Endorse Roberta
I invite you to support my candidacy for ALA president. Please take a few moments to complete the online form.
Writers always exaggerate. Especially fiction writers. But this is a fact: Roberta Stevens is one of the kindest, nicest, most organized people I’ve encountered in this business. I know her through her work with the National Book Festival, her work with the Library of Congress, and even from my own research. I’ve seen her work with fellow authors, volunteers, staff and all the wildly chaotic moving parts that make the National Book Festival roll so smoothly. And let me say it as clear as I can: she’s one of the reasons it runs so smoothly, and she’s why it’s one of the best run operations out there. She knows how to create and energize a team and would make a terrific president of the American Library Association.
Brad Meltzer
Author
I came to know Roberta Stevens as a gala program author and an author in the Home & Family Pavilion at the 2008 National Book Festival. A flawless and first-rate National Book Festival and gala presentation were only possible because of her incessant dedication and passionate spirit. She’s a leader and will bring her talents to the role of president of ALA.
George Duran
Author and Food Network TV chef
It was a pleasure working with Roberta Stevens on the 2008 National Book Festival, Charming, directed, thoughtful and organized, she stands apart for her persuasive and organized style. I want to be on her team! She aims high and carries all around her with her. The American Library Association is fortunate to have Roberta as a candidate for its presidency.
Jan Brett
Author and illustrator
As a gala and festival speaker for the National Book Festival this year, I came away so impressed with Roberta Stevens. Her grace, fine organizational skills and good nature made for a truly exceptional experience. I was particularly nervous about the gala, as I am a bit unused to speaking before such an illustrious group, but Roberta’s guidance and kindness put me entirely at ease, and I had a marvelous time. Everyone else did as well. I am cheering her on as a candidate for president of ALA.
Marisa de los Santos
Author
Roberta was the cheerful whirlwind who powered this year’s National Book Festival to amazing new and successful heights. She is just the whirlwind our ALA Presidency needs.
Jon Scieszka
Author
I have had the opportunity and the pleasure of working with Roberta over the past six years that the Junior League of Washington has participated in the National Book Festival. Our volunteers and leadership have worked with her on the planning and logistics of placing our 400 volunteers at this event each year. Roberta has been the consummate professional and top-level advisor and organizer of making this event an enormous success and enjoyable literacy event for over 100,000 adults and children who have attended each year. That she can seamlessly pull together this event with the White House, the sponsors and donors, well-known authors, the media and the throngs of the public is a feat that can hardly be imagined. My fellow JLW members and I have enjoyed working with her each and every year. When I heard she was running for ALA’s president, I wanted to add my voice to the others endorsing her. I know that she’ll bring the same energy and enthusiasm to the presidency that she brings to the National Book Festival.
Diana Wetzel Marousek
President of the Junior League of Washington, 2008-2009
I've known Roberta since high school in the south hills of Pittsburgh.
It was great fun reconnecting with her at class reunions, and even
greater fun discovering that she was a librarian just like me. I've
been impressed by her career path from school librarian to Library of
Congress, and feel that the breadth of her experience will serve every
ALA member well. As a school librarian who sometimes feels marginalized
by our professional organization's emphasis on public libraries, I'm
especially thrilled to think that Roberta will bring that aspect of her
experience to the office of ALA president.
Katherine Koenig
Director of Libraries
The Ellis School
Pittsburgh, PA
Roberta Stevens has already proven her consummate capabilities while serving on the ALA Council, on the ALA Executive Board, and within the ALA committee structure. She is a strong, eloquent leader who is dedicated to building a stronger and more responsive association which addresses the varied needs of its members, i.e. librarians and library users. This is why I endorse Roberta’s candidacy for President of the American Library Association.
Annelle R. Huggins
Associate Dean of University Libraries
University of Memphis and
Executive Director, Tennessee Library Association
Roberta Stevens possesses the experience, vision and energy to lead our organization. Her experience in managing diverse groups across the spectrum of library settings, ranging from public libraries to research institutions, makes her well qualified to be president. She has a vision for our association and the energy and clarity to be the voice we need. That is why I support Roberta as the next ALA President.
Julius C. Jefferson Jr.
Information Research Specialist
Congressional Research Service
Executive Board member Black Caucus of ALA
I strongly endorse Roberta Stevens for ALA President. Her intelligence, experience, ability to advocate and organize and to speak for the Association are needed by ALA. And her positive energy and sensitivity to people make her the leader ALA needs.
Patricia Hogan
Poplar Creek Public Library District
Streamwood, IL
I’ve admired Roberta Stevens for her creativity and ingenuity as the department head at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a college of the Rochester Institute of Technology. This institution is a model for educating the deaf and has visitors coming from around the globe to marvel at the innovative teaching practices there. As its library and media services head, she excelled in collaborating with the institute’s instructors and addressing the informational needs of the students – a skill that has served her well throughout her career.
Roberta is well known at the Library of Congress as the project manager for the National Book Festival. What began as an event on the grounds of the Capitol and in the buildings of the Library has grown into a major literary event on a national scale. The leadership and organizational skills along with the logistics of dealing with 120,000 people who come to the festival, more than 70 bestselling authors, the First Lady and other high-profile individuals requires the stamina, creativity and perseverance of a Hollywood producer. These proven talents and successes are invaluable and what makes her the best candidate for president of the American Library Association.
Jerry W. Mansfield
Congressional Research Service
Knowledge Services Group
In her work at the Library of Congress Roberta Stevens fundraises and she organizes and engineers the success of the National Book Festival. But, check her resume. Roberta knows a wide variety of libraries through the lens of one who has been there. More than that, she knows how to get their story out to the public and how to gain access to critical funding sources. She has a superb ability to speak out on issues that concern us and she is always prepared. That is why we, on Council, elected her to the Executive Board. In the role of ALA President, Roberta will be able to engage those we need listening to us. She has gut level experience learning how to approach those we need to recruit for our most important issues. Not the least of her qualifications is the eloquent speaker she will be on behalf of all libraries.
Marilyn Hinshaw
Eastern Oklahoma District Library System and ALA Councilor-at-large
Over the past 8 years I have worked with Roberta Stevens, project manager for the Library of Congress National Book Festival, in coordinating an accessibility information booth. She has made sure braille and large print festival programs are available, secured language interpreters for talks by up to 70 authors, and ensured mobility access for the event, which draws up to 120,000 readers. She organized a diverse group of volunteers from public, private, and government agencies.
I have also worked with Roberta in her role as an ALA Councilor and Executive Board member, and she has been supportive and encouraging on accessibility concerns brought before the Council. Her background as head of media services for the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) in Rochester, NY, prepared her for her role in promoting these issues. Her guidance and knowledge of the process needed for introducing and securing passage of resolutions was instrumental in improving information accessibility to individuals with print disabilities, and I believe this would extend to all issues facing librarians and libraries today.
In all of these activities she has used her skills as a collaborative team-builder to get things done, therefore I wholeheartedly endorse Roberta Stevens as President of ALA.
Ruth J. Nussbaum
Reference Librarian
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, LC
Co-chair Francis J. Campbell Award-LSSPS/ASCLA 2006-2010
ALA Councilor-at-large 2004-2007
LSSPS/ASCLA Chair 2004-2005
LSSPS/ASCLA representative 1999-2003
ALA could not ask for a better qualified President than Roberta Stevens. She will clearly and compellingly articulate the full range of issues facing our profession to a broad range of audiences. Her experience in working in a wide range of libraries gives her a unique perspective. She is strategic and focused on solutions. She has the drive, the stamina, and the vision to successfully lead our organization and achieve our goals.
Robert R. Newlen
Assistant Director, Knowledge Services Group
Congressional Research Service
Library of Congress