 As many of you know, my passions are rooted in the past. . . music, antiques, postcards, and, of course, libraries.
Throughout my career, and never more than during my year as president of the Illinois Library Association,
I've realized that history and libraries have a powerful and essential connection. While we're constantly being
reminded that libraries have to look to the future to accommodate technological, demographic, and economic
change, we also need to remember the past if we wish to assure a bright future for libraries and their patrons.
History almost always tells the story of conflict of some sort, and the history of libraries is no exception.
Libraries are inextricably linked to hunger for knowledge and information and to the widest possible access
to the most and best resources. There have always been people who struggle to increase those resources, while
other forces work to limit them. The profession of librarianship provides the leadership to safeguard these
needs, and it's been my privilege and pleasure to work with all of you this year in better understanding our
history as a way of building a better future.
You can download the Annual Report for 2004-2005 in pdf format, which requires Acrobat Reader to view. If you don't already have it, you can get it here for free.
More Annual Reports are available - see the menu in the left column.
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