About me

 

Short Bio about Loida:

Loida Garcia-Febo is the Assistant Coordinator for the New Americans Program and Special Services units of Queens Library in New York. Prior to this, she managed Special Services for Queens Library, and Cultural Arts and Spanish Language Collections for Queens Library’s New Americans Program. She received the 2010 Elizabeth Futas Catalyst for Change Award. She was named a Mover & Shaker by Library Journal, and an Outstanding Woman by Impremedia and El Diario/ La Prensa. She is the Immediate Past President of REFORMA. Currently, she is the Chair of the ALA Intellectual Freedom Round Table, Chair of ALA Membership Meetings Committee and Secretary of IFLA’s Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression Committee, a Core Activity of IFLA. Loida also works with IFLA’s New Professionals Special Interest Group which she co-established in 2004. Loida was recently elected to ALA Council and will start her term on 2011. Loida’s writing has been published on Feliciter Canadian Library Association Magazine, inCite, News magazine of the Australian Library and Information Association, Latino Experience Database (Greenwood Press), Versed, and Criticas a sister publication of Library Journal. Her writing focuses on new librarians, new professionals, multi-ethnic populations, Latinos and other diverse groups, and library association’s work. Loida speaks nationally and internationally about human rights, access to information, advocacy, services to diverse populations, and new librarians and new professionals. Her research interests also include information seeking behavior, multi-cultural, and multi-lingual populations. Loida was born, raised and educated in Puerto Rico. Fore more information, see her resume here

Loida Garcia-Febo Bio:

Loida Garcia-Febo is the Assistant Coordinator for the New Americans Program and Special Services units of Queens Library in New York where she oversees services for older adults, persons with disabilities, medically underserved populations, incarcerated, job seekers and immigrants’ cultural and social outreach. As part of her professional career in Queens Library, she has additionally served as Special Services manager, and as Cultural Arts and Spanish Language Collections Manager for Queens Library’s New Americans Program. On this last role she developed and mainted Spanish language collections for 23+ libraries and materials in Spanish for 40 libraries. She also coordinated concerts, film series, author talks, and annual festivals to celebrate Queens’ residents cultural backgrounds. As part of Queens Library’s Faces Campaign, her picture was on the NYC buses and buses’ shelters since 2006 until very recently.

Loida has published on Feliciter Canadian Library Association Magazine, inCite, News magazine of the Australian Library and Information Association, Latino Experience Database (Greenwood Press), Versed, and Criticas a sister publication of Library Journal. Her writing focuses on new librarians, new professionals, multi-ethnic populations, Latinos and other diverse groups, library association’s work. Her research interests also include multi-cultural, multi-lingual populations, information seeking behavior, and access to information.

She has spoken and presented workshops worldwide on human rights, access to information, advocacy, services to diverse populations, and new librarians and new professionals. She has notably spoken at events coordinated by US Embassies in Tokyo, Mexico and Spain. Loida has participated of worldwide strategic meetings to streamline library and library associations’ services. Countries include Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Peru, South Korea, South Africa and Spain.

She is an active member and leader of a number of library associations. Loida is the President of REFORMA The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking. She is the Chair Elect of the ALA/ Intellectual Freedom Round Table and will be Chair from 2010-2011. She is a member of ALA/ Intellectual Freedom Committee and the Committee on Library Advocacy/ Training Subcommittee. Loida is the Secretary of IFLA/ Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression Committee (FAIFE), a Core Activity of IFLA. She works with IFLA/New Professionals Special Interest Group (NPSIG) which she co-established in 2004.

Loida has served on various ALA Committees (Nominating, International Relations, Intellectual Freedom Round Table/ Director-at-Large, International Relations Round Table/ Americas Subcommittee, Diversity Committee/Diversity Council. Loida is also member of the Public Library Association, New York Library Association, American Indian Library Association, Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, Chinese American Library Association and  the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL) . She is a member of ACURIL, the Association of Caribbean Universities, Research, Investigation Libraries with which she coordinated an IFLA/UNESCO Internet Manifesto Guidelines workshop for librarians attending the XXXVIII ACURIL Conference in Jamaica.

As part of her work with IFLA’s FAIFE Committee she has presented workshops about human rights, access to information and advocacy in many regions of the world. Loida has also coordinated programs about new librarians and new professionals topics of interest for IFLA Congresses in Oslo, Seoul, South Africa, Quebec, and Milan. She was also a Co-Convenor of the first Pre-Conference hosted by IFLA NPSIG with IFLA CPDWL in Bologna (August 2009). Currently, she is a Co-Convenor of the 2010 NPSIG Pre-Conference, The Global Librarian in Boras, Sweden (August 2010).

Loida has worked with REFORMA Executive Board since 2006, and has served REFORMA in various capacities such as Chair of the Librarian of the Year Award, Northeast Chapter President, member of the REFORMA National Conference III Organizing Committee, Coordinator and Speaker: REFORMA Training our Leaders, a nationwide webinar to encourage members to become involve in the association by taking a leadership role, Chapter Representative and REFORMA Northeast Liaison to New York Library Association [NYLA].

Loida’s work has received the following recognitions:

• 2010 Elizabeth Futas Catalyst for Change Award
• Library Journal Mover & Shaker
  
• Outstanding Woman by national Impremedia and El Diario/La Prensa
• Queens Library Luminary Award
• Selected from more than 750 applicants as one of the 30 fellows for the “Fellowship for the Americas’ program, sponsored by the IFLA 2001 National Organizing Committee to attend the IFLA Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Contact and Web Presence:

Loida Garcia-Febo on You Tube.

Twitter name: loidagarciafebo

Email: loidagarciafebo@gmail.com

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