[ Home ] [ Juneau Conference 2003 ][ Continuing Education ] [ Jobs ] [ Listserv ] [ News & Events ]
[ Membership] [ Organization ] [ Library Links ] [ Search ] [ Site Index ]

BIOGRAPHIES OF AkLA CONFERENCE PRESENTERS

Brett Dillingham:
"Storytelling Craft &Performance"

Brett Dillingham is a professional storyteller who has performed and taught storytelling in Alaska, Canada, Ireland, Africa and the lower 48 states. He has also performed on National Public Radio, the Calgary International Children's Festival, and the Yukon International Storytelling Festival, on mountaintops and in snowdrifts. His work has been performed at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Brett coordinates the Alaska Reading Tutor Training program and the Alaska Literacy Strategies Institutes. He has been a presenter at the National American Reads conference, the National Migrant Education conference and the International Reading Association conference. He is the past president of the Alaska State Literacy Association (Alaska IRA), and a published poet and playwright. His first children's book, Raven Day, was published in January 2002 by McGraw-Hill.

Rita Gibson
"Career Journey, Not Just a Job: Achieving Excellence via Pathways in Education, Certification & Research, Part II -
Support Staff Track"

Rita Gibson is employed by the Montana Supreme Court as Library Specialist/Access Services Supervisor in the State Law Library of Montana, in Helena, Montana. In addition to these last seven years at the Law Library, she has spent the previous fifteen years working in seven different academic, special and public libraries in Montana and Texas, in both technical and public services divisions. She completed two bachelor programs at the University of Montana, one in K-12 Music Education and the other in History, and graduated with Honors from UM in 1985. Ms. Gibson is active in her state library association (Montana Library Association, MLA); was the co-founder in 1997 of its paraprofessional interest group, the Montana Library Paraprofessionals, and has served as its chair for four years. She is a member of MLA's Professional Development Committee, under which her recently approved mentoring project is being established. Two other MLA committees she's currently serving on are Awards & Honors and the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Task Force. She is in her second year as COLT's (Council on Library/Media Technicians) Pacific Northwest Regional Director. She has compiled seven bibliographies on library support staff issues, which are on COLT's web site. Gibson has been active in organizing workshops and panel discussions, and in 1998 served as the paraprofessional representative at the Montana Library Education Summit, called by the State Librarian. She continues to investigate ways to provide distance education and continuing education opportunities for Montana's rural library support staff. Rita occasionally writes articles for Library Mosaics and Associates. Rita was the 2001 recipient of Library Mosaics' and the Council on Library/Media Technicians' award for Outstanding Support Staff.

Michael Gorman
"Why Catalogers are Crucial to Librarianship"

Michael Gorman is Dean of Library Services at the Henry Madden Library, California State University, Fresno. 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 was, successively, Head of Cataloguing at the British national bibliography, a member of the British Library Planning Secretariat, and Head of the Office of Bibliographic Standards in the British Library. He has taught at library schools in his native Britain and in the United States--most recently at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Amoung his many awards and accomplishments, He is the first editor of the Anglo-American cataloguing rules, second edition (1978) and of the revision of that work (1988). He is the author of The concise AACR2, 3rd edition (1999); editor of, and contributor to, Technical services today and tomorrow, 2nd edition (1998); and editor of Convergence (proceedings of 2nd National LITA Conference), and Californien, both published in 1991.

 

Linda Owen:
"Career Journey, Not Just a Job:
Achieving Excellence via Pathways in Education,
Certification and Research," Part 1

Linda J. Owen is a Library Assistant in the Cataloging Department of the University Library at the University of California, Riverside. She received her B.S. in Vocational Education from Southern Illinois University - Carbondale. She is active in library professional organizations including the American Library Association (ALA), the California Library Association and the Online Audiovisual Catalogers (OLAC). Ms Owen is a Past-President of the Council on Library/Media Technicians (COLT) and is webmaster of the COLT home page. She has been published in Library Mosaics, Associates, InCite, Nexus and Library Trends. Ms. Owen is a member of Toastmasters International and has spoken at conferences in the United States and Australia.

 

Carol Schuyler:

Carol Schuyler has a Master Degree in Library Science from the University of Washington and is the Deputy Director of the Kitsap Regional Library, Regional Services (Youth Services, Outreach and Bookmobile Services, Extension, Training, and Media Collection). She is also the President of the Washington Library Association and a member of the Advisory Board for the Information School at the University of Washington.

 

Michael Schuyler

Michael Schuyler is Deputy Director of Kitsap Regional Library, which is located across Puget Sound from Seattle. He is also Lead Columnist for Computers in Libraries magazine where his "View from the Top Left Corner" has appeared for the last fifteen years. A graduate of the School of Librarianship at the University of Washington, he became involved in library automation and technology in the early eighties and has survived several large automation projects. In 1994 he launched LinkNet, turning Kitsap into an Internet Service Provider which introduced free email and web access to over 35,000 citizens.

Kristie Sherrodd
"Surviving Outdoor Adventures"
(in the library setting)

Kristie Sherrod has a Master of Librarianship from the University of Washington, specializing in library services to children. She has worked as a children's librarian with Seattle Public Library and Kettleson Memorial Library in Sitka. Now, on the staff of the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association, she is involved in the development of various materials on marine safety. She illustrated, contributed content to and was an editor for Surviving Outdoor Adventures, the 4-volume publication to be highlighted at the AKLA conference. The presentation will focus on using AMSEA-produced marine safety books and videos, especially the brand-new K-12 curriculum entitled Surviving Outdoor Adventures, in the library setting. It will include ideas for library programs and activities for children of all ages.

 

Katy Spangler:
"Alaskan Primary Literature", "Alaskan Elementary Literature"
&"AlaskanMiddle & High School Literature"

Katy Spangler received her doctorate from the University of Washington, and has lived in Alaska since 1981. Since that time, she has collected, annotated and shared Alaskan literature for children with librarians and teachers. Katy directs a distance delivered elementary teacher education program for the University of Alaska Southeast. She teaches children's literature and literacy courses, and writes about literature for the Anchorage Daily News. Katy lives with her teacher husband, Mike McCormick and their two children, Patrick and Mary, in Eagle River, Alaska.