[stylist] New Director of NLS

[Robert Leslie Newman]

New director of NLS

 

 

Karen Keninger Appointed Director of the National Library Service for the
Blind and Physically Handicapped

 

Librarian of Congress James H.  Billington today announced the appointment
of Karen A.  Keninger as director of the National Library Service for the
Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), effective March 26, 2012.  Keninger
succeeds Frank Kurt Cylke, who retired from federal service on February 28,
2011.

 

"Ms.  Keninger's qualifications and experience are superb for this
position," said Billington in announcing the appointment.  

"She has demonstrated leadership and strategic thinking throughout her
career." Since 2008, Keninger has been the director of the Iowa Department
for the Blind, a leading provider in the United States of vocational
rehabilitation and independent-living programs and library services for
blind and visually impaired individuals.  Keninger was selected from an
impressive pool of candidates following an extensive search process that
began last year.

 

"Keninger is no stranger to the NLS program," Billington noted.  

"She is a highly respected administrator and a leader in the NLS library
network." As director of the Iowa Library for the Blind and Physically
Handicapped for eight years, from 2000-2008, Keninger managed the statewide
library program, the machine-lending agency, instructional materials center,
braille production, and audio production units.  Keninger's initiatives
included the planning and implementation of a new, in-house digital
recording program with a state-of-the-art recording studio and a corps of
volunteers to expand and transform the state's audio-production program.

 

"Keninger has a proven track record of collaboration and innovation," said
Billington.  She served on the Digital Long-Term Planning Group established
by NLS in 2001 to guide planning for the now successfully completed digital
talking book transition, and on the successor Digital Transition Advisory
Committee.  She led the transition in Iowa from analog to digital talking
books and players and was successful in securing funds for the digital
conversion of locally-produced talking books.  

She is a daily user of the full range of information technologies for the
blind and visually impaired, including Web-Braille, digital talking book
machines and books, and online download services.

 

Throughout her career, Keninger has established and maintained effective
working relationships with a broad range of individuals and organizations at
the national, state, and local levels.  

Keninger was elected 2012 president of the National Council of State
Agencies for the Blind.  From 2002-2008, she served as chair of the
Consortium of User Libraries.

 

Keninger holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Drake University in
Iowa and a master's degree in English, business and technical writing from
Iowa State University.  She completed graduate courses in library and
information science at the University of Iowa.

 

 

 

 

 

Karen Keninger was born and raised in Vinton, Iowa, the third of seven
children in a happy and lively farming family.  When she was 16 months old
her parents discovered that she could not see very well, and she was later
diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa.  Although she had some vision as a
child, she was completely blind by the age of 20.  She attended school at
the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton, graduating in 1970.  In
1973 she graduated from Drake University with a B.A.  in Journalism.

 

 

In 1987, after many years as a full-time homemaker and mother, she
established a freelance writing service in Newton, Iowa.  As part of this
effort, Keninger went back to school and graduated in 1991 with a masters
degree in English with an emphasis in business and technical writing from
Iowa State University.

She continued her freelance work until 1995 when she accepted the position
of Rehabilitation Consultant with the Iowa Department for the Blind.

 

In 2000 she was promoted to Program Administrator for the Iowa Library for
the Blind and Physically Handicapped.  After eight years in that position,
she was appointed by the Iowa Commission for the Blind to the position of
Director of the Iowa Department for the Blind __________
_______________________________________________

 

 

Robert Leslie Newman

Personall Website-

Adjustmen To Blindness And Visual impairment

http//www.thoughtprovoker.info

NFB Writers' Division, president

http://www.nfb-writers-division.net