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.
2020
Janice M. Del Negro, PhD
Janice M. Del Negro, PhD, is a professor at the School of Information Studies at Dominican University, where she teaches storytelling, children's and young adult literature, and foundations of library and information science. She is a storyteller, author, educator, and coach. Her list of publications includes Passion and Poison (2007), a collection of supernatural tales for young adults which received starred reviews in both Horn Book and School Library Journal. Del Negro’s second picture book, Willa and the Wind (2005) was an ALA Notable Book, and an Honor Book for the Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children's Literature from the Bank Street College of Education in New York City; her first picture book, Lucy Dove (1998) won the Anne Izard Storytelling Award. She collaborated with Ellin Greene on the fourth edition of the classic storytelling textbook, Storytelling: Art & Technique (2010), and at the time of her induction, working on the fifth edition. Her book, Folktales Aloud: Practical Tips for Playful Storytelling, was awarded a Storytelling World Resource Award in 2015. Her most recent title, Engaging Teens with Story: How to Inspire and Educate Youth with Storytelling (2017) received a Storytelling World Resource Award and was named SLC/ARBA’s “Best Professional Resource for School or Youth Librarians.” Del Negro serves on the boards of Illinois Storytelling, Inc. and the Northlands Storytelling Network. She has been a featured speaker, storyteller, and workshop leader at several American Library Association conferences, multiple Illinois Library Association conferences, the National Storytelling Conference and Festival, the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Illinois Storytelling Festival, Mariposa Storytelling Festival, and many other celebratory events. In 2016 Del Negro received the National Storytelling Network’s Circle of Excellence Award, “presented to artists who are recognized by their peers to be master storytellers who set the standards for excellence and have demonstrated, over a significant period of time, a commitment and dedication to the art of storytelling.
Inducted September 24, 2020
Mary McTague Huchting, 1935-2019
Mary Huchting’s dedication to libraries and to excellence in publishing for librarians resulted in a broad range of notable and substantive contributions to our chosen profession. In a long and distinguished career (1981-2005) as a production editor and then managing editor for American Library Association (ALA) Publishing, Huchting ably shepherded to print flagship titles of critical importance to all librarians, including Anglo American Cataloguing Rules 2 and Guide to Reference Books. As managing editor at ALA, Huchting was responsible for assuring that 30 to 35 books per year were published under the ALA imprint.
Known for her insistence on quality, accuracy, and clarity, Huchting gained high praise from her peers and from ALA authors with whom she worked. Michael Gorman, co-editor of Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules and 2005-2006 ALA President, said “Mary’s careful work was invaluable in preparing both editions of AACR2. She was eagle-eyed, diligent, and invariably right in her judgments.” Patrick Hogan, an editor and colleague at ALA Publishing, said that nearly all prominent ALA publications passed through her hands--and, above all, “she was a stickler for quality.” After Huchting retired from ALA, Robert P. Doyle, former ILA Executive Director (1996-2017), asked her to work as copy editor and proofreader for the ILA Reporter and other ILA print publications. For more than a decade, she applied her respected editorial skills, along with her solid grasp of our profession’s values and subject matter, to improve all of ILA’s publications.
Huchting gained valuable frontline library experience as head reference librarian at the Mundelein College library in Chicago from 1978 to 1981. There, she developed the reference collection, provided bibliographic instruction to students, and aided faculty research. Before becoming a librarian, she worked in the publishing industry for a number of years. In Boston, she was an editorial assistant at the Houghton-Mifflin Company, and in Chicago, she was supervisor of the editorial department at Commerce Clearing House. Huchting later did editorial work for a number of publishers in Chicago, among them the American Bar Association, the Illinois Bar Association, Rand McNally, and Northwestern University Press. She received a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Iowa and an M.A. in Library Science from Dominican University.
Inducted May 8, 2020
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