Camila Alire, Past-President of the American Library Association for 2009–2010, currently serves as Professor of Practice (adjunct) for the Simmons College’s PhD program in library managerial leadership and professor (part-time) at San Jose State University's LIS executive MLIS managerial leadership program. She is Dean Emerita at the University of New Mexico and Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. She has served as Dean/Director of Libraries at University of Colorado at Denver. Other previous library experience includes serving as a community college library director, head of a special library, school librarian (K-12), and assistant to the dean/instructor at the University of Denver Graduate School of Librarianship and Information Management.
Camila received her doctorate in Higher Education Administration from the University of Northern Colorado. She also holds a MLS from the University of Denver.
She is an active and long-standing member/leader of several associations. She is active in the American Library Association and currently serves as President (2009–2010), where her initiatives have focused on frontline advocacy and literacy. She has chaired several ALA Committees (Legislation, Nominating, Committee on Education, American Libraries Advisory Committee) and has sat on four ALA President’s Special Advisory Task Forces. She has served on the ALA Council and on the ALA Executive Board. She is past-president of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and served as chair of the 2005 ACRL National Conference. She is a member of REFORMA (National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking), serving as national president and chair of several committees. Camila has served on the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Board and on the Greater Western Library Alliance Board and was the conference co-chair for the GWLA National Diversity Conference.
She was also professionally active in New Mexico in the Association of Research Libraries of New Mexico and the New Mexico Consortium of Academic Libraries, NMLA; and in the Colorado ALA Chapter where she chaired the Colorado Library Association’s Legislative Committee, Education Committee, and Local Arrangements Committee. She has chaired the Colorado Council on Library Development’s Board (State Library Advisory Board) and its Committee on Library Services to Ethnic Populations. This committee established a scholarship for MLS students serving minority populations and a statewide mentoring program. She has also chaired two State Library Regional Library Systems (multi-type) governing boards.Camila’s writing focuses on library marketing and advocacy, library services for Latinos and other minorities, library disaster recovery, leadership development, and recruitment/retention of minorities in the library profession and in higher education.
She recently co-authored Serving Latino Communities [1](2007), Academic Librarians as Emotionally Intelligent Leaders [2](2007), and edited Library Disaster Planning and Recovery Handbook (2000). She has also published in various library journals mostly in the areas of library marketing and advocacy, leadership, diversity, and recruitment/retention. She has presented library advocacy, marketing, and serving Latino community workshops all over the United States as well as on the other topics.
Camila’s contributions to library services have not gone unnoticed. She was named to the ALA/ALTA National Advocacy Honor Roll for her library advocacy work and named Scholar-in-Residence for the Chicago Public Library System. Camila was awarded the first ALA Elizabeth Futas Catalyst for Change Award and National REFORMA’s Librarian of the Year. Two times she was selected by the Colorado Library Association (CLA) to receive the CLA Exemplary Library Services to Ethnic Populations Award. She also received the Mountain Plains Library Association’s Legislative Leadership Award. She was named by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the country.
Charting our Future: Advocating to Advance Academic Libraries in College and Research Libraries News. Vol. 55, No. 8, September 2005.
Librarianship.(Norman Horrocks, ed.) (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc.), 2005.
Applications,” Library Administration and Management, Vol. 18, No. 1, 2004.
Vol. 38, No. 1 and 2, 2003.
Administration, Vol.33, No. 1 and 2, 2001.
Nos.3/4, 2001.
Issues and Actions from ARL, CNI, and SPARC, August, 2000. Co-authored with Jim Williams.
(Editor) 2000. Wrote four chapters.
Publishing Co., 1998.
American Libraries, November 1997: 41. Hispanic Business Magazine, October 1997
Librarianship. (Sally Reed, ed.) (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co.), 1996.
National Conference Proceedings, 1995. Co-authored.
“CAMILA ALIRE NAMED UNM DEAN OF LIBRARY SERVICES. University of New Mexico” at www.unm.edu/news/Releases/May28alire.htm
"ALA 2010: A First-Ever Advocacy Rally During a Conference" at http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/885569-264/ala_2010_a_first-ever_advocacy.html.csp
"Latino Literary Contributions" at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95725429