Jim Neal
Candidate for ALA Treasurer

I am standing for election as Treasurer of the American Library Association, and ask for your support. I will bring my experience and expertise to this assignment during a period of remarkable opportunity but also fiscal challenge for ALA. As Treasurer, I will advance and represent the interests of the Association’s members with a commitment to integrity, transparency, innovation and leadership.

Libraries are all about productive and learning communities. Libraries enable successful and satisfying lives. Libraries advocate the public interest and barrier-free access to information. ALA provides its members with the hope, the power, and the action to make a difference in these and many other critical areas. A core component for achieving ALA’s goals is sound budgetary policies and fiscal practices. The Treasurer works across the Association in partnership with staff and member-leaders to ensure financial success that supports ALA’s strategic priorities. My experience in ALA over 35 years will enable me to be an effective Treasurer.

ALA’s finances are based on three primary sources of revenue: membership, conferences and publishing. These have been increasingly complemented by investment and interest income, and by grants and fundraising. Our challenge is to sustain and grow these components of the budget, while exploring and implementing new programs, products, services, and markets. My involvement with ALA’s budget planning and administration, my record as a library administrator, and my participation on the boards of many other library professional organizations will enable me to be an effective Treasurer. I have administered complex library organizations and managed large budgets and endowments at Columbia, Johns Hopkins and Indiana. I have worked with colleagues in state, public and school libraries to organize many regional library programs.

The ALA Treasurer is a member of the Council and the Executive Board of the Association, serves on the Budget Analysis and Review Committee and the Finance and Audit Committee, works with the Endowment Trustees, and consults regularly with the committees, divisions, roundtables, and offices of the Association. The Treasurer is an advocate for ALA, the profession, and libraries, and plays a central role in Association-wide financial planning and governance.

I have served the past two years as the Chair of BARC and a member of Finance and Audit. I was a member of Council for nine years and was elected to the Executive Board. I was the President of LLAMA and on the Board and Treasurer of the Freedom to Read Foundation. I have been involved in ALA development efforts, currently for ACRL and Spectrum. My participation in and knowledge of ALA, and my leadership roles in RLG, ARL, NISO, IFLA, SPARC, DLF, and OCLC, for example, will enable me to be an effective Treasurer for the American Library Association.

I am eager to serve you and the Association. I will bring to the Treasurer assignment energy, enthusiasm, and a passion for the work we do with and for each other to make our libraries, our profession, and ALA better. I ask for your support.