Brett Bonfield, 2013 Candidate for LITA Director-at-large

Statement: 

When I vote, I want answers to four questions: Do you understand how the organization works? I do. I've attended LITA board meetings at the last few ALAs and talked to several board members in order to understand LITA better. Do you understand governance? I'm a governance geek. In addition to LITA board meetings, I regularly attend ALA Council meetings, and have served on advisory committees for three ALA presidents. I also serve, or have served, on several other boards. Do you understand what makes the organization valuable to its membership? I designed my first website for Mosaic, began working full-time as a web developer in 1999, and work at a small library where I am the director *and* the IT staff. I get it. Do you offer something unique and useful to the organization? LITA has financial issues. Fundraising and finance are two of my specialties.

Current Position:

Director, Collingswood Public Library, Collingswood, NJ

Previous Positions:

Special Projects Librarian (part-time), Temple University Samuel L. Paley Library, 2007-2008; Reference Librarian (part-time), Saint Joseph's University Francis A. Drexel Library, 2007-2008;     Reference Librarian (part-time), University of Pennsylvania Lippincott Library of the Wharton School, 2006-2007

Degrees and Certificates:

Rutgers University, Ph.D. in Library Science (in progress); Drexel University, MS in Library and Information Science, 2007; Rutgers College, BA, English, 1991.

ALA and/or ALA-APA Activities:

ALA Future Perfect Presidential Task Force, Chair, 2010-2011; ALA Presidential Initiative REACT Advisory Group, 2009–2010; ALA Young Librarians Presidential Task Force, 2009–2010; ALA Frontline Fundraising Presidential Task Force, 2010–2011; LITA, Frederick G. Kilgour Award Committee, Chair, 2012–2013; LITA, Web Communications Committee, 2010–2011.

Offices held in state and/or regional library associations, and other associations:

ACRL Delaware Valley Chapter, Board Member (Legislative Liaison), 2008; New Jersey Council for the Humanities, Board Member, 2012–2015; New Jersey Library Association, Treasurer, 2010–2012; New Jersey Library Association, Finance Committee, Chair, 2010-2012; New Jersey Library Association, New Home Committee, Chair, 2010-2012; South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative, Board Member, 2009–2010.

Honors and Awards:

Library Journal "Mover & Shaker," 2012; Knower Award, SLA Philadelphia Chapter (stipend to attend SLA Annual Conference), 2007.

Major Accomplishments:

I am one of the co-founders, and an author and editor, of "In the Library with the Lead Pipe," a peer reviewed, open access blog/journal with almost 6,000 subscribers. We were the Salem Press 2012 Library Blog Awards winner in the category "Best General Library Blog," and we are indexed by EBSCO for its library-related databases. In the Summer of 2011, I taught an on-campus, Master's-level class, INFO 552, "Introduction to Web Design for Info Organizations," at my library school alma mater, Drexel University's iSchool. I was the keynote speaker at Tenn-Share's 2012 Fall Conference, and have presented at library conferences on making your library LGBTQI friendly, personal branding, low-cost merchandising, behavioral economics (as part of an ACRL President's Program featuring Dan Ariely), and I have presented multiple programs and trainings on fundraising. I have worked hard to make use of and champion, open source and open access. For instance, Collingswood Public Library was among the first libraries to use Sciblio, an open source WordPress plugin, as its catalog interface.

Publications:

Redesigning Library Services Again: Buckland's Manifesto Revisited. Library 2025. Kim Leeder and Eric Frierson (eds.). Chicago: ALA. (Forthcoming); Getting Paid. Public Libraries. 50, no. 4 (July/August 2011): 22–24.; "Consuming Information." Library Journal. 15 October 2007.

Links for further information: