Steve Laird elected United for Libraries president-elect

BRYN MAWR, Pennsylvania — Steve Laird, president of the Reference Division of Infogroup, has been elected 2016-2017 United for Libraries vice president/president elect.

Laird has served as a United for Libraries board member since 2012, and has chaired the United for Libraries Awards Committee and served on the division’s Corporate Development Task Force and Finance & Audit Task Force. He was general manager then vice president of sales of the Reference Division of Infogroup before taking his current position as president.

Five additional United for Libraries board positions were filled during the election. Donna McDonald, director of the Arkansas River Valley Regional Library System (Dardanelle, Arkansas) was elected Secretary. Jeffrey Smith, president of the Foundation for Baltimore County (Maryland) Public Library, was elected Division Councilor. Marcellus Turner and Virginia B. “Ginny” Moore were elected to the Foundation at Large positions on the board. Turner is city librarian of Seattle (Washington) Public Library and Moore is retired from Prince George’s County Memorial Library System’s Oxon Hill (Maryland) Branch Library, and served for many years as a school librarian. Veronda Pitchford, director of membership development and resource sharing, for Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS) was elected to a Friend at Large position.

United for Libraries: The Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations, is a division of the American Library Association that supports those who govern, promote, advocate, and fundraise for libraries. United for Libraries brings together library trustees, advocates, friends, and foundations into a partnership that creates a powerful force for libraries in the 21st century. For more information or to join United for Libraries, visit the United for Libraries website or contact Jillian Wentworth at (312) 280-2161 or jwentworth@ala.org.