{"id":5366,"date":"2016-07-11T22:19:05","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T22:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/?p=3768"},"modified":"2016-07-11T22:19:05","modified_gmt":"2016-07-11T22:19:05","slug":"ui-librarians-serving-the-iowa-library-association","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/2016\/07\/11\/ui-librarians-serving-the-iowa-library-association\/","title":{"rendered":"UI Librarians Serving the Iowa Library Association"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2016\"<\/a>Q&A with\u00a0Duncan Stewart<\/strong><\/h2>\n

ILA’s past president and UI special collections catalog\u00a0librarian<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Q: How long have you been an active\u00a0member of ILA?<\/em><\/p>\n

A: I joined ILA in 1998 when I got my first professional library job as a cataloger at the State Historical Society of Iowa in Iowa City. I joined ILA because ALA was not affordable or vital to my job as a state librarian.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0List any positions or projects you’ve worked on for ILA<\/em><\/p>\n

A: \u00a0When I joined, I volunteered to be a member of ILA Governmental Affairs Committee (GAC). I was a member for several years, assisting with ILA Lobbying Day at the State Capitol in the Law Library. Then I became chair of GAC and held that position for several years, working closely with ILA leadership and ILA professional lobbyists in Des Moines. ILA actually has a fairly powerful lobbying voice in the state legislature. Over the years, I have served on the ILA-ACRL board, as a member of the ILA Executive board, and as vice president, president, and now past president of ILA.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0How would you describe what ILA is and how\u00a0it\u00a0serves\u00a0Iowa\/Iowans?<\/em><\/p>\n

A: ILA serves Iowa librarians, libraries, and librarians as the organized voice of the library community in the state. With 1500 members from every county of Iowa, we combine all types of librarians (teacher librarians, public librarians, academics, special librarians) into one strong group. This works well in Iowa because we are a small state and separate groups for every type of librarian would be impractical, though ILA does have subdivisions where like-minded librarians gather for professional development. ILA serves Iowa by explaining the need for and huge impact of state assistance to Iowa libraries through the State Library of Iowa. ILA has partnered with the State Library to ask for\u00a0state financial aid for Inter Library Loan, making books much more available to participating libraries. ILA has worked to support and shape the State Library and the services it provides. But the best example of ILA benefiting Iowans is the statewide contract for Ebsco Host, the database of journal articles and news stories\u2014the State Library, with ILA\u2019s ongoing assistance, uses this contract to provide access (paid) to every library in the state. ILA has also been instrumental in garnering legislative support\u00a0for\u00a0ongoing access to Learning Express, which is a database of professional tests and educational materials available to all Iowa libraries.<\/p>\n

Q: Please explain why, as a University of Iowa librarian, you joined and participate in ILA<\/em><\/p>\n

A: I continued my membership in ILA, even though I also became active with ALA after being hired at UIL in 2002. I did this because I had seen the positive effects that ILA had on Iowa libraries, I enjoyed working with librarians from across the state and from many kinds of libraries, and because I am convinced that membership and participation in ILA is one way for UI librarians to fulfill the mission of the library and the university to serve the people of Iowa. UI librarians have had strong support for ongoing membership in ILA and have served at every level from committee member to president (I was ILA president in 2015). ILA benefits greatly from the commitment and energy of UI Librarians and would not be the same organization without us.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0What is something you learned through participating in ILA that you might not have learned at another conference or on-the-job?<\/em><\/p>\n

A: \u00a0The most basic thing I learned as a member of ILA is the strength and diversity of the library community in Iowa and our power when we all work together. ILA includes para-professional staff members, state certified librarians without\u00a0MLS, as well as\u00a0MLS librarians. Together we span the spectrum of libraries in the state and cooperate to improve all library services. I learned that it is not only possible, but highly powerful to work with people of greatly differing backgrounds, job experience, and training. ILA taught me that\u00a0there is strength in cooperation and numbers.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0What do you value most about your participation in ILA?<\/em><\/p>\n

A:\u00a0The thing I value most about ILA is the chance to meet, work with, and celebrate successes with librarians from across Iowa and from every kind of library. ILA is, at heart, the center of the Iowa library community. And I see my work in ILA as a direct contribution to serving the people of Iowa.\u00a0ILA allows you to meet the citizens and librarians of Iowa that we are here to serve. ILA\u00a0unites librarians, government, and library users into a force for library support.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q&A with Duncan Stewart ILA’s past president and UI special collections catalog librarian Q: How long have you been an active member of ILA? A: I joined ILA in 1998 when I got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5366"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5378,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5366\/revisions\/5378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}