Jenny Donley, right.  Pictured with Past President Krista McDonald

The Kathryn L. Venditti Mentoring Award is given annually to an academic librarian who has demonstrated excellence as a mentor to a librarian, library worker, or library science student. Through this award ALAO strives to foster a culture of mentoring within the Association.

At this year’s conference, I was honored to present the 2017 Kathryn Venditti Mentoring Award to Jenny Donley, Cataloging and Knowledge Architect Librarian at Ohio Northern University. In her nomination, Jenny’s supervisor Kathleen Baril wrote that, “Jenny Donley has been an excellent mentor to a library practicum student, library staff members, and younger librarians new to the profession.“ Ms. Baril shared quotes from two of Jenny’s mentees:

Gayle Riedel, who Jenny supervised as a Kent State practicum student, wrote that Jenny “has been an amazing mentor to me. I was hoping to learn the basics of cataloging, but Jenny went out of her way to give me projects that resulted in a wide range of experiences.”

And library staff member Brian Humphreys wrote “Jenny is the best supervisor I’ve had in my 20 years of library service.”

Ms. Baril also wrote, “As director of the library, I have observed that Jenny is a caring and compassionate person always willing to help others. She is also willing to take the time to explain things and how they work to library co-workers.”

Congratulations Jenny Donley!

–Krista McDonald, Miami University-Hamilton, Past President