For immediate release | September 17, 2013

Past President John W. Berry appointed ALA representative to the Board of Trustees of the American Library in Paris

CHICAGO - American Library Association (ALA) Past President John W. Berry has been appointed to a two-year term as the ALA's non-voting representative to the Board of Trustees of the American Library in Paris (ALP).

The ALA established the American Library in Paris in 1920 with local community support and 30,000 books from ALA’s Library War Service effort during World War I.

Its motto reflected the spirit of its creation: Atrum post bellum, ex libris lux: After the darkness of war, the light of books. Its charter promised to bring the best of American literature and culture and library science, to readers in France. Gertrude Stein and the young Ernest Hemingway were among the library’s early patrons and contributors to the American Library’s monthly literary review, Ex Libris, first published in 1923. At the request of the Library’s Director and Board of Trustees, the ALA representative trustee position was re-established in 2000 after a lapse of many years.

ALA has appointed a representative to the Board of Trustees during most of ALP’s 90 plus years of operation. John W. Berry replaces Winston Tabb, who served two terms.

Berry is professor of the practice of library and information science in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University. His courses include International Librarianship, Literacy and Library Involvement, Great Libraries and Their Collections and more recently a doctoral seminar on Visual Literacy. He is also chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park, Ill..

Contact:

Steve Zalusky

Manager of Communications

PIO

szalusky@ala.org

312-280-1546

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