Leslie Burger inaugurated 2006 ALA president
Contact: Larra Clark
ALA Media Relations
312-280-5043
For Immediate Release
June 28, 2008
Leslie Burger inaugurated 2006 ALA president
NEW ORLEANS – Today Leslie Burger, director of the Princeton (N.J.) Public Library, began her term as 2006-2007 president of the American Library Association (ALA).
As ALA president, Burger will be the chief elected officer for the oldest and largest library organization in the world. Established in 1876, the American Library Association has more than 64,000 members. Its mission is to provide leadership for the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.
"I am humbled by this tremendous honor and look forward to serving the members of the ALA," Burger said. "During the last year I've met with members from many different kinds of libraries across the country who shared their ideas of how ALA can help every library to transform the communities they serve. I know that by working together we can make every library in the country better than it is today."
Burger is a past president of the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA), the New Jersey Library Association and the Connecticut Library Association. She currently serves as at-large member of the ALA Council and is a member of the ALA-APA Pay Equity Committee. She also has chaired the ALA Awards Committee, several ASCLA committees and the ALA Public Awareness Committee's Campaign for America's Librarians Task Force.
Before joining Princeton Public Library, Burger worked at the New Jersey State Library and the Connecticut State Library in the areas of planning and library development. She is the owner of Library Development Solutions a consulting firm which she founded in 1991. In her consulting practice, Burger has worked with more than 100 libraries of all sizes and types on planning, space needs assessments, evaluation and program implementation.
Burger has a master’s in library science from the University of Maryland-College Park and a master's in organizational behavior from the University of Hartford. She received her bachelor's from Southern Connecticut State College.
Loriene Roy, professor at the University of Texas at Austin's School of Information, today also began her term as ALA president-elect. She will assume the ALA presidency in June 2007 at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.
