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My pledge to you is that I will use
the power of the ALA presidency to fight for:
- free access to libraries and information for
all, no matter what their economic condition, physical challenges,
ethnicity, national origin, sexual preference, or age
- fair use of databases and software (NO
to UCITA! NO to excessive limitations on use in licensing agreements)
- unfettered and unfiltered access to information
in all formats – I am a plaintiff in the ACLU suit to overturn CIPA;
I was the only librarian plaintiff in the ACLU suit that overturned
the New York State harmful to minors law.
- increased funding for libraries and government
publication programs
- pay equity and better salaries for all
library workers
- programs and funding to ensure the recruitment,
education, and retention of a diverse library work force
- programs and funding to support
early childhood initiatives and family literacy
- school libraries in their struggle against
externally imposed filters and censorship; and the promotion of
collaboration between school & public libraries and librarians
- continued recognition that libraries are physical,
as well as virtual places
- keeping the L in Library Education
by requiring ALA accredited schools to teach library administration,
services, and principles
As a librarian with a PhD in library and
information science who has chosen to work on the front-lines, I have
a proven record of fighting for the core principles of our profession.
From my teen days as a page at the Newark
[N.J.] Public Library through the years at U.C. Berkeley's School of
Librarianship & the Free Speech Movement, the Library of Congress,
Hennepin County Library, NYPL, on the faculty of Columbia University
School of Library Service, and the Westchester Library System (WLS),
I have fought for free access and information equity. Today, as our
libraries face laws mandating filters, the loss or privatization of
government information, a growing digital divide, and the outsourcing
of library service and management, we need a strong ALA more than ever.
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