Steven Yates | University of Alabama (AL)
President-Elect, 2016-2017

The work of your 2017-2018 AASL Board of Directors began with a packed agenda at Board III on Monday, June 26, at ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, IL. The Board welcomed a number of new members: Lisa Brakel from Michigan as Member-at-Large, Maria Cahill from Kentucky as Board Representative for the Educators of School Librarians Section, Judy Deichman from Virginia as Treasurer, Susi Parks Grissom from Texas as Region 6 Director, Kathryn Roots Lewis from Oklahoma as President-Elect, Kelly Miller from Virginia as Affiliate Assembly Representative to the Board, Heather Moorefield-Lang from South Carolina as Region 4 Director, and Ann Morgester from Alaska as Region 8 Director.

The energy was palpable as we heard updates from the Standards and Guidelines Editorial Board and the Implementation Task Force, and from ALA on the new ALA Connect platform that is expected to roll out in the coming weeks. Laura Hicks was elected to be the board’s representative on the Leadership Development Committee, and Robert Hilliker was elected to be the board’s representative to the AASL Executive Committee.

Your Board’s work throughout the year is focused on supporting the work of AASL committees and task forces while continuing progress on our strategic priorities. We also plan to join thousands of our fellow school librarians in Phoenix this November as we celebrate what will be a fantastic National Conference and Exhibition for AASL. We hope to see you there!

As we prepare for the launch of our National School Library Standards, my presidential initiative looks to bottle that energy and share it throughout ALA. This will allow us the chance to thank the larger library community for supporting the passage of ESSA while also celebrating all that today’s school librarians are and what all we are doing to meet our communities’ needs. Through face-to-face meetings at ALA Midwinter in Denver and ALA Annual in New Orleans along with other thoughtful conversations, I hope that the task force’s work this year will help meet our strategic plan goal of strengthening AASL’s connections across ALA. If you have ideas on how we can accomplish that, please contact me today!

Author: Steven Yates

Steven Yates is an assistant professor and coordinator of the school library media certification program at the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama. He earned a doctor of philosophy in instructional leadership with an emphasis in instructional technology in 2017.

Categories: Association News, News