This honor roll for Illinois libraries serves the dual purpose of recognizing outstanding voices in the library community, while creating a legacy through the ILA Endowment to continue their important work.
2010
Robert P. Doyle
Bob Doyle has been executive director of the Illinois Library Association since 1996, leading the association from a position of financial uncertainty to financial security while continually improving the association's advocacy efforts, communications, and continuing education vehicles.
Prior to joining ILA, Doyle worked at the American Library Association (ALA) where he created and secured funding for a Fulbright program for librarians and then reestablished ALA's International Relations Office. As a former staff member of ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, he has worked since the inception of Banned Books Week to produce the necessary materials and resources to make the event an annual celebration of the "right to read." He has served on the board of the Freedom to Read Foundation and received its highest honor, the Roll of Honor Award, in 2009.
Doyle is the author of Banned Books and editor of the ILA Reporter, as well as a regular contributor to national and international library journals and a frequent speaker at conferences and events. He has served two terms as a member of ALA Council and been active in the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).
A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Doyle holds an MLS from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. A Milwaukee native, Doyle has lived in Chicago for many years and began his career in librarianship at the Oak Lawn Public Library.
Inducted November 12, 2010
Ernest J. Martin
Ernie Martin, former associate executive director of the American Library Association (ALA), began working at ALA in 1971. During his twenty-nine-year career at ALA, Martin oversaw the construction of the ALA headquarters at 50 E. Huron and was responsible for ushering in the computer age, overseeing creation of the fledgling Office of Information Technology and Telecommunications Services.
At different times during his tenure at ALA, Martin was responsible for several key association services including the customer service units of membership services and conference registration, as well as human resources and finance/accounting. Martin’s steady leadership, calm demeanor, dry sense of humor, and compassion were among the hallmarks of his tenure.
In addition to his service to ALA, Martin served as a trustee of the Rolling Meadows Public Library and continues to make his home in Rolling Meadows.
Inducted November 12, 2010
Debby Miller, 1938-2016
Debby Miller has been very active in library activities on the local, state, and national levels, and she is a trustee extraordinaire!
She is a former member and president of the board of the North Suburban Library System. As a trustee of the Schaumburg Township District Library since 1971, Miller has served as that board’s president several times.
Her honors include the Illinois Library Association (ILA) Trustee of the Year Award in 1979 and the American Library Association (ALA) Trustee of the Year Award in 1985. She was president of the ILA’s Trustee Section and an officer and member of the board of ALA’s Association of Library Trustees and Advocates (ALTA).
Miller served on ALA’s Intellectual Freedom and Legislation committees and was active for many years in the legislation activities of the Illinois Library Association. She served on the Illinois State Board of Education for twelve years.
She continues to be active not only at the Schaumburg Township District Library but also on the Arts Commission of the Village of Hoffman Estates as well as assisting in the adult education program at Roosevelt University in Schaumburg.
Inducted November 12, 2010
E.C. Alft
From the time he made Elgin his home in 1950, E.C. "Mike" Alft has spent much of it in the library. He is recognized as an ever-present user of the Gail Borden Public Library District, having spent nearly sixty years gleaning facts, trivia and curiosities from books and microfilm.
A teacher, constant reader, mayor and local historian, he has written more than a dozen books and booklets – one a history of Gail Borden Library, among the oldest public libraries in Illinois. As a library trustee, he was a participant in the planning for the present building and its branch.
A staunch supporter of the Freedom to Read and the Library Bill of Rights, he led board discussions when community members voiced complaints about materials. Who better to defend intellectual freedom than one who has logged the more than 2,400 books he has read since the age of fifteen, chiefly works on history, economics, government and classic literature. Not included in the list are the "light" reading titles he has consumed.
Never idle, Alft continues to offer support with workshops to train newly minted trustees and programs on Elgin's rich history as well as to portray the library namesake, dairyman Gail Borden.
Inducted July 29, 2010
Robert Wedgeworth
Robert Wedgeworth's career in librarianship has spanned the nation and the globe, but his present and roots are strongly based in Illinois.
In addition to his landmark leadership of the American Library Association (ALA) as executive director from 1972-1985, Wedgeworth served as a professor and University Librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) from 1993 until he retired from the university in 1999. He currently lives in Chicago and is noted for his public service to organizations ranging from the Newberry Library to the Poetry Foundation.
With degrees from Wabash College and the University of Illinois (1961), Wedgeworth had an illustrious career in academic librarianship at Brown University, Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey, and served as dean of the School of Library Service at Columbia University from 1985-1992. Throughout his career and well into retirement, Wedgeworth continued to serve the profession, assuming the position of president of ProLiteracy Worldwide from 2001-2007.
He is only the second American to be elected president of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the only one to serve a second term. For his many achievements, Wedgeworth has received six honorary doctorates and three of ALA's highest honors, including the Lippincott and Melvil Dewey awards.
Inducted July 29, 2010
Burton Joseph, 1930-2010
Burton Joseph was a friend to Illinois libraries in a way that only a true civil libertarian could be. In one of his early cases, he represented a Lake County bookseller's right to sell Henry Miller's novel Tropic of Cancer, securing a favorable decision before the Illinois Supreme Court in 1964.
Joseph may be best known for his work on cases such as the National Socialist Party of America seeking to demonstrate in Skokie in 1978 and the American Library Association's successful opposition to the constraints of the Communications Decency Act in 1997.
He always championed the rights of the underdog, from comic book artists to the retailers who sell their work. A lifelong supporter of First Amendment rights and the freedom to read, Joseph was executive director of the Playboy Foundation from 1969 to 1978, when he became chairman of its board.
Joseph was a founding member and former chairman of the Media Coalition, an association that defends the First Amendment right to produce and sell books, movies, magazines, recordings, DVDs, videotapes, and video games. He was active in and honored by the American Civil Liberties Union, and he was a Freedom to Read Foundation board member and recipient of its 2008 Roll of Honor Award.
Inducted April 15, 2010
Sharon S. Ball, 1950-2009
Sharon Ball was the consummate system consultant. Before going to the North Suburban Library System, she was a youth services librarian at Roselle and Helen M. Plum Memoiral Public Library District in Lombard and the youth services department head at Villa Park.
Ball brought to system work an understanding of the needs of youth services librarians, and she quickly learned about the needs of the school and special librarians with whom she worked. She left a spark of shining light with everyone she met and everyone with whom she worked. She was a mentor, a colleague and a friend. She taught her system consultant colleagues how to handle situations with grace, tact and good humor. It was always by example or modeling.
When she spoke, she made a person feel like they were the most important person in the world. She was a storyteller, a reader, an accomplished grant writer and master project manager. She could do all of these things with a twinkle in her eye, a smile on her lips and a positive attitude with the "good, good" response.
She did not expect awards or accolades, but she received the Davis Cup Award from the Illinois Library Association's Youth Services Forum in 2002 and the Polestar Award from the Illinois School Library Media Association in 2008. Ball was an individual who "led from the middle" and created positive changes in the profession.
Inducted February 12, 2010
Robert R. McClarren
In 1967 Robert R. McClarren was named founding director of the North Suburban Library System. Upon retirement in 1989 he was named System Director Emeritus. McClarren provided substantive and exemplary leadership for the development of the fledgling regional library systems. His unprecedented mastery of the legislative process and untiring advocacy work resulted in legislation that remains the bedrock of Illinois library legislation. ILA's Robert R. McClarren Legislative Development Award is named in his honor.
McClarren was named ILA Librarian of the Year in 1978 and served as ILA President in 1981. McClarren was Treasurer of the American Library Association 1968 - 1972.
Inducted February 12, 2010
iREAD Summer Reading Programs
Latest Library JobLine Listings
