LISNews: Librarian News

LJ reports: The latest American Library Association (ALA) election, a low-turnout affair, turned out Molly Raphael to be not so close at all, with public librarian Molly Raphael besting school library media specialist Sara Kelly Johns by 5,857 to 4,399 votes, according to ALA.

Of 55,330 eligible voters, 11,069 (20.01%) voted, compared to 23.41% last year.

Raphael, former director of the Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR, and the District of Columbia Public Library, will become president-elect in June 2010, and will serve a year as president in June 2011, following the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. Johns, a stalwart among school libraries, serves grades 6-12 at Lake Placid Middle/High School, NY.

Question for ALA members: Why does such a significant majority of members abstain from voting??