Stripling wins 2013-14 ALA presidency

For Immediate Release
Fri, 05/04/2012

Contact:

JoAnne Kempf

Director, Governance Office

Executive Office (EXEC)

1-800-545-2433 ext.3212

jkempf@ala.org

CHICAGO — Barbara K. Stripling, assistant professor of practice at Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y., has been elected to the 2013-14 presidency of the American Library Association (ALA).

Stripling defeated Gina J. Millsap, chief executive officer of the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library in Topeka, Kan.

Stripling received 6,272 votes, while Millsap received 4,486 votes.

As ALA president, Stripling will be the chief elected officer for the oldest and largest library organization in the world. The ALA has a membership of more than 60,000 librarians, library trustees and library supporters. Its mission is to promote the highest quality library and information services and public access to information

Stripling will become president-elect in June 2012, and will assume the ALA presidency in June 2013, following the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. She will serve a one-year term as president and a one-year term as immediate past president.

“I am both honored and humbled to have the opportunity to lead ALA at this critical and exciting time for our nation’s libraries,” Stripling said.  “As we make our association more inclusive, diverse and collaborative, we can support our members’ efforts to transform their libraries into virtual and face-to-face community centers of conversation, equitable access to information, lifelong learning and civic engagement.”

Stripling has been a member of ALA since 1977, serving as a member-at-large of ALA Council from 1992-present.  She also served on the ALA Executive Board (2001-2005).  She was a member of and chaired the American Libraries Advisory Committee (1992-1996) and served as a member of the ALA Policy Monitoring Committee (2010-present), Intellectual Freedom Committee (2006-present), Conference Committee (2002-2005), Committee on Education (1998-2002) and Nominating Committee (1999-2000).

She is past president (1996-1997) of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) and has held numerous committee positions within AASL.  She also served as a member and chair of the ALA-APA Certification Committee (2002-2007).  Other ALA activities include work as co-chair of ALA President Molly Raphael’s initiative, Empowering Voices, 2010-present and a trustee of the Merritt Fund (2011-present).

Stripling was presented with the Retta Patrick Award by the Arkansas Library Association in 1989, and the Arkansas Association of Instructional Media named her Arkansas School Library Media Specialist of the Year in 1990.  She recently received the 2012 Distinguished Service Award from the School Library Systems Association of New York.

Stripling received a BA in speech and drama from Stanford University (1968), an M.A. in Communication and Theatre from the University of Colorado (1974), an M.Ed. in Instructional Resources from the University of Arkansas (1991), an Ed.S. in Educational Administration from the University of Arkansas (2003) and a Doctorate of Professional Studies, Information Management from Syracuse University (2011).

Complete election results are at http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/governance/alaelection/index.cfm.