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JUNE PREVIEW ALAANNUAL.ORG/MOBILE–APP|#ALAAC18 COGNOTES 3
The Librarian and the Archivist
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and National Archivist David Ferriero discuss the importance of collecting physical information and materials in the digital age. The Library of Congress and the National Archives are the home of the nation’s most valuable treasures and historical documents. During their conversation, the Librarian and the Archivist will discuss the role of their institutions in making these resources accessible to the public. This session will take place on Sunday, June 24, 2018, 10:30 – 12:00 p.m. at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.
Carla Hayden was sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress in September 2016. She is the first woman and the first African American to lead the national library. She was nominated to the position by President Barack Obama in February 2016 and her nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate, July 2016.
Prior to her current post she served as CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland. She was nominated by former President Obama to be a member of the National Museum and Library Services Board in January 2010 and was confirmed to that post by the Senate in June 2010. Prior to joining the Pratt Library, Hayden was deputy commissioner and chief librarian of the Chicago Public Library; an assistant professor for Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh; and the library services coordinator for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. She began her career with the Chicago Public Library as the young adult services coordinator and as a children’s librarian.
Hayden was president of the American Library Association from 2003 to 2004. In 1995, she was the first African American to receive Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year Award in recognition of her outreach services at the Pratt Library, which included an after-school center for Baltimore teens offering homework assistance and college and career counseling. Hayden received a B.A. from Roosevelt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago.
David S. Ferriero was confirmed as 10th Archivist of the United States in 2009. Early in 2010 he committed the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to the principles of Open Government – transparency, participation, and collaboration. To better position NARA to fulfill these goals, Ferriero initiated an agency transformation to restructure the organization and set goals to further the mission, meet the needs of those who rely on them, and find new and creative ways to approach the agency’s work.
Ferriero served as the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the New York Public Libraries (NYPL), part of the leadership team responsible for integrating the four research libraries and 87 branch libraries into one seamless service for users, creating the largest public library system in the U.S., and one of the largest research libraries in the world. His responsibilities included collection strategy; conservation; digital experience; reference and research services; education, programming, and exhibitions.
Before joining the NYPL, Ferriero served in top positions at two of the nation’s major academic libraries, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Duke University.
Ferriero earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English literature from Northeastern University in Boston, and a master’s degree from the Simmons College of Library and Information Science.
Hayden and Ferriero’s attendance at the Conference is sponsored by The Library of Congress.
Get details and add to your schedule now.
Carla Hayden and David S. Ferriero Auditorium Speaker Series
Sunday 6/24, 10:30 - 12:00 p.m.
Sponsored by the Library of Congress
ALA President Jim Neal Welcomes Tracy K. Smith and Jose Antonio Vargas to ALA President’s Program
Tracy K. Smith is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Ordinary Light and four books of poetry. Her collection Life on Mars won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize and was selected as a New York Times Notable Book. Duende won the 2006 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets and an Essence Literary Award, and The Body’s Question was the winner of the 2002 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. The Root has noted that Smith’s recently released poetry collection – her fourth – Wade in the Water is sure to be on everyone’s awards and best-of lists.
Tracy K. Smith and Jose Antonio Vargas ALA Awards Presentation & President’s Program
Sunday 6/24, 3:00 - 5:30 p.m.
In June 2017, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden reappointed Smith the twenty-second United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. Smith is the Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor in the Humanities and director of Princeton University’s Program in Creative Writing. She was recently named successor to Michael Cadden as chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts, effective July 2019. Her session is sponsored by Graywolf Press/Macmillan.
ALA President Jim Neal also welcomes Jose Antonio Vargas, journalist, filmmaker, and CEO of Define American, a nonprofit media and culture organization that uses the power of story to transcend politics and shift the conversation about immigrants, identity, and citizenship in a changing America. Vargas will discuss his first book, a provocative memoir, that is both personal and universal. Available Fall 2018, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen is both an urgent and personal letter to his country and a window into Vargas’s American experience. It is a transformative argument about migration and citizenship and an intimate, searing exploration of what it means to be “home” when the country you live in doesn’t consider you one of its own.
Vargas was born in the Philippines and brought to the United States illegally as a twelve-year-old. He hid in plain sight for years, writing for some of the most prestigious news organizations in the country while lying about where he came from and how he got here. After publicly admitting his undocumented status, risking his career and personal safety, Vargas challenged the definition of what it means to be an American. He has advocated for the human rights of immigrants and migrants during the largest global movement of people in modern history.
Vargas was part of The Washington Post team that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for their coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting. He revealed his undocumented immigration status in a 2011 essay in the New York Times Magazine and later produced and directed his autobiographical documentary, “Documented,” which aired on CNN. He later produced and directed “White People,” which aired on MTV.
His appearance at the conference is sponsored by HarperCollins.
Get details and add to your schedule now.
