Julia Chance Gustafson, The College of Wooster, Chair, Professional Development Committee

The Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO) Continuing Education Grant is awarded each year to support the cost of participating in professional development opportunities such as conferences, workshops, seminars, which are related to the member’s current position or in pursuit of a professional library degree. In early 2015 the ALAO Professional Development Committee conducted a blind review of seven strong applications and selected the following three ALAO members to receive the award:

Jen Waller, Interdisciplinary Librarian & Scholarly Communication Liaison at Miami University, Oxford, has been awarded the $2100 Continuing Education Award to attend the 2015 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Conference in Portland, Oregon, March 25-28, 2015. She will be a co-presenter of a 3-hour workshop at the conference called “Minding Your Ps and Qs: A Q-Methodology Workshop.” Jen states that “Librarians are continually turning to new metrics to evaluate services, impact, and priorities, and Q-methodology is a fantastic way to gauge a community of users.” In addition to that, she will be able to realize the full learning and networking benefits of the ACRL conference.

John Napp, Associate Professor and Engineering Librarian at the University of Toledo, has been awarded a $200 Continuing Education Honorable Mention Award to attend the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference and Exhibition in Seattle, Washington, June 14-17, 2015. The ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition is the only conference dedicated to all disciplines of engineering education. John will be presenting a paper that will be published in the conference proceedings. In addition, the conference will provide him chance for network with engineering librarians from across the country.

Kelly Kobiela, Systems Librarian at Ohio Northern University, has been awarded a $200 Continuing Education Honorable Mention Award to attend the Innovative Interfaces User Group Annual Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 14-16, 2015. She is early in her career as a systems librarian and this is the only conference where she can experience the kind of networking she needs to help improve her own system at her library, now that they are up with the new Sierra system. The timing of this conference coincides with her own need for professional development as well.

Congratulations to all winners. The 2015 PDC members are Jeff Franks (University of Akron), Suzanne Smailes (Wittenberg), Moriana Garcia (Denison University), Heidi Gauder (University of Dayton), Carissa Thatcher (Cincinnati Christian University), Elizabeth Mady (Mount Carmel Health Sciences Library), and Katie Blocksidge (OSU Newark). The committee is chaired by Julia Gustafson (The College of Wooster).