New LITA officers elected

Contact: Mary Taylor


LITA Executive Director


312-280-4267


mtaylor@ala.org

For Immediate Release


July 31, 2009

CHICAGO - Karen Starr, assistant administrator for development services at the Nevada State Library & Archives, is the new vice-president/president-elect of the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). Her term, and that of newly elected LITA board members, began after the 2009 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.

Starr has served as a member of the LITA Board of Directors. She has experience in international relations, having served on the LITA International Relations Committee and in various roles with the ALA International Relations Round Table. In addition to the IRC, she has served LITA on the Program Planning Committee and the Nominating Committee,

“Creative change comes with long term investment, commitment and patience. Every 10 years of the last 30, the library field has passed a milestone in its use of technology, including online searching (1970s), CDROMs (1980s) and the Internet (1990s). Now we are involved with the digital world. Everyone is struggling with the sustainability of the structure we have and trying to take the next step into the future. We are not quite sure where that step will take us. The innovators and leaders of tomorrow are the LITA members of today. It is refreshing to work with a dynamic group on the national level who care, who want to define that future and who come together to work on what the big picture should look like. I look forward to the opportunity to work with LITA's members to collaboratively implement the vision that sustains our country's 21st century information infrastructure,” Starr said.

Newly elected board members, who will serve for three years, are Aaron W. Dobbs, Systems & Electronic Resources Librarian, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania; and Maurice York, Head, Information Technology, NCSU Libraries, North Carolina State University.

LITA, with over 3,500 members, has been serving the needs of the library and information technology community since 1966. Its mission is to educate, serve, and reach out to that community through its programs, publications and other activities.