member and pay your dues.” I mean, yes, we want that, but you know what? Members wanna feel valued beyond just the dollar that they bring as a member. They wanna know that their contributions matter and that they’re making a difference.
Steve Thomas: Yeah, absolutely. And on that same line, this is not like regular politics and people sniping at each other on all this kind of stuff, but what I love and the answers that you guys are giving, there’s so much that starts with, “Well, Tamika had a lot of great points.” “Becky had a lot of great points.”
Becky Calzada: We find that we’ve been doing that. We decided maybe we should just be co-presidents. I don’t know. We’re just aligned in similar ways. I think we just are coming from different backgrounds, and that’s not a bad thing. That’s a great problem for ALA, I think.
Steve Thomas: So we’re gonna wrap up here in a minute, but before you give kind of the final pitch for your candidacy, tell me something that you admire about your opponent’s approach to librarianship or the other person running, “opponent” is probably not even the right word ’cause you’re not opposing each other!
Tamika Barnes: It’s fine. It’s okay. We didn’t take it the wrong way.
Becky Calzada: What I really appreciate and admire about Tamika is, first her willingness to take this opportunity ’cause I know, I was like, “Are you kidding? I can’t do this!” I mean, you’re really putting yourself out there. And so I admire just that she said yes because I know it was hard for me to say yes.
The other thing that I admire is just the passion that she has for ALA. I hear it and I’ve heard it so many times in the opportunities that we’ve had together in talking and sharing, but it’s not just like that I hear it. I can see it. I mean, it’s visible. In what she stands up for or applies to do or is elected to do. It is in the credentials and she is going beyond just like, “I’m just a member.” She’s not just being a member, she’s giving back. She’s pouring back into the association that helped her, and I see that she’s also trying to build that in others and nudging others. I think she’s understanding how that impacted her, so she’s trying to do that same thing for others that maybe can’t recognize those things for themselves, which I get it ’cause I do that all the time. They’re, like, “You think I can do what?” And I’m like, “Oh yeah, and I’ll help you. I’m gonna be your cheerleader.” But yeah, lots of admiration for just what she does and where she does it. I think Georgia’s lucky to have her, and so is ALA.
Tamika Barnes: I couldn’t agree more with some of the things that Becky said as far as trying to stand up and put yourself out there. I really admire Becky for being willing to serve at this level and the commitment that she’s had in libraries. Like Becky has mentioned, we come from very different angles, but just in the short time that we’ve had opportunities to be in the same room, I am learning from Becky. She is teaching all of us in these opportunities about the advocacy and strength that she has in her commitment to intellectual freedom. And so that is something that I truly admire because that is not a path that I have come in on.
Also like Georgia. Becky is in Texas, so there have been tons of things. Just a little bit. You’ve just done gone through just a little bit, Becky. No, but she has gone through a tremendous amount of challenges and so to come through on the other side of some huge hurdles and still committed and wanting to be involved at this level for ALA is commendable.
Steve Thomas: Excellent. Although I think that that might be the hardest question I’ve ever done, not to answer, but to make you sit there and listen to somebody say how great you are.
Becky Calzada: It’s a real thoughtful question. I love that question and I’m just gonna say thank you for asking it because you’re the first. I think it’s great, but I think it also speaks to like we both appreciate our association. We love being connected to professional learning networks, so thank you for asking that question. It’s amazing.
Steve Thomas: So for the final question, what is the reason that people should vote for you? What is the thing that you bring to this role that is unique, that is special, and then if you can put in there too of how they can find out more about you and your candidacy?
Tamika Barnes: Sure. I feel like I’m a builder, a relationship builder. I have led across complex situations, dealt with the budgets, which I know is a challenge for us right now, being past chair of the budget and review committee for ALA, and past executive board member so can kind of step in and pick up where I was 9, 8, 7 years ago and have dealt with some real operational challenges at my job. I feel like I can deliver all these things by connecting strategy with the day-to-day reality because sometimes they don’t feel like they’re aligning.
I’ve had national governance experience, statewide associations, both here in Georgia and in North Carolina before moving here. Of course, haven’t had the experience of some, but know the importance of advocacy, believe in the intellectual freedom, and also the diversity and equity of our members and have been part of member engagement from the beginning of my professional time with ALA.
I focus on making ALA more connected, more transparent and more useful across library types and career stages. And so that’s what I would stand for, and if you wanna find out more information about things that I’ve done or will be doing and some other credentials, my website is tamika4libraries.com and the four is the number four. So Tamika, T-A-M-I-K-A, the number four, libraries dot com.
Becky Calzada: Then for me, when I think about what strengths I bring to the role, I think about the advocacy piece, just the deep advocacy experiences I’ve had being here in the intellectual freedom trench since 2021 at the local level, at the state level, and now at the national level. What I appreciate most is the network of people that I’ve built relationships with and sharing and trying to develop tools whether it be local advocacy folks, or even with like the Office of Intellectual Freedom, because I’ve done a lot of work with them, contributed to their soon to be published next edition of the OIF Manual.
I also think the leadership experience I’ve had at the state and of course at the national level with AASL and working with an association, that actually afforded me the opportunity to attend some specialized, intensive training with the American Society of Association Executives so I actually went with our division ED and learned about how associations function and how you work with staff and responsibilities of the different roles within the governance piece, because there’s clear defining spaces and then also studying like the tools and the systems to make sure that you’re being an effective association. I still get a lot of information about that with regard to like, how do we keep members? How do we look at membership structures? So that’s been a huge piece for me because I feel like I bring that training already in place, but yet still open to maybe the opportunity of like working with Dan, who I know and didn’t help elect, but I was on a past ED committee hiring but I’m doing that work right now with our division ED as we’re hiring.
And then I think my passion for the profession, especially in the areas of trying to bring in new people and diversity within our ranks, because we’re predominantly a white profession. In fact, we’ve been hearing about that, even with our documentary piece, and I know I work hard in my school district to make sure there’s diversity and there is, because there wasn’t when I first got here as the first Hispanic to be a librarian in my community, but it takes really concerted efforts, bringing in people, actively seeking in areas that maybe you haven’t sought before.
Along the lines of the intellectual freedom work, I’ve helped a lot of people at the national level with AASL on trying to build a community of care for our members that have really struggled. As we’ve been showing this movie, we’ve had people tell us stories that, I mean, the trauma is real. It is real. And if we are not providing space for people to share, not that they want solved solutions, but just to share, to be healed, to learn how to process that emotion, I think that’s something that we can do that I believe is something that would do wonders for building trust within our association too, which would be great.
So you can read more about me and all the things that I do at my website and it’s [https://sites.google.com/view/becky4libraries].
Steve Thomas: There will definitely be a link to both of your sites in the show notes as well, so people can get right over there.
And I hope everybody enjoyed this interview, but there’s obviously a gajillion other topics we could have gotten into, diversity and AI, but we don’t want to have a five hour long podcast, but thank you both for coming on and for sharing your time and your thoughts and demonstrating your commitment to the profession. I think it’s important to just let everybody make their own decision. You’re gonna have a great choice either way, but figure out which person is most aligned with your particular interests and things like that and don’t forget to go vote. Voting is March 9th through April 1st, and you will have an email, I believe, for that. I hope you all have a great day and good luck to you both in the election.
Tamika Barnes: Thank you so much, Steve, for this opportunity.
Becky Calzada: Yeah, thanks Steve. Appreciate it.
Circulating Ideas 