Newlen, Mondowney seek election as ALA president, treasurer
Contact: Larra Clark
312-280-5043
For Immediate Release
February 6, 2003
Newlen, Mondowney seek election as ALA president, treasurer
Robert R. Newlen, head of the Legislative Relations Office, Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., and JoAnn G. Mondowney, assistant director of the Flint (Mich.) Public Library, have joined the race for the offices of American Library Association (ALA) president and treasurer.
Along with Newlen, the other announced candidates for the ALA presidency are Carol A. Brey, executive director of the El Paso (Texas) Public Library, and Herman L. Totten, Regents Professor in the School of Library and Information Sciences at the University of North Texas (UNT) in Denton. Mondowney, a candidate for a one-year term as treasurer to fill the remainder of the ALA treasurer term being vacated by Liz Bishoff, is joined on the ballot by candidates Donna Dziedzic, director of Naperville (Ill.) Public Library, and Teri Switzer, assistant director for Human Resources and Budget at Auraria Library in Denver.
Newlen is currently serving a three-year term as ALA Endowment Trustee. He is a former member of the ALA Executive Board and has served as chair of both the ALA Awards Committee and the ALA Orientation, Training and Leadership Development Committee. He represented the District of Columbia as a Chapter Councilor on the ALA Council from 1991-1996 and has served as director of the District of Columbia Library Association. Newlen has been an active member of the Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA), a division of ALA, where he served as chair of the Staff Development Committee, and of ALA's Junior Members Round Table (JMRT), where he chaired the Orientation Committee and the Committee on Library School Outreach.
A librarian and administrator with the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, for 27 years, Newlen is the recipient of several Library of Congress Meritorious Service Awards. He also has been honored with the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award from Bridgewater College (1990) and with the 3M Corporation/JMRT Outstanding Achievement Award (1986). He is the author of "Writing Resumes that Work: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians."
Newlen holds a master's degree in library science from The Catholic University of America and a master's in art history from American University.
Mondowney is a past member and chair of the ALA Budget Analysis and Review Committee (BARC). She has served on numerous ALA committees, including the ALA Publishing Committee, the Carnegie-Whitney Awards Committee, and the Libraries Build Sustainable Communities Project Team. As a member of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of ALA, Mondowney chaired its Budget and Finance and Long Range Planning Committees. She is immediate past treasurer and a current board member of the Black Caucus of ALA (BCALA). She is a founding member of the Maryland Chapter of the National Forum for Black Public Administrators.
Prior to working in Flint, Mondowney served as marketing manager at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Md. She is the creator of the award-winning "A Whole New World: Library and Internet Literacy for Youth-at-Risk" - featured as the model program for schools and libraries by the U.S. government's (E-Rate) program. She is the 2002 recipient of the DEMCO/BCALA Award for Excellence in Librarianship and is the author of "Hold Them in Your Heart: Successful Strategies for Library Services to At-Risk Teens."
Mondowney received a master's degree in library science from Clark-Atlanta University and a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from Hampton University.
ALA members current as of January 31 will vote on the spring ballot. The successful presidential candidate will serve as ALA vice president/president-elect for 2003-2004 and as president the following year. The candidate elected as treasurer will serve from June 2003 to June 2004.
