Speakers

Making the Best of a Budget: Creative Practices in a New Economy

Broadcast date: Friday, January 29, 2010

Leslie Burger

Leslie Burger is the Director of Princeton Public Library, where she raised the profile of the library by challenging her community’s notion of what a public library is all about and redefining what the public library means for local residents. She is also founder of the consulting firm Library Development Solutions. Before joining the Princeton Public Library, Leslie served as a development consultant at the New Jersey State Library, as Executive Director of the Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative, and was LSTA Coordinator, Director of Planning and Research, and Director of Network Services at the Connecticut State Library.

Leslie is an accomplished speaker, writer, and consultant on staff development, planning and evaluation, organizational development and library futures. She was president of the American Library Association from July 2006 through June 2007, following many years of service in that organization. She attended library school at the University of Maryland and also has a master’s degree in organizational behavior from the University of Hartford. She received the Princeton YWCA Tribute to Women Award in 2003, The New York Times Librarian Award for 2004, and was honored as the University of Maryland's CLIS Alumna of the Year in 2005.

Alice Calabrese-Berry

Alice Calabrese-Berry has been the Executive Director of three regional library systems in Illinois since 1988, and has experience in both public and academic libraries. She led the challenge of merging the Chicago Multitype Library System and the Suburban Library System into the Metropolitan Library System in 2004. MLS serves 85 public, 84 academic, 170 special and 143 school libraries. Illinois Library Systems are funded annually through an area and per capita grant from the Illinois State Library. Services include a System Wide Automated Catalog linking public, academic and special libraries together for the purpose of resource sharing and physical delivery of materials. A full range of service exists under the umbrella of the membership services department including, professional development, continuing education courses, and consulting.

Ms. Calabrese-Berry has been an active member of the American Library Association having served on the Executive Board from 1999-2002. She currently serves on the National Board of Beta Phi Mu, the National Honor Society for Library School and Information Science graduates.

Mary Case

Mary M. Case is University Librarian and Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). At UIC, Case oversees operations of the Richard J. Daley Library, the Science Library, and Library of the Health Sciences and its sites in Peoria, Rockford, and Urbana. The Library has over 2.2 million volumes, 30,000 current journals, and special collections focused on the social, political, and cultural history of Chicago. Prior to joining UIC in July 2004, Case was Director of the Office of Scholarly Communication of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in Washington, D.C. At ARL, Ms. Case was responsible for guiding the activities of the association related to the production, dissemination, use, and preservation of scholarly information and helped develop SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). Before ARL, Ms. Case was Director of Program Review at Northwestern University. Prior to that, she worked in serials and acquisitions at the Northwestern University Library.