One very close election this year! Only 22 votes separated Julie Todaro from runner up, Joe Janes. 10,119 votes were cast for ALA President.

ALA reports that in 2014 the organization had 55,316 members. Ten years ago (2005) ALA membership was 66,075 (largest ever).

A recently released data set from the U.S. Census (linked below; 2013 data) shows 111,952 librarians in the U.S. (92,225 women/19,727 men).

From the American Library Association:

Julie Todaro, PhD, Dean of Library Services at Austin (Texas) Community College, has been elected president-elect of the American Library Association.

Todaro received 2,899 votes, while her opponents, Joseph Janes, associate professor and chair of the MLIS program at the University of Washington Information School, received 2,877 votes; James LaRue, CEO of LaRue & Associates, Castle Rock, Colo., received 2,222 votes; and JP Porcaro, Librarian for Acquisitions and Technological Discovery at the New Jersey City University Guarini Library, Jersey City, N.J., received 2,121 votes.

As ALA president, Todaro will be the chief elected officer for the oldest and largest library association in the world. She will serve as president-elect for one year before stepping into her role as president at the close of the 2016 ALA Annual Conference in Orlando, Fla.

Upon learning the outcome of the election, Todaro remarked, “I am honored to be elected the President of the American Library Association. I am especially honored to be the first community college librarian elected to serve in this important role in our profession.”

An ALA member since 1972, Todaro’s activities – which focus on all types of libraries – include co-chair of President Stripling’s “Libraries From Now On” summit; co-chair of President Alire’s “Frontline Advocacy” initiative; member of President Kranich’s “Information Literacy Partnerships” initiative; member of President Somerville’s “Kids Can’t Wait” initiative and lead authorship of Alire’s ACRL Presidential Initiative The Power of Persuasion. Todaro is the 2007-08 past-president of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), the 2000-01 Texas Library Association (TLA) past-president and 2012 chair of the Texas Council of Academic Libraries. She has been active in ALA Divisions and Roundtables including ACRL, the Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA), the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and the Library Information Round Table (LIRT). Todaro was the chair for the Texas State Library and Archives Commission school library standards initiative and the Texas Library Association review of the public library development plan and the transforming Texas libraries initiative.

Todaro received the TLA 1996 Librarian of the Year Award, the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award and received the 2005 Austin Business Journal Profiles in Power Award.

She is the author of Library Management for the Digital Age: A New Paradigm, Roman and Littlefield, 2014; Emergency Preparedness for Libraries, Government Institutes, 2009; co-authored Training Library Staff and Volunteers to Provide Extraordinary Customer Service, Neal-Schuman, 2006 and authored the columns “Truth is Out There” (LLAMA) and “Nothing but Net” (Community & Junior College Libraries.) Her latest publication Mentoring A-Z, was just released by ALA Editions.

Todaro earned her DLS from Columbia University’s School of Library Service, a MLS from The University of Texas Graduate School of Library Science (including school librarian all-level certification) and her BS in English and History from The University of Texas.