Leadership
President Roy works to bring the richness of her own culture to bear on ALA activities
 Loriene Roy, professor in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, was inaugurated as ALA’s 2007–2008 president at the 2007 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. Roy, ALA’s first American Indian president, is Anishinabe (Ojibwe), enrolled on the White Earth Reservation and a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.
“The Anishinabe people are dreamers and predictors,” Roy said during her inaugural banquet. “Dreamers are acknowledged and young people are encouraged to find their dreams and their guardians. . . . Let us examine the dream we want to build.” Citing several ways in which American Indian culture differs from mainstream American culture, Roy called her presidency “a wonderful opportunity to bring to all ALA members the notion of what does it mean to live our lives as a cultural person in today’s age.”
Roy’s presidency will stress literacy, with an emphasis on reading initiatives; workplace wellness; and supporting library and information science education (and building on the work done by 2005–2006 ALA President Michael Gorman).
Roy’s Circle of Literacy initiative will be “an opportunity to celebrate reading, especially reading and culture as it is experienced among indigenous peoples in the U.S. and around the world.” Roy plans to host a celebratory week during National Library Week 2008 that will involve 50 to 100 schools worldwide that serve indigenous children. The Circle of Literacy initiative will also promote indigenous writers and publishers and will explore literacy among new immigrants and people who are incarcerated. The Circle of Literacy Task Force is gathering examples of library services for underserved communities.
Roy was once an allied health worker who served as an x-ray technician, and she says her experience in that field led to an understanding that wellness affects both individuals and whole families, including workplace families. The Workplace Wellness Task Force she has formed is planning a Wellness Fair and other events for the 2008 ALA Annual Conference. The Task Force is also charged with creating “a personal health passport checklist, a workplace environmental scan, and a document on how to stay healthy at conference.”
In education, Roy told the 2007 Forum on Library Education that one way librarians can support LIS education is by offering students field work and other practice opportunities that can provide socialization and résumé items that can help in later job searches. A task force is developing a national database of field work experience options for LIS students.
Roy also announced a national oral history project for retired or retiring librarians, and an Emerging Leaders group is examining the feasibility of conducting a youth national library camp.
 James Rettig, university librarian at the University of Richmond (Va.), was elected ALA president-elect in the 2007 election. Rettig is serving as president-elect in 2007–2008 and will be inaugurated as ALA president at the 2008 Annual Conference, to be held June 26–July 2 in Anaheim, California. Rettig said he was looking forward to representing ALA and to working on behalf of library workers and all types of libraries, as well as continuing discussions about creating new opportunities for participation in ALA.
 Rodney M. Hersberger, dean of the University Library at California State University–Bakersfield, was elected to a three-year term as ALA treasurer. He will serve through the 2010 ALA Annual Conference, which will be held in Washington, D.C.
The ALA Council elected two new ALA Executive Board members in a vote taken at the 2007 Midwinter Meeting, held Jan. 19–24 in Seattle. Charles E. Kratz, dean of the Library and Information Fluency, University of Scranton (Pa.), and Larry Romans, head of Government Information Services at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, will each serve three-year terms that will conclude in June 2010.
In staff news: Kerry Ward, formerly executive director of the Association for Library Trustees and Advocates, became executive director of the Library Administration and Management Association in July. . . . The Reference and User Services Association and the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies welcomed Barbara Macikas as executive director in May; she had been deputy executive director at the Public Library Association (PLA) since 2000. . . . Julianna Kloeppel joined the PLA in March as program coordinator.
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