Maurice Freedman and Dorothy Morgan win Dynix-ALA-APA Award for Promoting Salaries and Status for Library Workers
Contact: Jenifer Grady
Director, ALA-Allied Professional Association
312-280-2424
For Immediate Release
May 25, 2005
Maurice Freedman and Dorothy Morgan win Dynix-ALA-APA Award for Promoting Salaries and Status for Library Workers
CHICAGO - The American Library Association-Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA) is pleased to announce Maurice Freedman and Dorothy Morgan are the winners of the first Dynix-ALA-APA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Promoting Salaries and Status for Library Workers. The award is given to an individual, group of individuals or institution that have made an outstanding contribution to improving the salary and status of library workers in a local, regional or national setting.
Freedman was chosen for raising awareness of salary inequities within librarianship and Morgan for advocating on behalf of support staff nationwide.
The recipients will receive $2,500 each and be recognized at the ALA-APA Networking Breakfast at the 2005 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, Sunday, June 26, at 7:30 a.m.
Maurice J. “Mitch” Freedman is director of the Westchester Library System (N.Y.) and former ALA President (2001-2002). Dorothy Morgan is a business manager, Liverpool Public Library (N.Y.) and former president of the ALA Library Support Staff Interest Round Table (LSSIRT, 2000-2001).
Freedman is credited with informing the nation and the world that “library workers cannot live on love alone.” He focused his presidential campaign on salary improvement issues, spearheading the Better Salaries Task Force, which created several tools for helping library workers who wanted to address inequities.
Jury Chair Michele Leber credited Freedman with “inspiring a continuing movement to achieve pay equity.” Patricia Glass Schuman stated that “Mitch's contributions are more than outstanding – they are unprecedented.” Yvonne Farley notes that the campaign was one impetus for the ALA-APA.
Judith Sibio nominated Morgan, calling her “a shining star who champions for the improvement in status of library workers. She is a crusader who has worked tirelessly at local, regional, state, and national levels to focus on issues pertaining to support staff; namely, education, pay equity, certification, and career ladders.” Many support staff have received upgrades with her help. Morgan also is passionate about certification for support staff and was one of the developers of the New York State Library Assistant's Association Certificate of Achievement Program, which is being replicated in other states. Morgan has received numerous accolades in recognition of her leadership, writing, and speaking in support of staff on all levels within her state organizations, the American Library Association and the Council on Library Technicians (COLT).
Jury member James Hill, chair of the ALA Library Support Staff Interests Round Table, said, “We had many outstanding applications and it was a very tough decision but we chose two well-deserving individuals.”
“I was very impressed with both the number and high quality of the nominations received by the committee,” said Shelley Bennett, jury member. “This group of nominees demonstrates how an individual or group with vision and energy can make a real difference in improving the status of all library staff. The individual efforts of award winners Morgan and Freedman to raise awareness of the need to improve the status and pay of all library workers have inspired others to become involved both within and beyond the profession.”
“ Selecting a winner was both difficult and inspiring, since we received nominations describing people working across the country for pay equity for library workers, from human relations specialists to library directors to library professionals and paraprofessionals to library trustees,” said Chair Leber. “Publicizing the successes of these pay equity champions should energize others to increase their efforts to raise the salaries of library workers."
This award is given annually, thanks to a contribution from the Dynix Corporation, a leading provider worldwide of library management systems, serving more than 11,000 public, academic, school, special and consortium libraries.
The recipient of the award does not have to be an ALA member or a current or past library staff member. The requirement is that the award recipient's achievement(s) has been notable. Officers of the ALA or the ALA-Allied Professional Association are not eligible for the award, nor are members of the ALA-APA Salary Awards Committee, ALA-APA Standing Committee on the Salaries and Status of Library Workers or employees of the Dynix Corporation.
