The Members of the Board of the New Jersey Center for the Book are involved in many socially and culturally important activities. We are proud of their accomplishments.
. EMAnj/NJASL Past President Serves on the
New Jersey Center for the Book  Dagmar Finkle, a retired school librarian, has taught in New Jersey schools. She served as president of EMANJ/NJASL in 1995 and continues to be an active member of the Professional Development and Research Committee and Finance Committee. She has been awarded the EMAnj/NJASL Certificate for Extraordinary Service as a Leader in Providing Professional Development to the Educational Media Association of New Jersey (1998), EMAnj/NJASL President’s Award (1999), the William A. Peterson Award, presented by the Union Middlesex Association of School Librarians (UMASL) (2007), and Teacher of the Year, Middlesex County Vocational and Technical High School, Perth Amboy Campus (2009). She currently serves as secretary for the New Jersey Center for The Book and supports its mission - "to celebrate books, reading, libraries, and the diverse literary heritage of New Jersey." . ....... . NJ State Librarian Norma Blake Assumes Presidency of ASCLA Norma E. Blake, NJ State Librarian, has assumed her role as president of the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA). "I am honored to have been selected to serve as president," said Blake. "There is a great diversity among the divisions of ASCLA and every one of its sections has been hard hit by tough economic times. ASCLA is one of the best vehicles for providing members with the tools to sustain and grow their institutions now and in better times to come." Blake began her term at the conclusion of the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2011 Annual Conference. ASCLA, a division of the ALA, is a diverse organization of librarians and support staff who work in academic and public libraries, state agencies, specialized libraries and multi-type cooperatives, as well as those who are self-employed. Blake has served NJ libraries for over 30 years, and has been the State Librarian for the last ten years. During her tenure at the State Library, Blake has played a leadership role in many significant projects that have helped libraries to evolve towards the service and technology expectations of the future. She has led libraries toward the future through the development of innovative programs that serve as national models for delivering services to all populations of library patrons. This includes creating New Jersey’s first statewide marketing campaign for libraries; implementing a highly successful interlibrary loan system; developing New Jersey’s first Web portal and virtual reference services, providing access to statewide resources; providing statewide Internet access for libraries through JerseyConnect; expanding popular statewide programs such as the Statewide Summer Reading Program for children, teens and adults; and encouraged the implementation of innovative programs and services for the blind, deaf, and hard of hearing at the New Jersey State Library’s Talking Book and Braille Center. This long list of accomplishments has not gone unnoticed—the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative won the Innovation award from the National Council of State Governments for helping New Jersey’s economy by providing specialized databases for small businesses, researchers, students and teachers. Numerous grants have also been awarded, including two IMLS federal grants for librarian recruitment, a federal grant for developing the New Jersey Digital Highway and Live Homework Help. Her most recent achievement was securing a $7.5 million in grants from the Broadband Technology Opportunities Programs and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for computer security, hardware and broadband. Blake serves her profession as a member of New Jersey Network’s Citizens Advisory Board; the Board of the Southern New Jersey Development Council; SCALES, the State Council of Adult Literacy Education Services and the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. She is affiliated with the New Jersey Library Association and the American Library Association. She is also liaison to the Urban Libraries Council for COSLA, the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies; secretary of Chief Officers of State Library Agencies in the Northeast; and member-at-large of the State Library Agency Section (SLAS) of ASCLA. Her professional accolades have been plentiful: she was selected as the New Jersey Library Association's Librarian of the Year, elected President of NJLA, a member in the Leadership NJ Class of 2000, received the Distinguished Service Award 2005, by NJLA-CUS-ACRL NJ, was named a 2008 Woman of Distinction by the Girl Scouts of Central and Southern NJ, and was selected by Library Journal as the 2008 Librarian of the Year. a Gus Friedrich Inducted into the Central States
Communication Association Hall of Fame .  The Board of the NJ Center for the Book announces with great pride that Board member Dr. Gus Friedrich was inducted into the Central States Communication Assocaition Hall of Fame on April 16, 2010. The inscription on the plaque presented to Dr. Friedrich reads," In recognition of his significant contributions to the field of Communication Studies and the Central States Communication Association." . Dr. Friedrich, Professor II at Rutgers University and until 2008 the Dean of the School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies, is a Past President and Executive Director of CSCA. He is also Past President of the National Communication Association (NCA). Within the Communication discipline, he is also credited with being the founder of research in Communication Education. It was Friedrich who gave the New Jersey Center for the Book its home at Rutgers, the first time in the nation that a Center was located in a university. .
. . . Books For Our Deployed Troops Many of our servicemen and women are deployed in areas where they do not have ready access to books. There are several websites that post requests from all branches of the military and all ranks. Two of the sites are Books for Soldiers http://booksforsoldiers.com/ and Operation Paperback http://operationpaperback.org/ Requests may be for a particular title, books by a favorite author, a specific genre, or a request to “send anything”. Children’s books are also requested for parents to record themselves reading the books and then send the books and DVD/CD home to their children. We have received many letters of appreciation including comments such as, “It really is wonderful to know that others care about how we are doing over here.” This project is supported by the Friends of the Hickory Corner Branch of the Mercer County Library. Many books donated to our library are sold at a book sale. The books that we send to the military are ones that are left-over after our sale. Phyllis Anker . ALA Past President Betty J. Turock Donates $100,000 to Spectrum Presidential Initiative BOSTON – ALA Past President Betty J. Turock has provided a gift of $100,000 to the Spectrum Scholarship Program on behalf of the Turock Family as part of the 2010 Spectrum Presidential Initiative. Turock’s gift will be used to provide scholarships to Master of Library Science candidates from traditionally underrepresented groups.  At the 2009 ALA Annual Conference, ALA President Camila Alire, Immediate Past President Jim Rettig and President Elect Roberta Stevens announced a special year-long initiative to raise $1 million for the Spectrum Scholarship Program. The $1 million will allow ALA to double the number of Spectrum Scholarships awarded over the next few years, provide two Spectrum Doctoral Fellowships and build the Spectrum Endowment to ensure this important program’s future. Turock serves as chair of the Spectrum Presidential Initiative.
Turock has been an active ALA member for many years. She served as ALA president (1995-96), a councilor, a member of the ALA Board and numerous other committees. Throughout her years of service to ALA and its various units, Turock has been committed to broadening the association's diversity efforts. She served on the ALA Minority Concerns and Cultural Diversity Committee and chaired ALA President-elect Sarah Long's Special Advisory Committee on the Spectrum Campaign, which began raising funds for the Spectrum Scholarship. Since its founding, Turock and her family have provided several gifts to the Spectrum Scholarship program, including the creation of the Betty J. Turock Scholarship in 2001. When asked about this Initiative, Dr. Turock said, “The demographic ballasts of our country continue to shift rapidly even as our professional moorings remain comparatively stable. We know that increasing diversity captures unique talents and yields benefits in innovations and creativity that arise from cultural competencies and differing life experiences. But it’s hard to believe that emerging majorities will support libraries if libraries are irrelevant to their information and educational needs. At this crossroad the success of Spectrum is both a moral and professional necessity for the growth and progress of our nation’s libraries. During this 2010 Midwinter conference, please join me in building on the prior success of the Spectrum Scholarship Program. Please make a donation or a pledge today. More important than the amount you give is helping ALA achieve 100 percent participation in the campaign to continue the life of Spectrum.” “ALA is honored that Betty Turock and her family have chosen to support the Spectrum Presidential Initiative,” said Dr. Camila Alire, ALA President. “Their gift is significant as we prepare to provide more scholarships and increase the endowment for the Spectrum Scholarship Program. The need is more urgent than ever. They have stepped forward to help not only the Spectrum Scholars, but the entire library community.” The Spectrum Scholarship Program is ALA's national diversity and recruitment effort designed to address the specific issue of underrepresentation of critically needed ethnic librarians within the profession while serving as a model for ways to bring attention to larger diversity issues in the future. Since its founding, Spectrum has provided more than 600 scholarships to qualified applicants enrolled in an ALA-accredited graduate program in library and information studies or an ALA-recognized NCATE School Library Media program. To learn more about the Spectrum Scholarship Program, visit www.ala.org/spectrum. For more information about the Spectrum Presidential Initiative or to make an online donation, visit www.spectrum.ala.org. To learn more, get involved, or to make a pledge to the Spectrum Presidential Initiative, contact Miguel A. Figueroa, Director, Office for Diversity & Spectrum at
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, or Kim Olsen-Clark, Director, Development Office at
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