Candidates Forum Set
For This Afternoon

Three candidates will seek election as president of the American Library Association (ALA) for the 1998-99 term. They will participate in a presidential forum Monday, January 22, 4:30-5:30 p.m., San Antonio Convention Center, North Banquet Hall. Presidential candidates include: Ching-chih Chen, professor and associate dean for the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College, Boston, MA; Barbara J. Ford, director of University Library Services at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond; and petition candidate Charles Beard, director of libraries for West Georgia College in Carrollton.

Treasurer candidates also participating in the forum include: Wanda Brown Cason, head of cataloging at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library and Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C.; and Bruce E. Daniels, director of the Onondaga County Public Library, Syracuse, NY.

ALA members will vote on the spring 1996 ballot. The presidential candidate elected will serve as ALA president-elect for 1997-98 and as president the following year. The treasurer candidate elected will serve as ALA treasurer for 1996-2000.

Ching-chih Chen

Ching-chih Chen has worked as a public and academic librarian, educator, speaker and consultant in library and information science for more than 35 years. She is the author/editor of 26 books and more than 100 journal articles and reports on library issues and concerns, including a baseline document on citizens' information needs for the first White House Conference on Library and Information Services.

An ALA member since 1976, Chen served three terms as a member of the LA Council as Councilor-at-large (1981-93). She served as chair of the Legislative Committee (1984-85) and as a member of the Planning and Budget Assembly (1990-92). Hen also served as director-at-large (1990-93) on the executive board of the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA), a division of ALA. She is active in other associations, including the American Society for Information Science (ASIS), the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Sponsored by the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, Chen organized a series of international conferences on new information technology for global internetworking. She also directed over 60 continuing education institutes, including a series on science reference for school/public librarians under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Education. Chen has received numerous awards, including the LlTA/Library Hi Tech Award (1994), the Emerson Greenaway Distinguished Service Award from the New England Library Association (1994) the LlTA/Gaylord Award for Achievement in Library Information Technology (1990) and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Michigan School of Library Science (1980). She is a fellow of AAAS.

Chen received her bachelor's degree from National Taiwan University, a master's degree in library science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a doctorate in information science from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.