FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                        

July 25, 2005                                                                                 

Contact: Shirley Melikian Armbruster

(559) 278-5292 or (559) 593-1815

New American Library Association president sets priorities for his 2005-06 term

Michael Gorman, dean of Library Services at California State University, Fresno, had barely assumed his new role as 2005-06 president of the American Library Association when the national media came calling: he was asked to appear last week on the PBS program “The News Hour With Jim Lehrer” to talk about the “Harry Potter” book mania.

Gorman said on The News Hour that the Harry Potter phenomenon has helped in “cultivating a habit of reading” in young children. The books are not only entertaining, but are educational as well because they enrich the vocabularies and expand the horizons of readers, he said.

The Lehrer News Hour was first – but won’t be the last – media spotlight on Gorman as the chief elected officer for the oldest and largest library organization in the world. He also has met with journalists and editors of Governing magazine, the McClatchy Group of newspapers, the Washington Post, the Chronicle of Higher Education, USA Today and Cox newspapers to discuss, among other things, the USA Patriot Act, reading and literacy, the library as space, and digitization projects.

The ALA has a membership of more than 66,000 librarians, library trustees and library supporters. Its mission is to promote the highest quality library and information services and public access to information.

As ALA president, improving library education will be one of Gorman’s priorities.

“We are concerned about the educational content of library school programs, whether there will be an adequate supply of new librarians to replace those of my generation as we retire, and about continuing education for librarians and other library workers,” he said.

“I am also very concerned about the situation of school libraries in California and beyond –about the inadequacies of our school libraries caused by serious underfunding and about the lack of recognition of the vital role of school librarians and library media specialists in ensuring that ‘no child is left behind,’ " he said.

Gorman, Fresno State’s library dean since 1988, was inaugurated as ALA president June 29 at the ALA annual conference in Chicago. Among the top issues discussed at the world's largest library convention were the Patriot Act and legislative efforts to amend sections of the Act, library funding cuts of at least $111 million as of April, state legislative efforts to restrict access to gay and lesbian books, Googlization, outreach to a growing Spanish-speaking population, and the future roles of libraries as a physical place in an increasingly electronic age.

Gorman has taught at library schools in his native Britain and in the United States.  From 1977 to 1988, he worked at the University of Illinois (Urbana) Library as, successively, director of technical services, director of general services and acting university librarian.

From 1966 to 1977, he worked at the British Library. Gorman has published widely and was the first editor of the "Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules," second edition, in 1978 and its 1988 revision.

Gorman received the 2001 Highsmith Award for his book, “Our Enduring Values" and the 1997 Blackwell's Award for "Future Libraries: Dreams, Madness, and Reality" (with Walt Crawford), the 1992 Dewey Medal and the 1979 Margaret Mann Citation.

In the fall of 2002, Gorman was among five renowned librarians and scholars to speak at “A Celebration of Libraries,” an international event to mark the 400^th anniversary of the refounding of Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England.

Gorman received his library education in Great Britain at the Ealing School of Librarianship. He was elected a Fellow of the (British) Library Association in 1979 and was made an Honorary Fellow of the [British] Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) in 2005.

###

EDITORS and NEWS/PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIRECTORS: Press releases can be downloaded at www.fresnostatenews.com. University Communications also provides releases for news media companies via    e-mail. To be added to the distribution list, send your e-mail address to tomu@csufresno.edu.