RMRT (Retired Members Round Table)

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last person joined: yesterday 

The Retired Members Round Table (RMRT) shall exist to develop programs of particular interest to retired persons from all types of libraries and all forms of library services, including formal opportunities for continued involvement and learning; a variety of leadership training and opportunities for mentoring; lifelong professional involvement and networking; and active engagement in the American Library Association and the profession of librarianship.

Visit the Retired Members Round Table (RMRT) on the ALA website.

  • 1.  Dr. Robert Wedgeworth is presenting Sunday, 10:20-11:30 am, McCormick Place, W 194B

    Posted 20 days ago

    I have been here at ALA for two days and found that many people are not aware of Bob Wedgeworth's program. It's not an official ALA 150th program but he sure has history to share with us!  His memoir, Breaking Barriers: A Librarian's Story of Changing Times,  was published this month by Bloomsbury.  Here is the program description:

    As chair of Retired Members Round Table this year, here is my Chair's program speaker at ALA, Sunday, 10:30am
    Portrait of Dr. Wedgeworth
    :
    Former ALA Executive Director Robert Wedgeworth (1972 to 1985) will share details of his experiences growing up in racially intolerant times, and the inside stories of developments in the library world chronicled in his 2026 book, Breaking Barriers: A Librarian's Story of Changing Times (Bloomsbury, 2026). The only Black student in his freshman class at Wabash College and on its basketball team during the waning years of the Jim Crow era, Wabash's Malcolm X Institute of Black Studies Library is named in his honor. As an influential national and international leader, Dr. Wedgeworth was the second American president of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and elected in 2021 to Honorary Membership, ALA's highest honor in recognition of his outstanding contributions of lasting importance to libraries and librarianship. He has been recognized with a wide range of professional honors. He completed his doctorate at Rutgers in 2013 and continues to serve as a trustee of Chicago's Newberry Library


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    Sara Kelly Johns
    ALA COLA Ecosystem Subcommittee Member
    Chair, ALA Publishing Committee and RMRT
    AASL President, 2007-08
    Instructor, Syracuse University iSchool
    skjohns@gmail.com
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  • 2.  RE: Dr. Robert Wedgeworth is presenting Sunday, 10:20-11:30 am, McCormick Place, W 194B

    Posted 16 days ago
    Throughly enjoyed the program. Thank you, Sara, for letting us know more about this time in Ala and the country by having Mr Wedgeworth as your speaker. 
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    "It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what," Atticus reminds us still. "You rarely win, but sometimes you do."


    Ann Marie Pipkin 

    72 Cyprus Circle 

    Sylacauga, AL 35151