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.
2017
Peggy J. Danhof
Peggy J. Danhof has served as a trustee of the Fountaindale Public Library District, Bolingbrook, for twenty-four years, from 1984 to 1988 and from 1998 to the present day. Peggy is a tireless advocate for her library. As President, she led the campaign to build a new library, with a successful referendum in February 2008. The new LEED Gold Certified building opened in 2011, with more than 96,000 square feet to serve its growing community. In addition to her work on the library board, Peggy has given generously of her time in service to the larger library community. She is an active member of United for Libraries and served as the Charter Co-President when this new Division of ALA began in 2009. She has also served as chair of several United for Libraries committees, including Leaders Orientation. She has served on the ALA/APA Library Support Staff Certification Review Committee, been a member of the Ethnic & Mulitcultural Information Exchange Roundtable, and currently serves on the ALA/Training, Orientation and Leadership Development Committee. In Illinois, she has served as a member of the ILA Advocacy Committee, the ILA Awards Committee, and the 2012 ILA Conference Program Committee. Most significantly, Peggy is a dedicated member of the Illinois Library Trustee Forum, having served as President for two terms. Under her leadership, the Forum has expanded its continuing-education offerings for library trustees. In 2010, Peggy was named Trustee of the Year by the Illinois Library Association. That same year, she was selected as the American Library Association’s Outstanding Trustee of the Year.
Inducted November 30, 2017
Keith Michael Fiels
Keith Michael Fiels served as executive director of the 55,000-member American Library Association (ALA) headquartered in Chicago, from 2002 to 2017. Prior to coming to ALA, he served as director of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. Under his leadership, ALA established a new Office for Library Advocacy that provided expanded support for state and local advocacy efforts around the country, including the Libraries Transform public awareness campaign, which now involves 6,000 libraries. A new ALA Center for the Future of Libraries promotes innovation and creativity in libraries, ALA’s professional publishing and professional development programs have grown dramatically, as well as outreach to library trustee and Friends groups. Most recently, ALA fought back an attempt by the new administration to eliminate all federal funding for libraries. In Massachusetts, he worked with the state legislature to secure over $500 million in state funds for public library reconstruction and to provide universal access to shared online systems and the collective resources of thousands of Massachusetts libraries. Fiels has also served as president of the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), as the founding director of a library consortium in New Jersey, and as a library development consultant for the New York and New Jersey state libraries. Over the course of his 48-year career, he has worked as a public librarian, a school librarian, and as an independent library consultant. He is co-author of a number of books on planning and technology, and has spoken about libraries at hundreds of conferences, workshops, and other public events.
Inducted August 17, 2017
Phil Lenzini
Phil Lenzini is an attorney at law based in Peoria and represents more than 200 public libraries throughout the state of Illinois. A longtime champion of libraries and the services they provide, Lenzini is a regular presenter at programs held by the Illinois State Library and at Illinois Library Association annual conferences. In addition, he participates in dozens of continuing education events for various library clients and library systems. Among his many activities, he drafts policies and legal commentary for the Administrative Ready Reference page on the Illinois Secretary of State’s website. As an active member of the Illinois State Bar Association, Lenzini serves the state and his library clients as a member of the local government law committee. Through that committee, he lobbies members of the Illinois General Assembly on areas of interest to libraries and other municipal entities, especially with respect to unintended budgetary consequences of proposed legislation. Lenzini received his B.A degree from Southern Illinois University (SIU) in 1972 and his J.D. in the charter class of SIU’s School of Law in 1976.
Inducted August 17, 2017
Pam Van Kirk
Pam Van Kirk’s library career started with typing catalog cards at the Western Illinois Library System when she was sixteen years old. She was encouraged to attend graduate school in library science after college graduation. In 2010, she retired as director of the Galesburg Public Library after a long career in school and public libraries, serving as president of the Illinois Library Association in 2012-2013. Van Kirk believed that a library should be relevant to all potential users, and worked tirelessly to make the Galesburg Public Library highly visible with the assistance of a hardworking staff, supportive board, and appreciative customers. Whether she appeared as “Lizzie,” the library mascot; choreographed a book cart drill team; coordinated P.I.G. (sixty decorated life-sized pigs in Galesburg); or led cheers as an elf at the holiday parade, she made sure that residents knew about library services and programming. Van Kirk was a member of the Galesburg Area Chamber of Commerce, served on the board of the Downtown Galesburg Business Association, and participated on numerous committees. She served on the board of directors for the Illinois Center for the Book and the Alliance Library System, presenting and participating in regional and statewide library conferences, workshops, and events. Honors include being named Administrator of the Year by the Alliance Library System and a Paul Harris Fellow for her contributions to Galesburg. Van Kirk always wanted libraries to be vibrant, welcoming places. She was often the loudest person in the library and sometimes had to be quieted by customers or students. A mentor to many librarians throughout central Illinois and an advocate for collaboration, her cheerful attitude and can-do spirit have left a positive mark on the Illinois library community.
Inducted August 17, 2017
Deirdre Brennan
Deirdre Brennan has been an enthusiastic and tireless advocate for resource sharing and multitype library cooperation throughout her career. She consistently works to remove barriers to bring as many participants to the resource-sharing table as possible, no matter what their library type, size, or financial capability. Her underlying philosophy is that we are “stronger together.” At the start of her career in Massachusetts, Brennan worked to increase statewide library funding and to reorganize three public library systems into six multitype systems. Upon coming to Illinois, she served as executive director of Oak Park Public Library and led that library to receive Library Journal’s highly coveted five-star designation and a 97 percent approval rating from residents. As chair of the Illinois Library Association’s (ILA) Public Policy Committee, Brennan wrote a grant that led to the groundbreaking Future of Illinois Library Cooperation project, which she co-chaired. As executive director of the Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS) since 2013, she initiated grants to help libraries join shared catalogs and for libraries of different types to collaborate on innovative projects. She led efforts to change Illinois administrative rules to include continuing education and consulting as core system services. She initiated the outsourcing of delivery to improve service and helped bring affordable access to e-resources to all Illinois residents. Brennan consistently looks for ways to share RAILS services with libraries throughout Illinois. She has reinvented system services while maintaining a healthy financial reserve. In 2016, she received ILA’s 2016 Hugh C. Atkinson award to honor her resource sharing efforts.
Inducted June 15, 2017
Kathy Parker
Kathy Parker’s library career began in second grade, shelving books at her elementary school library, continued at her high school library, and led to her first job at the Tinley Park Public Library at age seventeen. Her public library career has spanned more than thirty-five years and included working in the circulation, children’s, interlibrary loan, adult reference, and bookmobile departments, as well as eight years as a law library assistant for two law firms in Chicago. Upon earning her MLS, Parker worked as the assistant director at the Harvey Public Library District before becoming the director at the Glenwood-Lynwood Public Library District in 2002. During her tenure at Glenwood-Lynwood, she started a new bookmobile and outreach service, passed a successful bond referendum, and built a $6-million library facility. She is committed to promoting and providing continuing education opportunities for library staff and trustees and was a founding member of ATLAS (Area Training for Librarians and Staff) and Directors University, a statewide program for new library directors begun in 2017. Over the years, she has served on many library committees and boards within Illinois, including trustee at the Tinley Park Public Library and serving as both president and treasurer of the Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS). She is also the 2016 recipient of the American Library Association’s Trustee Citation. Parker earned her undergraduate degree in communications at DePaul University and obtained her master’s in library science from Dominican University.
Inducted June 15, 2017
Becky Siegel Spratford
What began as a test—working in a Chicago law firm library just to make sure she didn’t want to be a lawyer—quickly became a calling, and today, Becky Siegel Spratford’s name is synonymous with Readers’ Advisory. Spratford co-created the Readers’ Advisory department at the Berwyn Public Library and worked there from 2000 to 2015. For eight of those years, she also taught the Readers’ Advisory course to hundreds of students at Dominican University in River Forest. She now brings training directly to libraries, influencing thousands of library workers through programs and her critically-acclaimed blog, RA for All. The author of the The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror, she also writes for EBSCO's NoveList database, Booklist, and Library Journal. She is a member of the Illinois Adult Reading Roundtable (ARRT) Steering Committee and the Illinois Library Association (ILA), serving on the 2014 ILA Annual Conference Committee. Spratford was president of the La Grange Public Library Board of Trustees from 2008 to 2011 and was recently elected to her fifth term. She holds a BA in American Studies from Amherst College and an MLIS from Dominican University.
Inducted June 15, 2017
Carla Hayden
Carla Hayden was sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress on September 14, 2016. Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to lead the national library, was nominated to the position by President Barack Obama on February 24, 2016, and her nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 13. Prior to her latest post she served, since 1993, as CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland. Hayden was nominated by President Obama to be a member of the National Museum and Library Services Board in January 2010 and was confirmed to that post by the Senate in June 2010. Prior to joining the Pratt Library, Hayden was deputy commissioner and chief librarian of the Chicago Public Library from 1991 to 1993. She was an assistant professor for Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh from 1987 to 1991. Hayden was library services coordinator for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago from 1982 to 1987. She began her career with the Chicago Public Library as the young adult services coordinator from 1979 to 1982 and as a library associate and children’s librarian from 1973 to 1979. Hayden was president of the American Library Association from 2003 to 2004. In 1995, she was the first African American to receive Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year Award in recognition of her outreach services at the Pratt Library, which included an after-school center for Baltimore teens offering homework assistance and college and career counseling. Hayden received a B.A. from Roosevelt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago.
Inducted February 9, 2017
Ruth Gregory, 1901-2001
Ruth Gregory was the head librarian of the Waukegan Public Library from 1935 to 1976, and active in both state and national library associations throughout her career. She was a member of the American Library Association (ALA), serving on ALA Council and the ALA Executive Board, and was president of the Public Library Association in 1954-55. In 1976, Gregory was named Librarian of Year by the Illinois Library Association. She also taught librarianship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at Drexel University in Philadelphia. After retiring from the Waukegan Public Library, Gregory consulted with more than fifty libraries on new buildings, collection development, and administrative issues. She authored a number of professional publications including the American Library Association’s Anniversaries and Holidays, 3rd edition, 1975, and 4th edition, 1983; co-authored Public Libraries in Cooperative Systems, 1971; and served as an editor for Public Libraries, the official journal of the Public Library Association. Gregory held degrees from the University of Nebraska and what is now the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Inducted February 9, 2017
Mark Sorensen
Mark Sorensen has served public libraries, both professionally and privately since 1982. After a career of twenty-one years with the Illinois State Archives, he retired as assistant director. Sorensen was instrumental in maintaining records management systems for all Illinois public libraries, as well as creating traveling exhibits for display at libraries throughout the state. In 1988, he was put in charge of two commissions to add artwork to the State Capitol in commemoration of its 100th anniversary. He has served as Official Macon County Historian since appointment by the county board in 2004 and is a past president of the Illinois State Historical Society. Sorensen is also a past president and current member of the Decatur Public Library Board, was vice president for public programs for the Friends organization, a member of the library foundation, and a consulting archivist for both the Decatur and Moweaqua libraries. While president of the Decatur library, a program for special library services for Macon County businesses was instituted that served as a model for other libraries throughout the state. A recipient of the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award from the Illinois Humanities Council and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Illinois State Historical Society, Sorensen is also a member of the American Library Association, Society of American Archivists, Midwest Archives Conference, and a Charter member of the Academy of Certified Archivists. He holds degrees from Eastern Illinois University, the University of Illinois Springfield, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in education, history, and library and information science.
Inducted February 9, 2017
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