NMRT Notes

The 2024 ALA Election period begins on March 11, 2024. Please take a moment
to learn more about the candidates running for NMRT’s Executive Board in this
election cycle.

Michelle Osbourne – Candidate for Outreach Director

1. What do you hope to accomplish as part of NMRT’s leadership?

I hope to continue to provide leadership to those interested in the library
field. Literacy is an important aspect of closing the education gap; therefore,
we should be advocates for the field of librarianship.

2. What do you enjoy most about your current position?

I enjoy going to the local schools to promote the library and form
relationships with the patrons. It is nice to see the toddlers grow up to be
avid readers and users of the library.

3. What skills and/or experience would you bring to your position
that would benefit NMRT and the profession overall?

I have over 30 years of library experience in various roles. I started out
as a PT Branch assistant in 1993, and then in 1994 I moved to FT Library
Assistant in Circulation and then Reference. I was promoted to Branch Manager
in 2015 at the Gaston County, Stanley Branch Library. I understand the
importance of libraries and have the desire to expand my reach in this
profession.

4. How would you support the NMRT’S mission in the role you are
running for?

I would be able to mentor new members and share my experiences with ALA as
well as be a reference for resources needed to succeed in the profession.

5. What changes, if any, would you like to make for NMRT for next
year?

I think NMRT is on the right path and hope to continue in the positive
direction.

Mary Kamela – Candidate for Secretary

1. What do you hope to accomplish as part of NMRT’s leadership?

If elected secretary, I hope to serve NMRT as an effective record-keeper,
communicator, and liaison. In addition to keeping detailed, organized records
of Executive Board meetings and committee reports, I will work to disseminate
relevant information to NMRT officers, committee members, and the general
membership.

One of my favorite aspects of NMRT is the community that it provides for new
members within ALA. I believe a community functions best when its members are
informed and engaged, so I will work to ensure that everyone involved with the
round table feels that they have a voice and an opportunity for involvement. I
have been able to gain valuable professional experience through NMRT, serving
as a committee member and chair, and moving into a leadership role would allow
me to continue forward on this path while helping others to do the same.

2. What do you enjoy most about your current position?

Professionally, my current position is Student Support and Engagement
Librarian at the University at Buffalo. My favorite part of this job is the
room for freedom and flexibility it provides. My main job duties comprise
undergraduate education, serving as liaison to the Department of Communication
and University Honors College, and planning and facilitating extracurricular
programming to foster student engagement. Within these responsibilities, I have
the freedom to pursue new and innovative ideas, practices, and collaborations
that serve my institution and make me a better librarian.

Within NMRT, I currently serve as chair of the Communications Committee,
which presents the exciting opportunity to collaboratively plan and write
engaging posts for the NMRT Notes blog. It has been extremely rewarding to meet
and work with committee members from across the profession to brainstorm timely
and innovative content for the blog. From conference tips to testimonials about
NMRT services to lists of timely resources, we have been able to cover a wealth
of helpful topics and maintain consistency in our web presence.

3. What skills and/or experience would you bring to this position
that would benefit NMRT and the profession overall?

I have been lucky enough to work as a teaching librarian for over six years,
and my experience with instruction has prepared me to take on new roles in new
environments with confidence, flexibility, and humility. Teaching requires
clear communication, including an understanding of one’s audience, and an
innate willingness to help. Managing a course load and juggling lesson plans
requires precise organization, record-keeping, and assessment. Finally,
teaching promotes flexibility and leadership; while the best teachers are
self-assured in their subject matter, they are also able to easily assess
situations and adapt to changing circumstances. I would bring these skills to
the table, along with my unique experiences and perspectives from teaching, as
NMRT secretary.

4. How would you support NMRT’s mission in the role you are running
for?

NMRT’s mission is to support new members (of less than ten years) in
becoming more involved in the organization and the profession, and the
secretary is uniquely poised to further this mission in several ways. First, as
a voting Executive Board member, I would use my vote mindfully to enact
positive change within the round table and represent the best interests of our
general membership. The secretary also oversees several NMRT committees, and I
would take this responsibility seriously, helping to guide new members through
what might be their first appointed committee roles. Finally, as the main
manager of the NMRT social media accounts, I would use both social media and
ALA Connect to keep the entire membership aware of services, events, and other
opportunities for engagement, ensuring to consistently highlight NMRT-specific
supports such as the Resume Review Service, Endnotes journal, and NMRT Notes
blog.

5. What changes, if any, would you like to make for NMRT for the
next year?

If elected secretary, I would aim for more open communication and
transparency between the Executive Board and general membership. It is
important for all members to know what is happening within the round table and
be able to make informed decisions about involvement. To accomplish these
strides in improved communication, I would advocate for easier member access to
Executive Board minutes, or at least summaries thereof. Additionally, I would
be interested in investigating whether NMRT can expand its social media
presence beyond Twitter to reach more users. Both changes have the possibility
to better highlight and promote the exciting work being done at all levels of
NMRT membership.

Heather Bush – Candidate for Secretary

1. What do you hope to accomplish as part of NMRT’s leadership?

As an early career librarian, I’m always looking for more experience serving
library-related organizations. As a NMRT member since 2018, I have learned
about committee participation, roles, structures, and expectations by serving
as a member and as a committee chair. The next step would be to serve as
Secretary and support students and other library professionals to better
understand the structure of NMRT, ACRL, and ALA, as well as how important and
easy it is to get involved, without feeling overwhelmed. Volunteering for NMRT
has given me the opportunity to work with librarians from across the country
from libraries different from my own and I want to encourage others to
participate.

2. What do you enjoy most about your current position?

I am an Assistant Professor and Access Services Librarian at Eckerd College
in St. Petersburg, FL. There are two things I enjoy most about my job. The
first is how closely I get to work with students, both in the library and
around campus. We employ about 24 student workers in our library and wouldn’t
be able to provide the level of service and access we do without them. The
second would be the variety of roles I serve in my position, including access
services, reference, information literacy instruction, liaison to the
behavioral sciences, professor, and informal mentor and advisor to student
groups.

3. What skills and/or experience would you bring to this position
that would benefit NMRT and the profession overall?

Since joining NMRT, I’ve been a committee member of EndNotes, Web, and
Handbook. In addition, I’ve chaired the Handbook and Web Committees, both of
which reported to the Secretary, until recently. In my current role as
Governance and Handbook Committee Chair, I’ve been working closely with the
NMRT Board to move the Handbook from Google Drive to the website. Being good
with technology has helped me with this project, but ALA provides support and
Drupal training for any volunteers serving on certain committees. In a previous
digital assets manager position, I gained experience with knowledge bases and
information organization which also came in handy for this project.

Regionally, I served in several positions, including as vice president and
president, on the board for Suncoast Information Specialist, an organization of
library and information professionals around Tampa Bay. This gave me experience
planning events, keeping the members informed, and making decisions on where
the organization was headed.

At Eckerd, I serve on faculty committees and as a faculty sponsor for our
student leaders of the Intergenerational Book Club and the First-Generation
Student Club. In serving various roles around campus and beyond, I need to be
detail-oriented and multitask while managing my time and a work-life balance.

4. How would you support NMRT’s mission in the role you are running
for?

As Secretary, I would support the Board in membership recruitment and share
ideas on how to encourage more participation in committee work. This could
include coordinating online programs for members unable to attend in-person
conferences/events, additional professional development training opportunities,
a Q & A area where new members can ask questions that ensures they are
receiving a response from a Board member or Committee Chair. I’d like to help
make involvement in the organization more transparent.

5. What changes, if any, would you like to make for NMRT for the
next year?

I would like to see more informational sessions about what NMRT has to offer
new and existing members, as well as communication about committee expectations
and time commitments. I’ve learned a lot from volunteering through NMRT and
want others to have that same opportunity. The processes and information need
to be streamlined and clearly communicated. Through making these changes, we
could give more early-career librarians an opportunity to explore various roles
on committees and help them find their interests while gaining leadership and
collaboration skills.

Morgan Brickey-Jones – Candidate for Vice President/President Elect

1. What do you hope to accomplish as part of NMRT’s leadership?

As a part of NMRT’s leadership team, I’m just so excited about expanding the role NMRT can play in not only new members of ALA, but to act as a special liaison from ALA to ALA Student Chapters. I want to ensure that Library school students, particularly those in ALA student chapters, have an awareness of what ALA membership (and participation) can do for their professional journey. I want to have regular, dependable communication from NMRT to ALA Student Chapters- this expands upon the work done by previous presidents and board members. NMRT can certainly help new librarians coming into the profession- our resume review service(s) and other ALA events help new librarians connect and grow.

2. What do you enjoy most about your current position?

I enjoy how the Outreach Director position has allowed me to have a better understanding of communications with NMRT and how we interact with ALA Student Chapters. I enjoy attending and contributing to the Officer’s Meetings and seeing how the organization works.

3. What skills and/or experience would you bring to this position that would benefit NMRT and the profession overall?

In my current position, I manage a large team responsible for 24/7 staffing of a large library as well as two smaller branches. I have been a member of committees for the Texas Library Association and another ALA Division, YALSA. I often work with large groups of professionals at varying points in their career. I was encouraged to volunteer for ALA when I was very early in my career, and passing along that same encouragement towards professional development is very important to me.

4. How would you support NMRT’s mission in the role you are running for?

The core of NMRT’s mission is to encourage and support librarians early in their journey (less than 10-years of membership) with ALA to become actively involved with ALA and their professional development. As NMRT’s Vice President/President Elect, I plan on continuing that work while also expanding our reach more dynamically into ALA student chapters. Also, I really believe in NMRT’s programming at conference- I have used the resume review service. Last year, I went to the NMRT Conference Orientation program in Chicago, and I saw friendships and connections being made between librarians.

5. What changes, if any, would you like to make for NMRT for the next year?

I’m really interested in work with our Emerging Leaders project(s) in the upcoming years, no matter what they be! The branding project last year was a great improvement and the committee consolidation project worked well in the year before that. I think that we benefit so much from these ideas from new librarians, and it is an ideal partnership since these folks newer to the profession comprise the majority of NMRT members.