Join the Diversity Committee

Posted on September 15, 2021 by anitaslack

Address various aspects of human diversity, including ethnic and racial, country of origin, religious affiliation, gender, LGBTQIA, ability, and age. This Committee serves as an advisory group to ALAO to assist the organization in providing leadership for diversity by acting as a bridge to promote understanding and to help foster and sustain diversity throughout the organization.

Specific Activities

Plan, organize and hold educational programs and activities that may:

-Develop among Ohio academic library personnel a sensitivity and positive attitude toward human diversity.

– Encourage academic library personnel in Ohio to interact with other individuals and organizations that promote diversity.

– Encourage the incorporation of diversity concerns in all areas of Ohio academic library policy and practice.

– Develop and/or share recruitment and retention strategies to attract a diverse population to careers in Ohio academic libraries.

– Communicate regularly to the members of ALAO about activities and items of interest concerning diversity.

Past activities include, creating ALAO Code of Conduct, reporting forms and workflow; workshops (online and in person); and administering the ALAO diversity scholarship.

For more information please contact CoChairs Edith Scarletto (ediths@bgsu.edu) or Gwen Short (short.67@osu.edu)

Posted in Vol. 39 no. 3 (Sept 2021) | Tagged | Leave a comment

Interest Groups News

Posted on September 15, 2021 by anitaslack

Collection Management Interest Group (CMIG) News

On July 14, 2021, the Collection Management Interest Group (CMIG) hosted a 90-minute webinar called “Partners in Success: Libraries and Vendors”. The presentations were followed by a lively discussion and a Q&A session.

Stephanie Church is an Acquisitions Librarian at Case Western Reserve University’s Kelvin Smith Library. Her primary responsibilities include monograph purchases in any format, managing and implementing user-driven initiatives, collection assessment, and vendor relations. She kicked off the day with her tips to success, along with various best practices for partnership.

Michelle Kraft is the Library Director of the Cleveland Clinic Health System. As the Director, Michelle oversees library resources and services for multiple hospitals in Ohio and across the United States. As a result, she works with vendors on the best methods for providing access to online resources to a diverse group of medical professionals with very unique needs. Michelle highlighted the power of collaboration with vendors, instead of always taking an “attack” approach in finding solutions.

Greg Schraft has been with IOP Publishing for over 6 years and he currently manages all US Government and a mid-west academic territory. His entire career has been in publishing with extensive time at Elsevier and Lexis Nexis with both sales and management roles. He shared examples of success through communication efforts and how customer feedback benefits content platforms, features, and content.

Stay informed of future CMIG events on our website and email list.

–Brian C. Gray, CMIG Co-Chair, Case Western Reserve University

–Kevin Messner, CMIG Co-Chair, Miami University

Community and Two Year College Libraries (C2YCLIG) Interest Group

The Community and Two Year College Libraries Interest Group will be holding a general membership meeting on Thursday, September 16th at 2pm via WebEx. Current IG members will receive the meeting link via email later this month. Please contact us at c2yclig-chairs@alaoweb.org if you would like to be added to the IG listserv. Please consider completing the survey regarding C2YCLIG meetings and events for 2021-2022 by clicking the link below. 

C2YCLIG 2021-2022 Survey

–Megan Mamolen, Community & Two Year College Libraries Interest Group Co-Chair, Lakeland Community College

–Ragan Snead, Community & Two Year College Libraries Interest Group Co-Chair, Lakeland Community College

Instruction Interest Group (IIG) News

The Instruction Interest Group (IIG) is pleased to welcome Stefanie Hilles, Arts & Humanities Librarian at Miami University as the new Co-Chair for the 2021-2023 term. She will serve with Abi Morgan, Social Sciences Librarian, also at Miami University, whose term will end in July 2022. 

IIG will be hosting a coffee/lunch hour discussion at the 2021 ALAO Annual Conference. We welcome all conference attendees interested in teaching and learning strategies to join us for a chance to share your experiences returning to face to face instruction this fall or staying remote. 


We always welcome new members to our group. If you have questions about IIG, or you are interested in joining our workshop planning committee, please contact iig-chairs@alaoweb.org

–Abi Morgan, Instruction Interest Group Co-Chair, Miami University

–Stefanie Hilles, Instruction Interest Group Co-Chair, Miami University(/em?

Programming, Outreach, and Marketing (PROMIG) Interest Group News

The PROMIG group would like to welcome Nate Floyd as our new co-chair for 2021-23! Nate is the Student Success Librarian for Foundational Learning at Miami University. Outreach and engagement are major parts of Nate’s job at Miami, and he brings some experience with creating marketing materials for other organizations and events on campus. As a graduate student in the Media School at Indiana University, he also taught public relations and visual communication. 

One of the major goals Shaunda and I set when we first started The Programming, Outreach, and Marketing Interest Group (PROMIG) in 2018 was to create a toolkit of programming, outreach, and marketing resources and tools. These could be templates for posters and promotional materials, examples of various assessment tools, even a web bibliography of articles or books. Nate is excited to help us make good progress on that goal this year. We’d love your input on this or other ideas that you’d like to see the group work on in the coming year.

Contact us at promig-chairs@alaoweb.org to share your ideas!

–Eboni Johnson, Programming, Outreach, and Marketing Interest Group, Oberlin College

–Nate Floyd, Programming, Outreach, and Marketing Interest Group, Miami University

Scholarly Communication Interest Group (SCIG) News

Change in Leadership

The Scholarly Communications Interest Group recently welcomed Cindy Kristof as SCIG co-chair for the 2021-2023 term. This position was formerly held by Heather Crozier of Ohio Northern University. Cindy currently serves as Head of Copyright & Scholarly Communication and Associate Professor at Kent State University. She will work with Drew Balduff, fellow SCIG co-chair, to create professional development opportunities for interested ALAO community members.

–Draw Baldruff, SCIG Co-Chair, The University of Findlay

–Cindy Kristof, SCIG Co-Chair, Kent State University

Special Collections and Archives (SCAig) Interest Group News

The Special Collections and Archives Interest Group (SCAig) is pleased to welcome Joshua (Josh) Zeller as incoming co-chair for the 2021-2023 term. He currently works as the Head of Access Services at Archbishop Alter Library, Mount St. Joseph University. He will serve as co-chair alongside Henry Handley, Collections Librarian at the University of Dayton’s Marian Library, whose term will conclude in June 2022. Josh and Henry express their thanks to Rachel Makarowski of Miami University’s Special Collections and Archives for serving as co-chair from 2019-2021.

If you have ideas, opinions, or questions about what events you would like to see from SCAig, please get in touch with the co-chairs! For the annual SCAig spring workshop we’d love to hear from you about preferences for a virtual or in-person event, potential topics, and speakers. Look for a preliminary survey coming out later this year.

For more information on SCAig, contact the co-chairs at scaig-chairs@alaoweb.org.

– Henry Handley, SCAig Co-Chair, University of Dayton

– Joshua Zeller, SCAig Co-Chair, Mount St. Joseph University

Sustainability Interest Group (SusIG) News

The Sustainability Interest Group looks forward to another year of events and learning. In particular, we plan on continuing our ‘Sustainability on Your Campus’ discussion series, in which librarians from around the state share the sustainability activities and programs happening on their campuses. If you are interested in speaking at one of these events and/or joining the interest group, please email susig-chairs@alaoweb.org.

–Bethany Spieth, Sustainability Interest Group Co-Chair, Ohio Northern University

–Kim Hoffman, Sustainability Interest Group Co-Chair, Miami University

Technical, Electronic, and Digital Services Interest Group (TEDSIG) News

TEDSIG is now accepting nominations for the 2021 TEDDY Award!

The TEDDY award recognizes distinguished service by an ALAO member in the fields of Technical, Electronic, and Digital Services. It recognizes an individual’s significant contributions to their colleagues and to the field. Such contributions may include, but are not limited to: sustained service to the community, pioneering innovative practices, influential publications or presentations, or demonstrated leadership to the profession.

The TEDDY is awarded annually at the ALAO Conference, and includes two waivers to any future TEDSIG event, along with the well-deserved fame and recognition amongst your colleagues. Due to the ongoing pandemic, our TEDSIG mascot TEDS will be spending another year in hibernation.

To nominate a colleague for the TEDDY award, please send a brief nomination rationale to TEDSIG-chairs@alaoweb.org

Nominees must be current ALAO members, who have worked in – or are currently working in – an Ohio academic library in the area of Technical, Electronic, or Digital Services.

The deadline for this year’s nominations is October 1, 2021. If you have any questions, please contact the TEDSIG Chairs Chris Deems and Jerry Yarnetsky via email at TEDSIG-chairs@alaoweb.org.

–Chris Deems, Technical, Electronic, and Digital Services Interest Group Co-Chair, Ohio Northern University

–Jerry Yarnetsky, Technical, Electronic and Digital Services Interest Group Co-Chair, Miami University

Posted in Vol. 39 no. 3 (Sept 2021) | Leave a comment

Member Spotlight

Posted on September 15, 2021 by anitaslack

Let’s shine the Member Spotlight on Shelby Stuart from Case Western Reserve University!

What is/are your role(s) in academic libraries?

I’m the Electronic Resources Librarian at Kelvin Smith Library, CWRU’s largest campus library. I primarily manage authentication and access to KSL’s many, many research databases, ebook collections, online journals, and streaming media. My other major responsibilities are shepherding e-resource licenses through our review and negotiation process as well as gathering and analyzing e-resource usage data.

What do you like most about academic library work?

Problem-solving is one of the most rewarding parts of my work. I especially enjoy working with users to get to the bottom of complex e-resource access problems. Though most of my job takes place behind the scenes, I still enjoy volunteering as a substitute for occasional reference shifts, which allows me to stay in touch with students, faculty, and staff outside the library while keeping my public service skills sharp! In my previous role supervising student employees here at KSL, I got to witness firsthand how remarkably driven CWRU students are. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to know that I play a direct role in supporting their access to scholarship.

What are some interesting projects you’ve been involved with lately?

At the moment I’m collaborating with colleagues on several projects related to accessibility, from setting up the HathiTrust Accessible Text Request Service on our campus, to pulling together resources for a future accessibility webpage (shout out to my colleague Josie Cotton for spearheading this project!), to developing model accessibility language for our electronic resource licenses. I’m also looking forward to serving as CWRU’s representative on the new OhioLINK Accessibility Implementation Team once it gets started.

Tell us a fun fact about yourself.

I care a lot about sustainable food systems! I was awarded an environmental sustainability scholarship to Kalamazoo College, where I started volunteering at the campus garden and was really inspired by all the urban farming initiatives happening in Detroit at that time. Since then I’ve volunteered for three different campus gardens, an urban farm, and a CSA program.

What do you love about being an ALAO member?

The ALAO community is so supportive and quick to help each other out. My favorite ALAO experience so far has been serving for two years on the Conference Planning Committee, who really stepped up in 2020 when it became clear that we’d have to cancel our in-person conference and move to a virtual format for the first time. It was a LOT of work, but also an amazing sense of accomplishment to pull that off.

—–Maureen Barry, Membership Chair, Bowling Green State University

Posted in Vol. 39 no. 3 (Sept 2021) | Tagged | Leave a comment

Membership Report

Posted on September 15, 2021 by anitaslack

The current membership of ALAO includes a total of 317 members consisting of 286 regular members, 5 retiree members, and 26 student members. We are excited to welcome new members who joined between May 29, 2021 and August 29, 2021.

Alonso Avila, Oberlin College

Amy Badertscher, Kenyon College

Jane Berger, Owens Community College

Nicole Conforto, Wayne State University, Student

Jeff Corbett

Michelle Early, Xavier University

Kathleen Flores, Kent State University, Student

Pamela Friedrich, Lake Erie College

Katie Gosman, Cedarville University, Student

Kristen Kirchgesler, Case Western Reserve University

Grace Kohler, Cedarville University, Student

Katherine Korwan, Cedarville University, Student

Sarah Miller, University of Dayton

Ryan Mulholand, Dominican University, Student

Sarah Probst, OhioNET

Janis Salomon, Wayne State University, Student

Emily Wages, University of Cincinnati Clermont College

Elly Watkins, Cedarville University, Student

–Maureen Barry, Membership Chair, Bowling Green State University

Posted in Vol. 39 no. 3 (Sept 2021) | Tagged | Leave a comment

ACRL Chapters Council Report

Posted on September 14, 2021 by anitaslack

During the 2020-2021 academic year, the ACRL Representative:

  • Forwarded to the ALAO Board list or the ALAO membership list information emailed from ACRL as appropriate.
  • Attended ALAO board meetings, and communicated questions to ACRL as necessary.
  • Compiled the Ohio Chapter Annual Report for ACRL

Updates from ACRL Chapters Council at ALA Annual

  • ALA
    • Forward Together – many resolutions are being drawn up; there is movement but it is taking a great deal of time.
    • Membership and the value of membership is top of mind for leadership.
  • ACRL
    • Awards program is on a one year pause while a taskforce determines if the awards are still relevant to members.
    • CR&L News will be online-only starting January 2022
    • Membership is under discussion – focusing on retention and engagement; identifying why people leave.
    • ACRL taskforce is looking at the budget as it relates to EDI work in ACRL, and if ACRL is living its values
  • LibLearnX
    • Replacing Midwinter, and will focus more on content and less on meetings.
    • Call for proposals forthcoming.

–-Created by Katie Blocksidge, The Ohio State University at Newark.  Submitted by Jane Hammons, Liaison to ACRL, The Ohio State University

Posted in Vol. 39 no. 3 (Sept 2021) | Leave a comment

Funding Opportunities Column

Posted on September 14, 2021 by anitaslack

ALAO Conference Support Staff Grant

Are you a staff member planning to attend or present at the 2021 ALAO Conference? Consider applying for the Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO) Support Staff Conference Grant.

The Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO) seeks to encourage support staff development and participation in ALAO activities through the Support Staff Grant. To that end, the ALAO Executive Board may award up to $150 annually to assist and encourage support staff to attend the ALAO Annual Conference. All support staff currently employed in an Ohio academic library are eligible to apply. Priority is given to applicants with an accepted 2021 ALAO conference program proposal.

Eligibility:

  • Support staff currently employed in an Ohio academic library 
  • ALAO membership is not required

Application Deadline: Thursday, September 23, 2021 11:59 p.m.

Awardees will be notified by October 01, 2021. 

For more information apply online. To learn more about the ALAO Support Staff Conference Grant visit the ALAO website.

If you have any questions about the Support Staff Grant, please contact Professional Development Committee chair, Elizabeth Sullivan.”

As far as the other grants go, we’re not soliciting applicants for the Continuing Education grant until November, and we don’t have the webpage or forms set up yet, but if you want to do a short blurb reminding people that it exists, we can say the following, 

ALAO Continuing Education Grant Coming Soon

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. Current ALAO members are eligible to apply for funds to defray the costs of attending any library-related educational opportunity occurring during the calendar year. Applications for 2022 will open in November 2021.

–Elizabeth Sullivan, Professional Development Committee Chair, Oberlin College

Posted in Vol. 39 no. 3 (Sept 2021) | Tagged | Leave a comment

People & Library News

Posted on September 14, 2021 by anitaslack

Bluffton University News

As of September 1, 2021, Carrie Phillips will officially assume the role Library Director for Bluffton University’s Musselman Library.  She has been serving in that role in an interim capacity since August 1, 2020.

–Carrie Phillips, Bluffton University

Bryant & Stratton College Cleveland/Solon News

Joseph Dudley (Bryant & Stratton College – Cleveland/Solon) will present “Introduction to the BSC Libraries Intranet” at the BSC librarians’ annual meeting on August 27.

–Joseph Dudley, Bryant & Stratton College-Cleveland/Solon

Case Western Reserve University News

The Kelvin Smith Library is hiring an Archivist or the Scholarly Resources and Special Collections team. Click here for more details.


Amanda Koziura co-authored an article published in In the Library with the Lead Pipe titled, “Service Ceiling: The High Cost of Professional Development for Academic Librarians.” The article discusses a national survey that reveals the inequitable landscape of professional development funding for academic librarians in the United States prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ben Gorham coauthored an article in the Journal of Map and Geography Libraries (JMGL) on the 2020 3C GIS Day Ben co-organized with librarians from OSU and the University of Cincinnati. In the article, they build on earlier research to reassess the landscape of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member involvement in GIS Day programs and, in particular, how these events demonstrate the educational and collaborative aspects of geospatial information services in libraries.

Daniela Solomon presented a poster and lightning talk at the 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference titled “Engineering Literature Retractions: Applications to Scholarly Communications Training.”


Implemented by Daniela Solomon, Mark Clemente, and R. Benjamin Gorham, the Kelvin Smith Library’s online Research Impact Challenge from 2020 is recognized as noteworthy for the 2021 inaugural annual Notable Works list of ACRL’s Academic Library Services for Graduate Students Interest Group.  More information, including the list of works being recognized, is available here.

Daniela Solomon, Mark Clemente, and Shelby Stuart jointly presented a lightning talk at the 2021 STEM Librarians Collaborative Conference titled “Licensing STEM resources for specialized sources and emerging research tools”.

Jena Styka recently gave a professional presentation at Springshare’s SpringyCamp 2021. Her presentation titled “Harnessing LibCal Seat Reservation Data to Improve Library Spaces” showed how she used data from Springshare’s LibSeat app during Covid-19 to make layout changes for the fall semester.

Liz Bober co-presented with Dr. Molly Watkins, Assistant Provost for International Affairs, at the 2021 QS Quacquarelli Symonds EduData Summit 2021 on June 9th as part of the Untapped Expertise track. They discussed Forging Connections Across Campus to Drive Research and Build Reputation where they focused on the university’s strategic initiative to improve international rankings and how collaborating with the library, and others across campus, has strengthened the institutional reputation.

Marie Vibbert‘s novella The Unlikely Heroines of Callisto Station was given the cover treatment by Analog: Science Fiction and Fact magazine in the July/August issue.

Stephanie Church gave a virtual presentation on June 3rd at the 2021 Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians (OVGTSL) conference titled “Tableau Your Stacks: Using Data Visualization to Analyze Collections.” Stephanie talked about how she set up Tableau to access data from Sierra’s SQL database and shared some of the strategies she has used to find useful data, analyze it, and create and share visualizations using Tableau. See Stephanie’s Public Tableau at: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/stephanie.church.

KSL Special Collections is proud to announce a new acquisition, a “luxury facsimile of the Mechelen Choirbook.” The original was produced by the workshop of Petrus Alamire in the early 16th century and is still held in Mechelen, the city where it was made. Kelvin Smith Library Special Collections recently acquired one of five such facsimiles, created through the Alamire Foundation, and holds the only such copy in North America. The tooled leather binding, beautiful color illustrations within, and the size (over two feet tall) are all exact reproductions of the original. The facsimile will be used by the CWRU Music Department’s Musicology and Historical Performance Practice students. 

–-Brian Gray, Case Western Reserve University

Photo by William Claspy

Cedarville University News

The Centennial Library at Cedarville University welcomed several new staff members this summer to fill open positions at the library.

Jess Elder was appointed as the library’s Health Sciences Librarian beginning on July 1.  Jess completed her MLIS in December 2020 at Kent State University while working in a staff capacity at the Centennial Library.  As Health Sciences Librarian, she contributes to the development and delivery of library instructional services, research and information services, and individual research assistance, with special focus on undergraduate and graduate health sciences students and faculty.

Holly Caldwell began work as the library’s Collection Management Assistant on June 28, 2021.  She is responsible for collection management and acquisitions tasks, with an emphasis on books and audiovisual materials.  She also assists with OhioLINK, course reserves, and staffing the library’s MediaPLEX.

Anna Jennings started as the library’s Public Services Assistant on July 26, 2021.  In this role, she assists with staffing the library’s Service Desk and providing Circulation services as well as staffing the MediaPLEX desk. 

Jess (2017), Holly (2019), and Anna (2020) each participated in the library’s internship program while they were students at Cedarville, earning academic credit while learning more about library operations and careers.

–-Joshua B. Michael, Cedarville University

Mulford Health Science Library, the University of Toledo News

  • Gerald Natal and Jodi Jameson were promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Congratulations!
  • The Mulford Health Science Library has started major renovations of its primary study space. In response to student requests, study rooms are being reconfigured to hold groups of 8-10, with whiteboards, new lighting, and improved soundproofing; adding study carrels with height-adjustable work surfaces; replacing chairs at study tables, and rebuilding restrooms for increased capacity and ADA accessibility.
  • In May, Jolene Miller presented the results of her research project, “Health Science Librarians’ Engagement in Work-Related Reflection: A Qualitative Exploration of Why They Invest in Reflective Practice,” at the 2021 Medical Library Association vConference. This project was supported by a research grant from the ALAO Research and Publications Committee.

–Jolene Miller, Mulford Health Science Library, University of Toledo

Oberlin College News

Valerie Hotchkiss joined Oberlin College in September as the Azariah Smith Root Director of Libraries, following a national search during which Tracy Sutherland, Associate Director and Head of Public Services, served as the Interim Director.

For the past five years, Hotchkiss served as University Librarian at Vanderbilt University. Prior to that, she led Bridwell Library at Southern Methodist University and the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois. In addition to leading the Vanderbilt Libraries, Hotchkiss served as professor of English at Vanderbilt. She earned a bachelor’s in classics at the University of Cincinnati (which awarded her a distinguished alumna award), a master’s in library science, and a Ph.D in medieval studies at Yale University. She is the author or coauthor of numerous books and articles on medieval cultural history, women’s studies, and topics on the history of books and printing.

—Alison Ricker, Oberlin College

University of Dayton News

University of Dayton Libraries is proud to announce several new hires in the Collections Strategies & Services department:

  • Simon Robins will join as the Coordinator of Electronic Resources & Discovery and Assistant Professor on September 1.
  • Grace Huffman will join as the Special Collections Cataloging & Circulation Assistant on September 1.
  • Jill Crane will join as the Coordinator of Cataloging & Metadata and Associate Professor on October 1.

–-Katy Kelly, University of Dayton

University of Rio Grande and Rio Grande Community College News

Jeanette Albiez Davis Library at the University of Rio Grande and Rio Grande Community College is pleased to announce that Ms. Carrie Girton has joined its staff as Systems and Cataloging Specialist. Carrie’s primary responsibilities include administering and maintaining the integrated library system (ILS); performing original and copy cataloging of library materials in all formats; and overseeing the library’s technical services functions. She also serves as Davis Library’s Collection Development Liaison Librarian to the Holzer School of Nursing and Allied Health. Carrie comes to us from Miami University Hamilton, where she worked for nine years as a Public Services Librarian at the Rentschler Library. Originally from the Ohio Appalachian Region, she wanted to move back to the area to be closer to her hometown and family. Carrie also wanted to take her librarian skills to a new level by transitioning to technical services, where she can explore and implement various library access tools to improve information use and delivery. Carrie holds an M.L.S. degree from the University of Kentucky and the focus of her latest research is on how libraries can employ Empathy-Based Marketing strategies to enhance their outreach efforts.

–-Amy R. Wilson, University of Rio Grande and Rio Grande Community College

Posted in Vol. 39 no. 3 (Sept 2021) | Tagged | Leave a comment

President’s Report

Posted on June 4, 2021 by anitaslack
Mandi Goodsett, ALAO President

With the academic year winding to a close, the ALAO Board should be proud of what we have been able to accomplish this year, even during a pandemic. Here are some highlights and updates since the last newsletter. 

DEI Survey. ALAO’s DEI survey closed at the end of April. A small team of volunteers analyzed the survey and created a short report to share with ALAO members and guide our next steps. We will be giving a presentation about the survey at the OhioLINK Summit in July, and we’ll have more details about our plans after the ALAO Board Retreat on July 16th. For access to the full survey results, please reach out to me.

ALAO Code of Conduct. ALAO has officially completed the process of updating our Code of Conduct and ancillary documents! The Code of Conduct and reporting forms can be found on the ALAO website, and the internal reporting workflow document is in the process of being added to ALAO’s Procedures Manual. Edith Scarletto and I will be presenting about the process of adopting these important documents at the next ACRL Chapters Council meeting in July. 

We Here Scholarships. ALAO will continue to offer We Here scholarships to members, and management for these scholarships will be overseen by the Professional Development Committee. We didn’t have any applicants this year, so please be thinking about what We Here events you might like to attend for our next round of scholarships!

Transition to 2021 ALAO Board. Thank you to all of our ALAO Board members whose terms are ending this July, and congratulations and welcome to all of our newly appointed or elected Board members! Your service is very much appreciated!

ALAO 2021 Board Retreat. The ALAO Board Retreat will occur on July 16th and take place fully online. Besides taking care of succession activities, the retreat will be a chance to set organizational goals for the coming year. I’m excited to pass the gavel to Jess Crossfield McIntosh at the retreat!

Thank you to all of the ALAO Board members for a productive year, and for being such a pleasure to work with! It has been a privilege to lead such an innovative and dedicated group of colleagues.

Posted in Vol. 39 no. 2 (June 2021) | Tagged | Leave a comment

2021 ALAO Executive Board Election Results Announced

Posted on June 4, 2021 by anitaslack
Katy Mathuews, Past President

I am happy to announce the candidates who will be joining the Executive Board for the 2021-2022 year. Please join me in congratulating:

Vice President/President Elect:  Gerald Natal
Treasurer:  Don Appleby
Public Relations (PR) Coordinator:  Melissa Cox Norris
Board Members-at-Large:  Melissa Bauer, Kristen Peters, Chris Robinson-Nkongola

Many thanks to all candidates who stepped up to run during such a challenging time.

Also, kudos to the following members for their support during this election cycle:
Maureen Barry, Nominating Committee
Heidi Gauder, Nominating Committee
Edith Scarletto, Nominating Committee
Seth Sisler, Web Manager

Posted in Vol. 39 no. 2 (June 2021) | Tagged | Leave a comment

Conference Update

Posted on June 4, 2021 by anitaslack

We are halfway through 2021 and getting closer every day to ALAO’s 47th Annual Conference: Building Bridges: Dialogue, Deliberation, and Connection in Academic Libraries. I am happy to share updates on behalf of the amazing Conference Planning Committee.

Jessica Crossfield McIntosh, Vice President/President Elect
  • Registration for the conference will open mid-June with registration fees remaining static from last year.
  • We are currently reviewing conference proposals and will have the program schedule in July. For those who submitted proposals, you should be contacted about the results by the end of June. Thank you for your submissions!
  • We will be adding lighting talk sessions to the conference this year, and a new pre-conference social event. Stay tuned for updates.

In addition to engaging sessions and posters presented by your colleagues, registrants will have access to the presentations of our workshop and keynote speakers, Fobazi Ettarh, Sofia Leung, and Nicole Cooke.

We look forward to seeing you at our online event this fall!

Posted in Vol. 39 no. 2 (June 2021) | Tagged | Leave a comment