OCLC Americas Regional Council Announces Results of Inaugural Election

At its first annual meeting under OCLC’s new governance structure, the OCLC Americas Regional Council (ARC) announced the results of its inaugural election.

Seven librarians were elected to the ARC Executive Committee:

• Chair – Anne Prestamo, Associate Dean for Collections and Technology Services, Oklahoma State University Library, Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA
• Vice Chair/Chair-Elect – Bill Maes, University Librarian, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
• Secretary – Terry S. Latour, Dean of Libraries, Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Clarion, Pennsylvania, USA
• Member-at-Large – Lynn Baird, Dean of Library Services, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
• Member-at-Large – Joseph Hafner, Associate Director, Collection Services, McGill University Library, Montréal, Québec, Canada
• Member-at-Large – Betty Landesman, Digital Resources and Metadata Coordinator, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Library, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
• Member-at-Large – Maria de los Angeles Lugo, Library Director, Universidad Metropolitana, San Juan, Puerto Rico

All elected Officers, with the exception of the Vice Chair/Chair-Elect, will serve one-year terms (July 1, 2010, through June 30, 2011). The Vice Chair/Chair-Elect assumes the office of Chair on July 1, 2011. The Chair and Vice Chair/Chair-Elect, by virtue of their election this year, also become two of the new ARC delegates on the OCLC Global Council for three years (July 1, 2010, through June 30, 2013).

Fourteen librarians were elected ARC Delegates to the OCLC Global Council for three-year terms beginning on July 1, 2010, and ending on June 30, 2013, to represent OCLC members in the Americas:

• Bonnie Allen, Dean of Libraries, The University of Montana Mansfield Library, Missoula, Montana, USA
• Rosann Bazirjian, Dean of University Libraries, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
• Dalia Corkrum, Library Director, Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, USA
• Carol Pitts Diedrichs, Director of University Libraries and Professor, The Ohio State University Libraries, Columbus, Ohio, USA
• Gilda del Carmen Gajardo Oliva, Head of Coihueco Public Library, Coihueco, Chile
• Joyce Garnett, University Librarian, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
• Jan Ison, Executive Director, Lincoln Trail Libraries System, Champaign, Illinois, USA
• Karen Lequay, Campus Librarian, University of the West Indies, Open Campus, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
• Lisa O'Hara, Head, Technical Services, University of Manitoba Libraries, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
• Mark Pumphrey, Director, Polk County Public Library, Columbus, North Carolina, USA
• Debbie Schachter, Director of Technology & Collection Management, Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• Wilbur Stolt, Director of Libraries, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA
• John Szabo, Director, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
• Patrick Wilkinson, Director, Forrest R. Polk Library, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA

"I’d like to thank everyone who participated in our first election and took part in the activities of the Americas Regional Council during our initial year," said Patrick Wilkinson, Outgoing Chair, Americas Regional Council and Library Director, University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh. "I specifically would like to acknowledge members of the 2009/2010 Executive Committee—Anne Prestamo, Beth Barlow, Brian Schottlaender, Theresa Byrd, Ishwar Laxminarayan, Karen Lequay and Anne Van Camp—who worked hard to make our inaugural year so successful. I am grateful for their involvement and leadership."

"With the new governance structure taking place, it is a very exciting time in the life of the cooperative. Every member’s voice is important. The goal of the Americas Regional Council is to represent library perspectives and make it easier for libraries, archives and museums to have a voice and be involved. I’m confident we cultivated some new connections and advanced the needs of libraries. It has been my privilege to work with so many individual libraries on building ARC, and I pass the leadership of the ARC to the new executive committee with confidence."

This was the first election of officers for the Americas Regional Council since OCLC governance changed from a single Members Council to a Global Council and three regional councils—Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

The annual meeting was held in conjunction with the ALA Annual Conference. Voting was conducted using an electronic ballot and took place between May 14 and June 14. Voting representatives from among the 22,000 OCLC members in the Americas Region elected the executive committee members and global council delegates. Each OCLC member institution was permitted one voting representative to vote on behalf of that institution.

More information about the election and the Americas Regional Council is available at http://www.oclc.org/councils/americas.

About the OCLC Americas Regional Council
Comprised of members from libraries and cultural heritage organizations in Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean and the United States, the Americas Regional Council is one of three regional councils that are part of OCLC’s new governance structure to facilitate member-to-member discussions. The Council is the primary means through which members offer feedback on OCLC products, services, programs and policies through OCLC’s Global Council, and help shape the future of the cooperative.

ARC meetings are open to all interested OCLC members, participants and nonmembers. These meetings facilitate connections among members throughout the region and back to OCLC through the Global Council.

About OCLC
Founded in 1967, OCLC is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing library costs. More than 72,000 libraries in 171 countries have used OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend, preserve and manage library materials. OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the world’s largest online database for discovery of library resources. Search WorldCat on the Web at www.worldcat.org.