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.
2016
Carol Iffland Todd
Carol Iffland Todd worked in public, special, and system libraries in Illinois for nearly thirty years. Born in Massachusetts and educated in Michigan (MALS from University of Michigan), she made Illinois her home. After starting her career at the La Grange Public Library in 1969, she became the first degreed children’s librarian at the Woodridge Public Library. During her tenure, she implemented several innovative programs that would soon become professional standards, including classes in 8mm film animation. She also worked to bring renowned authors to the small library, including Sid Fleischman, whose original drawings are still on display there. The Woodridge Rotary Club presented her with a certificate of recognition for her work with handicapped children. After a move to New Jersey, she returned to Illinois and joined the Burr Oak Library System as a children’s consultant and general consultant, working on the statewide summer reading initiative that evolved into iREAD. She later directed the Lemont Public Library and taught at St. Xavier University before accepting her capstone position with Bellcore Tec (a national telecommunications training center) in Lisle. She ran the center’s staff library for thirteen years until her retirement in 1997. While at Bellcore, she earned a Master of Adult and Continuing Education degree from National Louis University. She was active in LACONI, the Suburban and Burr Oak Library Systems, the Illinois Library Association, the American Library Association, and the Special Library Association. She served as guest editor and wrote articles for issues of Illinois Libraries. Her diverse and varied career had a widespread impact on our profession, a model for future generations of librarians.
Inducted December 1, 2016
Alexander W. Todd, Jr., 1928-2023
Alex Todd was the director of the Fountaindale Public Library District (FPLD) for twenty-six years and helped the district’s two library buildings grow with their communities. Born in 1928 in Vandalia and growing up in Belleville, Todd attended the United States Naval Academy and had a twenty-five-year naval career prior to joining the library profession. He earned his MLS from Drexel University in 1972 and served as director of the Pitman Public Library in New Jersey before moving his family to Bolingbrook in 1974 to lead FPLD. Todd has always been a strong advocate for libraries having their own dedicated funding. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he traveled the state along with Jane Shaw, Pam Feather, and Marlene Deuel, encouraging library boards to form library districts. In 1986, Todd worked with his board president Hilary Rosenthal to write the “Standards for the Public Library” section of the first edition of the Trustee Facts File, published by the Illinois Library Association. His work gained him recognition as ILA’s Librarian of the Year in 1986, and even today, twenty years after his retirement, librarians around the state still ask about him and send their good wishes. He has left an indelible mark on Illinois libraries professionally, structurally, and personally.
Inducted December 1, 2016
Richard Shurman
As the administrator of Cooperative Computer Services (CCS) until retiring in 2015 after almost twenty-eight years of leadership, Shurman embodies the spirit of library cooperation in Illinois. He began his career with the DuPage Library System (DLS) where he worked to develop the system’s first consortium for sharing resources. During his tenure at CCS, it grew into a consortium of twenty-four public libraries in the north and northwest suburbs of Chicago with 650,000 cardholders, over one million titles, and 5.6 million item records. Shurman achieved all this through building consensus among members with considerable differences in budget, population, geographic location, or governmental structure. Large city libraries like Evanston and Des Plaines worked together with small district libraries, such as Lincolnwood and Prospect Heights; libraries in Wilmette and Lake Forest found common ground with libraries in Crystal Lake and Huntley. Each library has a unique constituency, unique board of trustees, and unique sets of priorities. Shurman’s leadership style ensured that every viewpoint had the opportunity to be heard and each member was provided with unbiased information to reach a decision. His professional memberships include state and national organizations and active participation in user groups, and he has served on committees and presented at conferences throughout his career, sharing his expertise on consortia with eager audiences.
Inducted December 1, 2016
Kiplund (Kip) Kolkmeier
Anyone who cares about what happens to libraries in Illinois has had occasion to thank Kip Kolkmeier, longtime legislative consultant for the Illinois Library Association (ILA). He was hired as ILA’s lobbyist in 1996 and remains an effective voice for Illinois libraries today.
His presence and relationships in Springfield have kept libraries from getting lost in the shuffle, and made dozens of friends for libraries in the Illinois General Assembly. With Kolkmeier’s hard work, guidance, and dedication, the Illinois library community both opposed and supported key library legislation, including the defeat of eighteen legislative attempts for statewide mandatory filters.
No one has been more generous with his time, monitoring thousands of bills in every session, attending ILA Public Policy Committee and Executive Board meetings to make sure positions were well thought-out and defensible. Whether presenting testimony in Springfield or speaking at conferences, meetings, or workshops, he not only superbly represents the library community, but keeps everyone informed about the issues, the process, and the core values of libraries. His signature sense of humor has converted even the reluctant into ardent library advocates.
An attorney, Kolkmeier was a partner at Sidley & Austin for many years, and is currently Senior Counsel at Perkins Coie, LLP. He is a graduate of Loyola University of Chicago School of Law and Stanford University.
Inducted July 21, 2016
Jesse White
Jesse White became Illinois’s longest serving Illinois Secretary of State on May 30, 2014, which also makes him the longest serving Illinois State Librarian and State Archivist. White’s tenure has been an asset to libraries in the state budgeting process, protecting them from the most severe cost-cutting in lean years. In addition to overseeing the state library and literacy programs as well as the archives of significant legal and historical records, the Illinois Secretary of State’s office performs a wide variety of tasks, ranging from driver and vehicle services to registering corporations and enforcing the Illinois Securities Act. White was first elected to the office in 1998 and was re-elected to a record-breaking fifth term in 2014.
Prior to his election as Illinois Secretary of State, White served as Cook County Recorder of Deeds and was a member of the Illinois General Assembly for sixteen years. He is perhaps best known for founding the Jesse White Tumbling Team as a positive alternative for children residing in and around the Chicago area. White served as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army and as a member of the Illinois National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve. He played professional baseball with the Chicago Cubs organization, followed by a thirty-three-year career with the Chicago public school system. White earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Alabama State College (now Alabama State University) in 1957.
Inducted April 22, 2016
Allen Lanham
Allen Lanham epitomizes a breadth of service to Illinois libraries that would be difficult to duplicate. As professor and dean of library services at Eastern Illinois University for twenty-five years, he still found time to serve on public library and library system boards, and be elected president of the Illinois Library Association, and serve on its board and too many committees to mention. Among his many recognitions and awards, he was named ILA Academic Librarian of the Year in 2008. Lanham is a regular contributor to the ILA Reporter, with a distinctive style and wit, and is a keen observer of trends and changes in the library profession. His perspective takes in points of view across the spectrum, from new librarians to old hands, public to academic, local and state to national.
During his tenure at Eastern, he encouraged a wide range of library programming in the arts and humanities and has been the principal investigator for Art and Architecture in Illinois Libraries since 2006. He has consulted for libraries in Central and South America and Africa. Prior to his impressive career in libraries, Lanham was a professor of music in Puerto Rico and an instrumental music teacher, holding a doctorate in music education from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester. He received his master’s in library science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Inducted April 22, 2016
Barbara Ford
Despite a career that spanned continents, Barbara Ford made an indelible impression on libraries in Illinois. As director of the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs and Mortenson Distinguished Professor at the Library of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign until her retirement in 2014, Ford brought librarians from all over the world to programs and events statewide.
Earlier in her career she held a number of positions at the University of Illinois at Chicago, also held leadership positions in academic libraries in Texas and Virginia, and served as president of the American Library Association (ALA) and Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), both based in Chicago. Ford’s international involvement began as a Peace Corps volunteer in Panama and Nicaragua and continued with her service as an elected member of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Governing Board.
The author of many publications and presentations, she traveled the world to address topics such as information literacy, government information, the future of libraries, the role of library associations, international cooperation among libraries, among other topics. Ford holds a bachelor's degree in history and education from Illinois Wesleyan University, a master's degree in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a master's degree in library science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Inducted April 22, 2016
Kathy McSwain
Building on her love of children and appreciation of children's literature, Kathy McSwain began her professional career as a children's librarian at the Bedford Park Public Library in 1981 after earning an MLS from Rosary College (now Dominican University). In 1987 she became head of youth services at the Chicago Ridge Public Library and was named director in 1999, serving the library and community for 28 years. She is the personification of why "Libraries Matter,” and understands the value of library advocacy. McSwain chaired the ILA Advocacy Committee and worked on the Illinois Library Day Legislative Breakfast at the Illinois State Library, which earned her the admiration and respect of her peers. She received the Robert McClarren Legislative Development Award in 2010. McSwain has been active in the profession serving on the governing boards of professional organizations such as the Library Administrators Conference of Northern Illinois (LACONI) and Area Training for Library Administrators and Staff (ATLAS), and has mentored countless librarians, always being generous in sharing her expertise with those new to the profession. Her proudest accomplishment is to see patrons who visited the library as children now bringing their own children to the library.
Inducted February 5, 2016
Carolyn Anthony
It’s hard to imagine someone who has given more time and energy to the library profession than Carolyn Anthony. In addition to her position as director of the Skokie Public Library, serving a diverse population of 65,000 just north of Chicago, she has served as president of the Public Library Association (PLA), as well as president of the Illinois Library Association (ILA). Other activities, awards, and accolades are many, including being named Illinois Librarian of the Year (2003) and Skokie Public Library’s receipt of the National Medal from the Institute of Museum and Library Services in 2008.
Through her involvement with PLA, Anthony initiated the development of easy-to-use Outcome Measures that could be widely adopted by public libraries throughout the U.S. and was instrumental in the design and implementation of the first PLA Leadership Academy. In 2014, she was named as the public library co-chair of the ALA Digital Content Work Group, addressing the rapid shift from print to digital content facing libraries. That same year, Skokie Public Library was recognized as the top innovator in Organizational Change and Strategic Management by the Urban Libraries Council.
Anthony began her library career as a reference librarian at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, moving on to the Baltimore County Public Library before joining the staff in Skokie in 1985. She has a BA from Colby College and an MLS from the University of Rhode Island.
Inducted January 19, 2016
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