Candidates Announced: Janes, LaRue, Porcaro, and Todaro to Vie For 2016-17 ALA Presidency

Today, the American Library Association announced that four well-known members of the library community are candidates for the 2016-17 ALA Presidency.
The candidates are:

• Joe Janes, associate professor and chair of the MLIS program at the University of Washington Information School

• James La Rue, CEO of LaRue & Associates

• JP Porcaro, Librarian for Acquisitions and Technological Discovery at the New Jersey City University Guarini Library, Jersey City, N.J.

• Julie Todaro, Dean of Library Services at Austin (Texas) Community College

Both Janes and Porcaro have filed as petition candidates.
What is a Petition Candidate?
The 2014 ALA Election Guide (p. 13) says:

Individuals wishing to appear on the 2015 ballot as a petition candidate for the office of ALA President-Elect, or ALA Councilor-at-Large must complete a petition form with the signatures of no fewer than 25 ALA current personal members

About the Candidates

Joe Janes

Joseph Janes, associate professor and chair of the MLIS program at the University of Washington Information School, has filed as a petition candidate for the 2016-17 presidency of the American Library Association.
Janes has been an ALA member since 1982.  He served on the ALA Committee on Accreditation (2007-11) as well as the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy Advisory Committee (1998-02).  He is an active member of the Library & Information Technology Association (LITA) and the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), both divisions of the ALA.  He was the 2006 recipient of the Isadore Gilbert Mudge award, from RUSA, for distinguished contributions to reference work.
Janes was the founding director of the Internet Public Library (1995-98). He is a frequent presenter at national conferences including ALA, the Canadian Library Association and Library of Congress, in addition to conferences in Europe, the UK and Japan.  He provided expert plaintiff testimony in the 2001 Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) lawsuit (ALA vs. United States), and has been a columnist for American Libraries magazine since 2002.  He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, a Masters of Library Science and a Ph.D. in Information Transfer, all from Syracuse University.
“Who would have guessed, when the teenaged me was working beside my mom on the reference desk at the Oneida Library, that one day I’d be running for ALA President?  Wow!” Janes said.  “I’ve had the great good fortune to help prepare people for their careers in librarianship for almost 30 years, and the privilege to write and speak and think about how what we do makes humanity more human.  I’ve met some extraordinary people and learned a great deal, and it would be an honor—and a lot of fun—to share widely the stories of this profession we all hold so dear, which makes people and communities better, and to help all of us to think creatively and critically about what comes next.”

Jamie LaRue

James LaRue, CEO of LaRue & Associates, Castle Rock, Colo., and Julie Todaro, Dean of Library Services at Austin (Texas) Community College, are the candidates for the 2016-17 presidency of the American Library Association (ALA).
LaRue has been an ALA member since 1994 and has served as a member of the ALA Digital Content Working Group from 2010-14.
Recently retired from the Douglas County (Colo.) Libraries, he has also held offices on the Bibliographic Center for Research Board of Trustees, the OCLC Membership Council, and has served on numerous committees of the Colorado State Library and the Colorado Library Association, including a stint as its president (1998-99).
“This is a time of both extraordinary opportunity and extraordinary challenge,” said LaRue. “Librarians have a vital role to play, right now, at the birth of an unparalleled explosion of local, national, and international content creation. We are also urgently needed to help our communities thrive, and to promote literacy for the young, which itself solves many community problems before they begin. I am honored to have the opportunity to speak on behalf of our profession as a candidate for ALA President.”
In 1998, LaRue was named Colorado Librarian of the Year, and received the Colorado Library Association’s Julie J. Boucher Award for Intellectual Freedom in 2000 and again in 2007. Other honors include the John Cotton Dana Award for the Douglas County Libraries for the 2006 project “Page to Stage” and the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce’s 2003 Business Person of the Year.  Upon his retirement in January 2014, the Board of Trustees of the Douglas County Libraries renamed the former Highlands Ranch Library to the James H. LaRue Library.

JP Porcaro

JP Porcaro, Librarian for Acquisitions and Technological Discovery at the New Jersey City University Guarini Library, Jersey City, N.J., has filed as a petition candidate for the 2016-17 presidency of the American Library Association.
Porcaro has been an ALA member since 2004 and was the organizer and founding president of the ALA Games & Gaming Round Table (GameRT) (2010-12).  He served on the New Jersey Library Association (NJLA) Executive Board (2012-13) and served as the NJLA chapter councilor on the ALA Council (2013-14).
Porcaro was an ALA Emerging Leader in 2010 and was named as a Library Journal Mover & Shaker in 2012.  He is a founding member of the ALA Think Tank, social media’s largest space for librarians. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the EveryLibrary political action committee, the Social Organizer for Urban Librarians Unite, and an administrator for the Librarian Wardrobe blog.
“Through their service—and with a spirit of empathy, enthusiasm, and joy—librarians make the world a better place. Bringing that message and energy to the highest level of the American Library Association will inspire positive change in libraries everywhere!” said Porcaro.

Julie Todaro

Todaro has been an ALA member since 1972.
Her activities—which focus on all types of libraries—include co-chair of President Stripling’s “Libraries From Now On” summit; co-chair of President Alire’s “Frontline Advocacy” initiative; member of President Kranich’s “Information Literacy Partnerships” initiative; member of President Somerville’s “Kids Can’t Wait” initiative and lead authorship of Alire’s ACRL presidential initiative “The Power of Persuasion.” Todaro is the 2007-08 past-president of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), the 2000-01 Texas Library Association (TLA) past-president and 2012 chair of the Texas Council of Academic Librarians. She has been active in ALA divisions and round tables including ACRL, the Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA), the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and the Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT). Todaro was the chair for Texas School Library Standards, Public Library Development, and Transforming Texas Libraries committees.
”My professional commitment has been to the communication of the role and value of libraries, librarians, library workers and library supporters,” said Todaro. “Although ‘role and value’ is typically an easy sell to our loyal constituents, our challenge has been and continues to be creating awareness, illustrating outcomes and proving worth to decision makers and funders. It would be an honor to serve ALA members and stakeholders to advance the vision and mission of libraries.”
Todaro received the TLA 1996 Librarian of the Year Award, the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award and received the 2005 Austin Business Journal Profiles in Power Award.

Source of Bio Info

• News Release (LaRue and Todaro) via ALA

• News Release (J. Janes) via ALA

• News Release (Porcaro) via ALA

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