NEWS For Immediate Release February 26, 2013

Contact: JoAnne Kempf

CHICAGO — Sara Kelly Johns and James G. (Jim) Neal have been elected to serve on the American Library Association (ALA) Executive Board. The new board members were elected by the ALA Council in a vote taken at the 2013 ALA Midwinter Meeting held Jan. 25 to 29 in Seattle. Johns and Neal will each serve three-year terms beginning in July 2013 and concluding in June 2016.

Johns is a school librarian at the Lake Placid (N.Y.) Middle/High School Library as well as a School Library and Information Technologies Instructor (online) at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania.  She has served on Council as the AASL Division Councilor since 2011 and as an ALA Councilor-at-Large 2002-2004 and 2010-2011. Johns has served on numerous ALA and Division committees. She is a member of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), serving as their president in 2007-2008. She is also a member of the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC), the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) and the Reference User Services Association (RUSA), and she is currently the president-elect of the New York Library Association. Johns holds a BA in English Literature from the State University of New York, Plattsburgh, and an MLS degree from the State University of New York at Albany.  

Neal, vice president for Information Services and university librarian, Columbia University, N.Y., has served on ALA Council 1994-2001, and is completing his three-year term as ALA Treasurer (2010-2013). He previously served on the ALA Executive Board 1997-2001.  Neal has served on numerous ALA committees and has been an active member of the Association of College Research Libraries (ACRL) and the Library Leadership Management Association (LLAMA) for over 25 years.  He served as the 1997-1998 president of the Association of Research Libraries.  Neal holds a BA in Russian Studies from Rutgers University, an MA in History from Columbia University and an MS in Library Science, also from Columbia University.

AASL, ACRL, ALSC, ASCLA, LLAMA, RUSA, and YALSA are divisions of the ALA.  

The ALA Executive Board manages the affairs of the Association. It is composed of the president, president-elect, immediate past president, treasurer, executive director and eight members elected by Council from among the members of that body. More information on the ALA Executive Board is available on the ALA website .

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