ALA Home  From the Guest Editor: David Faucheux

Volume 25, Number 1, 2003

From the Guest Editor

(Editor’s note: For this issue, I invited David Faucheux to act as guest editor. I was very impressed with his talk and those of the other speakers at the LSSPS program at the ALA Annual Conference last summer. Since then, I am pleased to have become more acquainted with David and his search for a library job. I know that the three stories in this issue will touch your heart and I hope that they move you to take action on behalf of some of the profession’s best and brightest potential contributors.)

The full integration of librarians with differabilities into the ranks of the information professions should be the major goal of the first decade of the new millennium. Interface presents three unique viewpoints in this special theme issue. Two are written by employed librarians with differabilities. Ellen Perlow speaks to the power of positive language to define ourselves and suggests that existing negative meanings in such words as “disabled” hold us back. She asserts that as we define ourselves by using “people-first” terminology so others come to see us. She stresses focusing on results, performed using differing methodologies. Mary Jo Venetis describes the vital, supportive role mentors have played in her life and career. The third is by an unemployed blind librarian attempting by describing his personal experiences with the profession to generate awareness and discussion that he hopes will finally lead to the development of much-needed mentoring programs and the formulation of a systematic policy to address and meet the technology and other needs of librarians and library students with differabilities.

Read these articles and decide to make a change, to make a difference, to develop a brighter and more inclusive future for all librarians. Ask yourself what you and your library can do to change the existing state of affairs. The library world is one of cooperation, toleration, and support. Won't you give yours?