NMRT Notes

The New Members Round Table (NMRT) and the American Library Association (ALA) Membership Committee wish to congratulate the American Library Association Student Chapter at Florida State University as the winner of the 2012 ALA Student Chapter of the Year Award. The runner-up of this year’s award is the ALA Student Chapter at Indiana University.

The Student Chapter of the Year Award is presented in recognition of a chapter’s outstanding contributions to ALA, its school, and the profession. The purpose of the award is to increase student involvement in ALA through student chapters and to recognize its leaders. Official ALA Student Chapters are organizations formed by students at schools offering accredited programs of library and information studies. The winning student chapter receives a $1,000 travel grant to help with the cost of ALA conference attendance.

This year’s Student Chapter of the Year Award Committee praises the Florida State University ALA student chapter for its accomplishments in each of the six categories related to the Student Chapter of the Year Award. The committee was impressed with the chapter’s use of technology to recruit, retain, and communicate with members, especially PhD candidates, and the variety of activities for both local and distance students. The chapter leadership also demonstrated a strong commitment to future growth by drafting a strategic plan to solidify the long-term prosperity of the chapter.

Dr. Christie Koontz, Faculty Advisor to the Florida State University student chapter, stated, “We are an old established school (1947) and the roots of LIS are strong here. Many of today’s leaders built this chapter over and over. The recent groups have struggled to blend a once largely face to face student chapter into one membered by students primarily online. They have succeeded. It is time-consuming for those who are on campus yet they recognize their responsibility. It is also time-consuming to advise and encourage them each semester– but over and over– they make it so rewarding. Our profession is driven by service and it shows at this early stage of development.”

The runner-up of this year’s award, the ALA Student Chapter at Indiana University, is recognized for their wealth of events and collaborations with other student groups. We also applaud their chapter’s leadership, mentoring efforts, and excellent use of numerous communication methods.

The members of the SCOTYA Committee, NMRT, and the ALA Membership Committee appreciate the time and effort put in by all of the nominated ALA student chapters this year, and encourage all to keep up the great work!

The NMRT Footnotes Committee is seeking articles and reviews for the May 2012 issue of Footnotes, the official newsletter of the ALA New Members Round Table. Please email Rekesha Spellman (rjspellman @ hotmail.com) if you are interested in writing an article, book review, or Web site review by Monday, April 2, 2012.

Articles and reviews will be due by Monday, April 30, 2012.

The NMRT Executive Board have been drafting a 3 year strategic plan for NMRT based off the ALA 2015 Strategic Plan

The draft plan outlines core values for the first time as well as set goals with key objectives. This strategic plan will guide the current and future roundtable activities.

The NMRT Executive Board seeks your feedback on the draft strategic plan by Friday, April 20th. Please send your thoughts to Janel Kinlaw via email (jkinlaw@npr.org).

Previous discussion can be found here -> http://connect.ala.org/node/158732 

Thanks!

New Members Roundtable Strategic Plan 2012 – 2015 

Purpose:

New Members Roundtable (NMRT) is a training ground to promote a greater feeling of responsibility for the development of library service and librarianship. NMRT was established as a discussion group to get the young librarians to join ALA and help orient them to their profession.

Mission:

NMRT’s mission is to help those who have been association members less than ten years become actively involved in the association and the profession by:

1. Providing formal opportunities for involvement and/or training for professional association committee experiences on the national, state and local levels

2. Providing a wide variety of programs to assist, encourage, and educate those new to the association and the profession

3. Offering a variety of leadership training and opportunities to help those approaching the end of their NMRT eligibility make the transition to future positions in the association and the profession

4. Developing and implementing ongoing programs for library school students which encourage professional involvement and networking.

Core Values:

Advocacy & Empowerment 

The roundtable serves as the unified voice for library students and 21st century librarians in the profession, advocating their value, promoting best practices, and empowering members to become critical assets within their organizations.

Education & Lifelong Learning 

The roundtable provides opportunities to its members to discover and master emerging technologies, develop leadership skills, and achieve professional success.

Knowledge Sharing & Collaboration 

The roundtable leverages global networking opportunities to promote knowledge sharing and the exchange of information, innovative ideas, insights and trends among its members.

Organizational Excellence 

The roundtable is inclusive, effective and responsive to the needs of its members.

Goals:

Advocacy & Empowerment 

1. Increase resources and training for members seeking to secure increased funding and support for all libraries.

2. Provide resources and training for members on crucial library issues such as literacy, intellectual freedom, privacy, fair use, and information literacy.

3. Increase public awareness of the value and impact of 21st century librarians as well as Library and Information Science students.

Education & Lifelong Learning

1. Increase leadership and career development opportunities for 21st century librarians as well as Library and Information Science students.

2. Increase the availability for continuing education, career development and certification opportunities for members.

3. Increase roundtable activities in recruiting, developing and retaining a high-quality, diverse library workforce.

Knowledge Sharing & Collaboration 

1. Increase leadership development and training opportunities designed to support the ongoing transformation of libraries

2. Increase opportunities to share innovative practices and concepts across the membership.

3. Increase recognition of and support for experimentation with innovative and transformational ideas.

Member Engagement 

1. Increase member innovation and experimentation in the creation of new opportunities for face to face and virtual engagement.

2. Increase member engagement by identifying and eliminating barriers to participation and through technological innovation.

3. Develop new models to recognize member contributions within the roundtable.

Organizational Excellence 

1. Develop and sustain the resources required to ensure the vitality of the roundtable, its programs and services.

2. Enhance the roundtable’s organizational structure to meet the changing needs of its members.

3. Assess and continuously improve products and services to better serve current members and to attract new members.

It is election time at ALA and the NMRT Nominating Committee would like to share with you NMRT members and alumni who are running for ALA Councilor-At-large. If you are a candidate and your name is not included, please speak up and let us know!

• Melissa Brisbin
• Kate Kosturski
• Aaron W. Dobbs
• Gina Persichini
• Courtney L. Young
• John M. Jackson
• Alys Jordan
• Vicky Schmarr 

ALA has created a wonderful guide to the 2012 election, found here: http://tiny.cc/cq35aw

Voting begins on March 19th; this is your association, so let your voice be heard and VOTE!

Good luck to our NMRT members and alumni, and thanks to ALA NMRT Past President Deana Groves for compiling this list!  

Please join us on Wednesday, March 14 (tomorrow!) at 7 p.m. EST for our first-ever NMRT elections nominee chat!  The event will take place in ALA Connect; a special chat space has been set up in the NMRT group space on Connect:  http://connect.ala.org/node/171658.

During this event, nominees for elected positions on the NMRT Executive Board will be answering questions put forth to them by the NMRT membership.  For a bit of background on the candidates, check out the video that each candidate created for the NMRT YouTube channel and read the bio that each candidate has written.  Questions or comments about this event?  Please contact Natalie Clewell (nclewell @ nvcc.edu), the current chair of the NMRT Nominating Committee.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow night!

Earlier this month, we posted the slate for the 2012 NMRT Executive Board.   Before you vote on March 19, though, be sure to check out the candidate videos, now posted on the ALA NMRT YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/NewMembersRT

Here, candidates discuss their relationship with NMRT and their reasons for running.  Our next big election-related event will take place on March 14 at 7 p.m. when we hold the NMRT Nominee Chat.  More details to follow!

On March 19, ALA will hold elections for next year’s board members. Below you will find the names of our nominees, the positions they are running for, and a brief bio that will allow you to learn more about candidates. In the coming weeks we will also be posting candidate videos on the NMRT YouTube Channel, as well as hosting a live chat session. More information on these events will follow.

The NMRT Nominating Committee is pleased to present to you our nominees for the election:

Vice-President/President-Elect:

Emily Prather-Rodgers

I graduated from the University of Kentucky School of Library and Information Science in December 2005. After working as a cataloger at a public university in Georgia for several years, I moved to suburban Chicago to take the position of Technical Services Coordinator at North Central College, a private liberal arts college. I’ve been a member of ALA and NMRT since 2005. I have served on NMRT committees since 2007, and I’m currently serving as the chair of the Annual Conference Professional Development Attendance Award Committee (formerly the Marshall Cavendish Award Committee). I am also a member of the ALCTS/CMDS Publications Committee. My local committee work includes the I- Share Cataloging and Authority Control Team for the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois and the LIBRAS Collection Management Special Interest Group.

I originally joined NMRT because of what I wanted the organization to do for me. Over the past several years, however, I have enjoyed having the opportunity to discover what I can do for the organization and for the new members who join each year. I am running for the position of Vice President/President-Elect so that I can play a bigger part in the continued work of the organization to achieve its mission of helping other librarians to become more actively involved in both ALA and the profession at large.

Secretary:

Jessica Pryde

Jessica Pryde has been the Librarian and Media Specialist at Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, DC since August of 2010, after earning her MLIS in December 2009 from San Jose State University. As the sole librarian, she conducts all collection development, instruction, and library functions. She is currently an Intern for the ALA Committee on Education and a member of the AASL Publications Advisory Group. She also writes for YALSA’s literature blog, The Hub, and acts as the NMRT Liaison to AASL.

Easter DiGangi

Easter DiGangi is originally from Southwestern Ohio. She did her undergraduate work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Major in Political Science with a Minor in Chemistry). Easter earned her MLS at Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison in December of 2010. She has over five year’s experience combined working in academic (3 years) and public libraries (4 years). Easter was honored with membership in Beta Phi Mu and the 2011 ALA Class of Emerging Leaders. She is currently working at Demco.

In Easter’s spare time, she enjoys genealogy, scrapbooking, collecting bookmarks, knitting, and enjoying nature.

Asst. Treasurer/Treasurer:

Jonathan Lu

Jonathan Lu graduated from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Information Science with a MLIS in 2005. He has also received his B.S. in International Affairs from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2004. Jonathan is currently the Adult Services Librarian at the Bartow County Library in Cartersville, GA. He previously worked at Kennesaw State University, the University of Pittsburgh, and the Erie County Library. Prior to coming to the library world, Jonathan worked for the Canadian Government as an International Marketing Coordinator at the Canadian Consulate in Atlanta.

For fun, Jonathan is the Video Game Director for the Bartow County Library System which hosts 3 tournaments with prizes per year. Also he is Director and MC of Animecon, a library anime festival.

Jonathan is currently a member of ALA, PLA, NMRT, and GLA. Jonathan was the only Georgia representative at American Library Association Emerging Leader Class 2011 where he served on team G, Video Game Collection Development. He has also served on the GOLD/GALILEO User Advisory Committee 2010 (Small/Med Libraries) and Bartow County Library Goodwill Committee (2007).

Networking Director:

Barbara Lewis

Barbara received her B.S. in Industrial Engineering from General Motors Institute and her M.A. in Library and Information Science from the University of South Florida. After working 25 years as an Industrial Engineer and Information Systems Analyst for companies such as General Motors, Corning, and Nortel Networks, she began her graduate studies in academic librarianship. Barbara worked as a graduate assistant at the USF Tampa Library, gaining practical experience in her new career field. She joined the USF faculty as Outreach Librarian for the Tampa Library in 2005. In her current position of Coordinator for Digital Collections, Barbara is responsible for project management and scheduling of the Library’s Digital Collections and Services group. Her goals include improving the productivity and capacity of digitization operations and enhancing the visibility and accessibility of digital collections. Her research interests include information seeking behavior and collection assessment and she hopes to soon begin graduate studies in Cultural Anthropology.

Outreach Director:

Bohyun Kim

Bohyun Kim is the Digital Access Librarian at Florida International University Medical Library in Miami, FL. As a new librarian, she attended her first ALA conference in 2009. And since then, she has been a member of NMRT and had great interests in the challenges that new librarians encounter when they go through the transition from a library assistant/LIS student to a librarian.

She interviewed a few successful new librarians in her blog, Library Hat (http://www.bohyunkim.net/blog/archives/tag/interview-with-brand-new-librarians), and started the New and Veteran Librarian Tweet-up at the ALA Midwinter in 2010, which is a great place for new librarians to meet one another and is being still continued at every ALA Annual and Midwinter. She has also served for the NMRT Annual Programming committee (2010-2011) and put together the first NMRT video contest to provide tips and advice for new librarians who cannot attend the ALA conference in person.

As the NMRT Outreach director, she hopes to meet more new librarians and to help them to connect and learn about many networking and career development opportunities and resources available at NMRt and ALA. She can be easily found at Twitter (http://twitter.com/bohyunkim) and welcomes all conversations and ideas about new librarians and librarianship.

Thank you,

NMRT Nominating Committee