Dear colleagues:
I’m very pleased to share with you the list of this year’s Hall of Fame inductees:
- Chuck Ashton(1948-2019) – Youth services manager at Redwood City Public Library, served on ALA’s Caldecott and School Age Programs and Service Committee as well as CLA’s Beatty Award Committee, was known for his popular Families for Literacy storyhours and as a result was awarded CLA’s first Outstanding Librarian in Support of Literacy award (2003).
- Luis Herrera – Retired director of San Francisco Public Library (2005-2018), Pasadena Public Library director, president of CLA (1993), Public Library Association (2003-2004), and REFORMA (1982-1983), founding board member of the Digital Public Library of America, appointed in 2012 to the Institute of Museum and Library Services board by president Barack Obama, and Library Journal Librarian of the Year (2012).
- Susan Hildreth – Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (2011-2015), State Librarian of California (2004-2009), San Francisco Public Library director (2001-2004), California Library Association president (2004), and, though now retired, currently serves as an Aspen Institute fellow.
- Gary Kurutz – Special collections librarian emeritus for the California State Library, key figure in planning the recent remodel of the State Library’s Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building, lecturer for UCLA’s California Rare Book School, author and editor of the California State Library Foundation Bulletin, and library history speaker extraordinaire.
- Dorothea Nelson– Second city librarian for the Santa Maria Public Library (1934-1968), oversaw construction of a new library in 1941 and subsequent remodels, worked tirelessly to revamp Santa Barbara County Library service zones, and served as the first president of CLA’s Black Gold District (1963).
- Virginia A. Walter – Former chair of and now professor emerita at UCLA Department of Information Studies, president of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) (2000-2001), ALA representative to International Federation of Library Associations’ (IFLA) standing committees on Libraries for Children and Young People (2001-2005) and Reading and Literacy (2007-2011), author and contributor to sixteen monographs, and mentor to hundreds of children’s librarians.
- Binnie Tate Wilkin – Professional storyteller and library consultant, one of the first African-American librarians to teach as adjunct faculty for several library schools including UCLA and UC Berkeley, honored by both the California Black Librarians Caucus and Black Caucus of ALA, and author of African American Librarians of the Far West: Pioneers and Trailblazers (2006).
Cindy Mediavilla, Chair, Selection Committee, California Library Hall of Fame, California Library Association