Ann Sparanese, winner of the 2024 Herb Biblo Outstanding Leadership Award for Social Justice & Equality, asked us to share this statement since she was unable to attend Annual:
Dear April, Charles, and all the members of SRRT-AC and SRRT,
I want to express my heartfelt thanks for the honor you have bestowed on me as a recipient of the Herb Biblo Outstanding Leadership Award for Social Justice & Equality.
I am sorry not to be there to thank you all in person, but previous plans to be on the Allagash River coincided with this meeting. When you read this I'll probably be paddling a canoe.
I was beyond flabbergasted and deeply moved by this honor. I knew and worked with Herb - and what a guy he was! He and Mary were legendary and fearless in ALA and SRRT and I am deeply humbled by receiving an award named in his honor. All the work that I was part of back then, I did with many others who are still in the leadership of SRRT and active in Library Land, like Al Kagan and the Marks, -Hudson and Rosenzweig - Elaine Harger and probably a few more who have been continuously involved all these years. All the good work SRRT has done in ALA has _always_ been a collective effort. So while it is wonderful to get recognized I feel a need to "recognize back"!
When I retired from my job in 2011 to take care of my twin grandchildren full time, I didn't keep up my ALA membership and my political work continued in other directions & venues. But around the time that I received notice of the Biblo Award, I was actually thinking of rejoining ALA and SRRT because libraries and librarians were coming under such attack, and I am still a working librarian. Your award gave me the final nudge I needed! I'm back. So thank you all again! I will try to be worthy of your recognition.
With warm regards,
Ann Sparanese