Eboni Johnson, Oberlin College

President Eboni Johnson

As someone posted on Facebook recently, “Can’t go wrong with the 3 C’s of ALAO 2014 -Char Booth, ALA Prez Courtney Young and cake!” Thank you, everyone, for a successful 40th anniversary conference and celebration in Sandusky on November 13 & 14. Despite the frigid temperatures and the major snowstorm in northeast Ohio, we had a great turnout for the preconference workshop on Thursday, facilitated by Char Booth, and the full day of conference sessions on Friday, including the keynote address by ALA President Courtney Young. The evaluations are still being analyzed, but the 54 from preconference and the 175 from main conference were very positive on all fronts. This is due to the hard work of the planning committee:

Don Appleby, University of Akron
Judith Cerqua, The Ohio State University
Jessica DeCaro, Case Western Reserve University
Sheryl Gannon, Brown Mackie College Findlay
Beate Gersch, University of Akron
Deidra Herring, The Ohio State University
Elys Kettling Law, College of Wooster
Marsha Miles, Cleveland State University
Shelly Miller, OHIONET
Alisa Mizikar, Wittenberg University
Judy Carey Nevin, Ohio University Lancaster
Lois Rekowski, Eastern Gateway Community College
Diane Schrecker, Ashland University
Kaylin Tristano, Brown Mackie College North Canton
Kathryn Venditti, Ashland University

I appreciate everything you did to help make my vision for this conference a reality … even if that meant we couldn’t have bacon at breakfast. But we did have cake, so there’s that.

Our vendors and sponsors are always an important part of our conference success, and this year was no exception. We had 17 vendors in attendance, and just over $11,000 in total sponsorship. This helped us greatly in providing an excellent program. Thank you!

A number of our members were recognized for receiving grants, scholarships and awards at the luncheon on Friday. A full list of winners was printed in the conference program, and several are highlighted in this issue of the newsletter. ALAO’s highest honor, The Jay Ladd Distinguished Service Award, was given to Kathryn Venditti from Ashland University. Congratulations to all of our recipients.

Check out #alao2014 on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. Don’t forget the hashtags for the individual conference sessions, too (listed in the conference program). Presentations from conference, as well as recordings of the preconference and keynote address will be uploaded to ALAO’s online repository shortly, linked from the “Members Only” section of the website. Look for “2014 Conference Presentations.” Please check back soon for access to those presentations and recordings.

This year, the executive board approved the 40 for 40 campaign for ALAO’s 40th anniversary this year; we revised our donation page so that you can choose which of our initiative(s) to support:

Diversity Scholarship
Continuing education grants
Presenter grants
Research grants
Legislative Advocate Travel Awards

We suggest $40 donations for our 40 years, but will gratefully accept any amount you are willing to give. We’ve received $500 in donations in this fiscal year. Your continued generosity will ensure that we remain in good financial shape as we begin our next 40 years.

I also recognize the many first-time attendees at an ALAO conference. One of these newbies, Emily Alinder Flynn, wrote about her experience on her blog, ReadWriteLib. Thank you, Emily, for taking the time to offer thoughtful reflections on the conference.

KSU SLIS conference volunteers

ALAO has much to offer members at all levels and at every career stage, and we look forward to everyone’s continued participation and dedication to the library profession.  Finally, thanks to our Kent State University SLIS volunteers!  It is always enjoyable to work with students who are considering a career in academic libraries.

Thanks again, everyone. Best wishes for a holiday season that is merry and bright!