Julie Todaro, dean of Library Services at Austin (Texas) Community College, has been elected president-elect of the American Library Association. Todaro will begin her term at the 2016 ALA annual conference, which is set for Orlando, Florida.
In a four-way race, Todaro garnered 2,899 votes, edging her closest competitor, University of Washington Information School professor Joe Janes by just 22 votes (2,877). James LaRue, former director of the Douglas County (Colorado) Library received 2,222 votes; and JP Porcaro, Librarian for Acquisitions and Technological Discovery at the New Jersey City University Guarini Library, Jersey City, N.J., received 2,121 votes.
In a statement, Todaro said she is honored to be elected to serve. "I am especially honored to be the first community college librarian elected to serve in this important role in our profession.”
An ALA member since 1972, Todaro comes to the job with an impressive resume: Her most recent book, Library Management for the Digital Age: A New Paradigm, was published by Rowman and Littlefield last year. In addition to serving on numerous committees and initiatives over her career, Todaro is the 2007-08 past-president of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), and the 2000-01 Texas Library Association (TLA) past-president.
This year's ALA election generated significant interest, thanks in large part to four strong candidates, and the social media-driven campaign of millennial candidate JP Porcaro, whose participation energized younger librarians.
Participation rose slightly in the 2015 election, with a total of 10,119 votes cast for the ALA presidency, compared to 9,369 vote cast in 2014, won by Sari Feldman, executive director of the Cuyahoga County Public Library, (Parma, Ohio), who will be sworn in at the upcoming ALA annual conference in San Francisco, June 25-30.
