Take action -- VOTE!

I am reposting this important message from Gail Dickinson. She originally sent this message to the AASLForum & has given her permission to repost.


This morning I found in my morning email the opportunity to do one of the most important tasks to further the cause of school librarianship that I could ever possibly do. I did it with alacrity, crossing my fingers that it would be successful, and the result would hold all of the possibilities that the promise teased. I paused before I hit submit, picturing all of the others around the country reading the same email, and hoping that they would be moved for the same result. And what did I do that was that important? I voted for a building level school librarian to become the president of the American Library Association. I voted for Sara Johns. As a group, our profession is dynamic, vital, and energetic. By its nature, we are also at times contentious, argumentative, and sometimes belligerent. And that is how it should be. Calm and peaceful water is sometimes also called stagnant. I prefer the energy. I understand and sigh as well at the problems and issues we face. Secrecy in a volunteer organization is abhorrent to me, and AASL as well as ALA has far too many closed doors and secret spaces. Important issues are decided behind the scenes and launched on the membership as a finished product. The designated river channels are sometimes concrete canals we cannot break out of to do the best for the organization. But in spite of all that, I want a school librarian, sometimes who speaks for me, at the head of the organization, in those meetings, and privy to those discussions. So when you receive your ballot email, make your clicks, do your part, and keep your fingers crossed when you hit submit. Go, Sara!

Gail Dickinson, Associate Professor
249-6 Education Building
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, VA 23529
757-683-6683