Roy Wins ALA Election; Dues Increase Passes
-- Library Journal, 5/4/2006
The third online election conducted by the American Library Association (ALA) finally began to fulfill the promise of electronic voting: 14,690 people voted in the recent election, choosing Loriene Roy, professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Information, as president for the 2007–08 term. Roy, who will be the organization’s first Native American president, was chosen over William Crowe, director of the University of Kansas’s Kenneth Spencer Research Library, Lawrence, by 8,898 to 4,702 votes. The 13,600 votes cast for presidentcontrasts with 9,999 in 2005 and 11,944 in 2004.
By a relatively narrow vote of 7,876 to 6,220, members also approved a dues increase that would add $10 annually to the dues of regular members over the next three years. (For those in their third year of membership or longer, dues are now $100.) Critics sought a graduated dues structure. Members also endorsed electronic accessibility to the ALA Handbook and increased round table representation on council (from six to ten); currently, only the five largest round tables have their own councilor.
Roy, who was elected ALA councilor-at-large for two terms and chairs ALA's Committee on Education and the Education Assembly, is a past-president of the American Indian Library Association and on the steering committee of the 2006 Joint Conference of Librarians of Color. She was a 2005 LJ Mover & Shaker. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MLS from the University of Arizona, Tucson.
