Forum Introduces Candidates

On April 12, the Salado Chamber of Commerce provided an opportunity for the candidates for Village Aldermen, Salado Independent School District and Salado Library Board to make short statements and take comments from the public. Here's the report of my speech by the Salado Village Voice with minor clarifications and additional information in parenthesis and italics:

Taylor Willingham
Taylor Willingham said that she is running for the Library board because she wanted to do something that would have a long and lasting impression in her own community.

“I have the skill, talent and expertise to put me in the position to contribute to the causes of the library,” she said.

She is a member of the Texas State Library (I was a consultant to the Texas State Library and am a member of the American Library Association), has worked on public television programming for Bill Moyers and is (was) the treasurer of the National Literacy Coalition. (I was also an ALA presidential appointee and founding member of the American Library Association's Committee on Literacy and a mayoral appointee to the Fremont Library Advisory Commission.)

Willingham serves on the Salado Education Foundation board and is active in literacy programs around the state and nation.

The library, she says, is vital to a community. It is a place people can go to “feel connected to others.”

“At the library, you can see a single mother go on-line to pursue a degree while her child does homework next to her or reads in the children’s section,” she said, adding that the library gives opportunities for people to expand their knowledge and expertise.

Willingham is a professor of library sciences. “I spend a lot of time thinking of the library of the future and how it will continue to be an important part of the community,” she said.

Willingham said that because she believes that “An informed citizenry is the most important prerequisite for a democracy to function,” she will, if elected, “have a passion that I will bring to the position.”