National Book Foundation to Present Lifetime Achievement Award to ALA Executive Director, Tracie D. Hall

UPDATE: Statement from ALA: ALA Executive Director Tracie D. Hall Receives Literarian Award from National Book Foundation

From the National Book Foundation:

The National Book Foundation, presenter of the National Book Awards, announced Tracie D. Hall, Executive Director of the American Library Association (ALA), as the recipient of its 2022 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. Over the past two decades, Hall has held positions at the Seattle Public Library, the New Haven Free Public Library, Queens Public Library, and Hartford Public Library. Hall was appointed to her current role as the Executive Director of the American Library Association, the oldest and largest library association in the world, in 2020. She is a librarian, curator, arts and culture administrator, and an advocate for digital literacy skills and ensuring equitable access to information for all.

“Libraries are essential for all readers—they are spaces of learning and community whose importance has only been amplified by the pandemic and the ever-increasing tensions of resource equity,” said David Steinberger, Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Book Foundation. “The Foundation is honored to recognize Hall’s extensive contributions to the diversification of the library and information science fields and her commitment to digital literacy in an age of misinformation, which will have a lasting impact on readers and communities everywhere.”

• Prior to joining ALA, Hall served as the Culture Program Director at the Joyce Foundation. She has held multiple roles in academia, including serving as Assistant Dean of Dominican University’s Master of Library and Information Science from 2006-2008, and as visiting professor at Catholic University of America, Southern Connecticut State University, and Wesleyan University. Hall’s contributions to ALA began in 1998 when she was an ALA Spectrum Scholar—an educational program that supports new generations of racially and ethnically diverse librarians—and continued during her tenure as Director of ALA’s Office for Diversity from 2003-2006. A community leader, she was appointed to serve on the City of Chicago’s Cultural Advisory Council in 2020. Hall holds a Master of Library and Information Science from the Information School at the University of Washington, a Master of Arts in International and Area Studies with an emphasis on Sub-Saharan Africa from Yale University, and dual bachelor’s degrees in Law and Society and Black Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Hall is the first Black woman to lead ALA since its founding in 1876.

Learn More,  Direct to Complete Announcement

See Also: With Libraries Under Threat, Literarian Award Goes to Watts-Raised Super-Librarian Tracie D. Hall (via LA Times)

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