2014 Candidates for GLA Office

Been wondering who will lead GLA in 2014?  Check out the candidates before the ballot arrives!

First Vice President / President-Elect

Lace Keaton
Director, Newton County Library System

Lace Keaton is currently the Director for Newton County Library System in Covington, GA. She holds an undergraduate BA in Humanities from George Williams College, Downers Grove, IL and an MLS from Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA. She has held positions as Director for Okefenokee Regional Library System in Waycross, GA, Deputy Director for Live Oak Public Libraries in Savannah GA, Branch Manager and Reference Services Manager for Worthington Libraries, Worthington, OH, Librarian II and Information Specialist at Gwinnett Public Library, Lawrenceville, GA and a circulation, children's and technical services assistant at Nye Library in Ft. Sill, OK.

Lace is a recent graduate of the Leadership Newton Class of 2013, a graduate of the Library Leadership Institute at Snowbird, Class of 1999 and a graduate of the Leadership Worthington Class of 2001. She has served as Public Library Division chair of the Georgia Library Association in 2007, a member of the ALA Ken Haycock Award Jury 2009, ALA Greenwood Publishing Award Jury 2008, ALA Council Member at Large candidate 2004-2005, and chair of the Demco Merchandising Grant Jury for the Public Library Association 2002. Lace also served two consecutive terms on the ALA Reference and Users Services Association/Management and Operation of Users Services Section (RUSA) 1999-2003 and on the Ohio Library Council Annual Conference Program Planning Committee, 2004, OLC Annual Conference Local Arrangements Committee 2002, OLC Diversity Awareness and Resources Committee 2004-2005, and the OLC Library Futures Initiative Communications and Marketing Task Force in 2005.

Lace’s hobbies include, reading on her iPad, (Paddy), watching movies and spending way too much time baking cupcakes and cookies.

Kathy Pillatzki
Assistant Director, Henry County Public Library System

Kathy Pillatzki is Assistant Director and Head of Collection Development and Reference Services for Henry County Public Library System. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Johnson University and a Master’s degree in Library and Information Studies from Clark Atlanta University. She began her career with HCLS in 1995 and spent 10 years working with children and young adults before accepting an administrative position in 2005.

During her tenure as a children’s librarian she served as an elected member of the Georgia Children’s Services Quadrant Council and was a frequent presenter at the Children’s Services Annual Conference and the Teen Services Conference. She served as liaison to other community agencies and non-profits, developing three ongoing outreach programs to take library services to underserved populations. She also served on the Georgia Book Award committee and the Georgia Peach Award committee and as a judge for the Georgia Student Media Festival.

Within GLA, she has served on the Scholarship Committee, and as chair of the Intellectual Freedom Interest Group and the Collection Development Interest Group. She has also been a frequent presenter at COMO. She writes a weekly newspaper column about all things library-related, and has contributed book reviews to Georgia Library Quarterly.

Kathy is also cross-trained as a cataloger, and last summer was part of the team that cataloged the contents of the library in the Georgia Governor’s Mansion.

In her spare time, she enjoys the outdoors and managing an active family which includes her husband Dan and four nearly-grown daughters, two of their own and two long-term exchange students from Germany and South Korea.

She appreciates the many professional development opportunities that GLA membership has provided throughout her career, and looks forward to serving GLA with an emphasis on fostering public awareness of the vital roles libraries of all kinds play in our communities.

Second Vice President / Membership Chair

Karen Manning
Metadata Specialist, Scholarly Communication and Digital Curation, Georgia Tech

Karen Manning is a Metadata Specialist in Scholarly Communication and Digital Curation at Georgia Tech where she assists with the development, implementation, managing and maintenance of digital collections. Karen has over 30 years of progressive experience working in libraries in a variety of public service, technical and administration roles. Actively involved in GLA, Karen has chaired the Paraprofessional Division several times, where her goals have been to help the advancement of support staff and paraprofessionals, by promoting continuing education opportunities, getting them involved in professional organizations and introducing them to resources that will help develop skills and gain library related knowledge. Karen also serves on the Awards, GLA Store, and Scholarship committees. Karen spends her extra time volunteering in community public school libraries/media centers and holding book donation drives to help create and stock bookshelves for shelters and community organizations.

Karen’s studies are focused on Digital Technologies and Archival Management. She looks forward to advocating for and encouraging participation and involvement in the profession, furthering the mission of libraries and librarianship.

Jay Turner
Director of Continuing Education and Training, Georgia Public Library Service

Jay Turner is the director of Continuing Education and Training for Georgia Public Library Service, meeting the training needs of 61 public library systems throughout the state of Georgia. He began his public library career at the age of 16 as a shelver for Dekalb County (Ga.) Public Library, and over the past 17 years has served Georgia’s public libraries in multiple capacities: assisting customers on the front lines, troubleshooting technology behind the scenes, and working with administrators to plan and develop comprehensive training for public library staff in a myriad of roles at all levels.

Jay is the current chair of PLA’s Leadership Development Committee. Past PLA and ALA committee work has included service on the Communities of Practice Task Force (2009–2012), Continuing Education Advisory Group (2010-2012), PLA 2012 National Conference Program Subcommittee (2010–2012), and CLENE/ LearnRT Communication and Marketing Committee and Executive Board (2009–2011). He was recognized as an ALA Emerging Leader in 2008, and this year was the recipient of WebJunction’s Pat Carterette Star Award for leadership and innovation.  He lives with his wife (a fellow librarian) and four children in Lilburn, Georgia.

Secretary

Sandra E. Riggs
Reference/Instruction librarian, University of Georgia Libraries

Sandra Riggs received her Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1997 and her Master of Theological Studies degree from Vanderbilt Divinity in 1993.

Sandra is liaison to the Department of Psychology and the Division of Academic Enhancement. She is based at the Miller Learning Center, an information commons setting. Sandra is one of the team of UGA Librarians who provide chat reference service, along with traditional reference. She also serves as the embedded librarian in a semester-long, documentary class.

Sandra loves to collaborate and organize, and finds a great deal of satisfaction in committee service. She currently is Chair of the UGA Libraries Faculty Advisory board. The Board members serve as a liaison between the Libraries' Faculty and the University Librarian, discussing matters concerning the Libraries' mission and goals, and issues pertaining to the Libraries' Faculty governance and welfare. The Board Chair appoints ad hoc committees to research and address concerns as necessary.

She has 15 years of experience in academic libraries at both public and private institutions: Campbellsville University, Middle Tennessee State, and Vanderbilt Divinity. She has been in Georgia, at UGA, for 5 years, and has been pursuing greater involvement with the Georgia Library Association.

Sandra is currently Chair of GLA’s Reference Services Interest Group (RSIG), and sees her role to encourage opportunities for new faces to become involved in RSIG’s programming for COMO conferences. She regularly attends COMO and Midwinter Planning meetings, and welcomes the opportunity to serve on the Executive Board as Secretary.

HIDDEN AWAY Performance Explores the Library at Night

By: Sarah Freeman

Timothy A. Hand and Juana Farfán perform in HIDDEN AWAY, 

created by Nicole Livieratos and Phillip DePoy. 

Photo by Jamie Hopper courtesy of The Lucky Penny.

For most of us the public library is a place of reverence and mystique. We visit by day, creeping through the stacks until we find an awaiting book, then quietly slip away, trying to disturb the masses of volumes as little as possible. This fall, however, the Decatur Public Library and The Lucky Penny have teamed up to provide access to a previously forbidden world. HIDDEN AWAY, the library at night gives audience members a rare chance to venture into secret territory, lit dimly by reading lamps, where characters are animated and words come alive. As the sun goes down, librarians rush past, dancers teeter across bookshelves, pages rustle, whispers aloft. 

HIDDEN AWAY is a new dance theater work created by award-winning artists Nicole Livieratos and Phillip DePoy to celebrate and reengage with one of our culture’s most treasured institutions. Performances will take place inside the Decatur Library between August 31 and September 7. The show’s opening weekend corresponds with the 2013 Decatur Book Festival, offering bibliophiles the chance to descend upon the neighborhood’s literary landmark for a nighttime saunter through the stacks.  Embracing the democratic spirit of the library, all 12 performances will be free to the public.

Livieratos and DePoy, long admirers of each other’s work, contemplated collaboration on an original performance for several years. When the idea of library as a performance venue was introduced, they knew it was time to make their visions a reality. Both artists frequently combine and bend artistic genres, so the library’s wealth of textual, aural and visual inspiration provides the perfect environment. Explains DePoy, “I first worked with Nicole on BEOWULF at Theatrical Outfit in 1993. Largely owing to her work on the project, it remains my favorite piece of theatre. In some ways, HIDDEN AWAY is a continuation of that ethos, in that it’s environmental, it takes place in a darkened hall, and it makes use of nearly every kind of performance that exists in Western Theatre. Music, words, movement, sound, light, and, more than anything, an element of surprise, or mystery, all combine to create, we hope, a uniquely exciting experience.”

Exhilarated by the vision of an engagement between arts and literature, and recognizing the potential impact on libraries and communities across the country, fledgling arts organization The Lucky Penny jumped at the chance to produce this performance. With overwhelmingly generous support from the Decatur and Atlanta community, and especially from the library itself, HIDDEN AWAY has flown from the pages of a notebook to the grounds of an institution. With over 20 performers flitting from room to room, no two audience members will have the same experience, just as no two readers experience a book the same way. 

Performances are August 31 (7:00 and 8:30pm), September 1 (7:00 and 8:30 pm), September 5 (7:00 and 8:30 pm), September 6 (7:00, 8:30 and 10 pm), and September 7 (7:00, 8:30 and 10 pm). Gather outside the library’s Sycamore Street entrance 15 minutes prior to show time. Admission is free and no tickets or reservations are required. Free parking behind the library is limited. Use area lots or MARTA. More information can be found at www.nicolelivieratos.com.

Chattahoochee Valley Libraries in the Spotlight!

Anchored at the Robert A. M. Stern-designed Columbus Public Library, the Chattahoochee Valley Libraries continue to provide successful programming, outreach and service to all residents of Columbus GA and the surrounding West Georgia counties of Cusseta-Chattahoochee, Marion and Stewart.

A vital addition in recent years has been our two new Bookmobiles. One is a complete Digital bookmobile featuring Wi-Fi and broadband Internet service via satellite hook-up. Funded by a major grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, this vehicle is targeted to rural areas that have no or limited availability to broadband technology. It is scheduled for several hours per location to allow patrons enough time to access the Internet for job searches, state assistance, employment testing and more.

The new Muscogee County Bookmobile is a state-of-the-art mini-library on wheels. Targeting over 43 locations in the metro area, it was funded by a generous gift from Aflac, the insurance company headquartered in Columbus. Scheduling for this vehicle is geared to senior homes, low-income housing areas and several apartment complexes that cater to those with disabilities.

The Columbus Public Library is also home to the ColumbusLibrary for Accessible Services (CLASS), one of the twelve sub-regional talking book centers in Georgia. A recording studio, designed to National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped standards, was donated by area restaurant Country’s Barbecue and has provided a vital service in recording newspapers and books for patrons throughout the state. CLASS now finds itself in the forefront of helping adopt the BARD Mobile app from NLS that is anticipated to transform the delivery of materials in the near future.

Library programming continues to be a community favorite. 53,000 patrons attended 1,800+ events over the course of the last fiscal year. Program highlights include the First Annual Columbus Children’s Book Festival, which despite a rainy day that forced activities inside saw about 4,000 patrons attend presentations by R. L. Stine, Jane O’Connor, Jerry Pinkney and others. A week-long  visit by The Wall That Heals, the touring half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, brought several thousand to the library. This was the culminating event of this year’s The Big Read celebration of Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”, a month-long series that saw appearances by the author and others. The “Building Common Ground” lecture series brought notables like Nikki Giovanni, Dave Isay, Jonathan Haidt and Michelle Norris to town for a series of provocative talks. Currently the library is hosting the ALA exhibit “Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War.”

More information about Chattahoochee Valley Libraries  can be found at www.cvlga.org or by calling 706-243-2669.

Don't miss early bird registration rates for the American Association of School Librarians national conference

The American Association of School Librarians national conference, themed “Rising to the Challenge,” will be held Nov. 14-17, 2013, in Hartford, Conn. and is the only national conference dedicated solely to the needs of school librarians and their roles as educational leaders.

Early Bird Registration Deadline for AASL’s national conference is August 22.

The conference will feature more than 130 concurrent sessions designed to position school librarians as the core component of 21st century teaching and learning. Session topics include implementation of the AASL learning standards and program guidelines along with the Common Core State Standards, promoting school librarians as partners in the teaching process and addressing the needs of a new generation of students. This year, a new series of author sessions will be available for conference goers at no additional cost.  These sessions, led by authors, focus on hot topics in school library programs today.

To register and for more information, visit the conference website at http://national.aasl.org/