Vice President/President Elect Report

katy-kelly-vice-president

Katy Kelly, Vice President/President Elect

Planning ahead

Has anyone else noticed an extreme excitement for all things fall this year? I’ve seen Ohioans post and share about rocking their flannel shirts, getting the first pumpkin spice latte of the season and of course watching their favorite college football teams. Oh and the mosquitos will soon be gone. What’s not to love?

Fall also means it’s annual conference time for ALAO: the one gathering where we get together, learn from each other and hear awesome speakers on trending topics. I’m looking forward to attending this year’s preconference and conference in Wilmington, Oct. 27–28, “User Experience: Exceeding Expectations by Design.”

Although the 2016 conference is right around the corner, planning has already begun for next year’s conference at the Nationwide Center in Columbus with a preconference on Oct. 26 and conference on Oct. 27, 2017.

As vice president/president-elect, I’m leading the 2017 conference planning committee (CPC), which comprises ALAO board members and member volunteers. We are just getting started and will be doing a theme brainstorming session in early October.

Upon reaching out to CPC volunteers, I shared with them that I would like to do a theme related to social justice. The phrase “Libraries Respond” is being used now, and I think it’s broad enough in focus. Presentation topics could include information social justice, inclusion on campus, fostering a welcoming culture, etc. I know there’s a lot more out there, too, and I am really interested to hear what the CPC comes up with as our finalized theme.

Planning an ALAO conference means a lot to me. My first involvement with ALAO was answering a call for CPC volunteers by then-vice president Brian Hickam in 2011. I was a new librarian and looking for ways to get involved. At this summer’s ALAO board retreat, I realized many librarians now in ALAO leadership roles also answered that same call, and we all got our start on Brian’s CPC. A whole “generation” of leader librarians involved with ALAO started as CPC volunteers.

After hearing that success story, are you ready to get involved? I invite you to email me (kkelly2@udayton.edu) if you’re interested in serving on the CPC. As I mentioned above, we are just getting started. I welcome ALAO members who are interested in the theme and getting involved in a hands-on way.

Happy fall and conference season, ALAO. It’s a busy time, but it’s good to take a break to learn from our library colleagues, discuss the latest trends and challenges, and maybe also treat ourselves to a pumpkin spice latte (or a mosquito-free campfire).

Posted in Vol. 34 no. 3 (Sept 2016) | Tagged | Leave a comment

Past President’s Report

Brian Gray, President

Brian Gray, Past President

The ALAO Awards Committee is now accepting nominations for the 2016 Jay Ladd Distinguished Service Award.

This award recognizes an individual who has:

  • been an Academic Library Association of Ohio member for at least 5 years
  • promoted academic libraries and librarianship on his or her own campus and within the state
  • provided sustained leadership in the promotion of Academic Library Association of Ohio, e.g., committee service, interest group chair, position on the Executive Board

The Jay Ladd Distinguished Service Award honors the memory of Jay Ladd, a founding member of ALAO in the early 1970s. Past recipients are listed here.

This is a wonderful way to recognize a colleague who has provided leadership in ALAO and in the profession. The recipient of this year’s award will receive an honorary 5-year membership in ALAO and will be recognized at the ALAO Annual Conference at the Roberts Centre (Wilmington, Ohio) on October 28, 2016.

Please submit your nomination through the online nomination form, which requests the following information:

  • Name of nominee
  • Nominee’s position title
  • Nominee’s college or university
  • Nominee’s ALAO activities
  • Your reasons for nominating this person
  • Your name and contact information

NOTE: You may nominate more than one person! Your reasons for nominating your candidate(s) for the Jay LaddDistinguished Service Award will be especially valuable to the Awards Committee.

Please submit your nominations by WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 31, 2016.

Questions? Please contact Brian Gray (bcg8@case.edu). Thank you!

Brian Gray, Case Western Reserve University

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ALAO at IFLA: One Member’s Experience

alao-banner-sideI was fortunate enough to attend the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) 2016 Congress held in Columbus, Ohio from August 13-19, 2016. It was an amazing experience! I volunteered for the first three days and attended sessions and library tours for the remainder of the congress.  My volunteer hours were spent assisting attendees from all over the globe reach their destinations in the Greater Columbus Convention Center. It was interesting and exciting to talk with library professionals from all over the world.  I attended major sessions including the President’s Session – Answering the Call to Action: How Might We Respond to the Challenges Presented in the IFLA  Trend Report, as well as a presentation from David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States.  I attended other sessions such as From Action to Impact: Health information professionals connecting communities – Health and Biosciences and Privacy Law in the Digital Age: Governments Rethinking the Meaning of Information.  I managed to work in visiting the exhibit hall as well as the poster session.  The IFLA Library Boulevard was in a main hallway.  This area was reserved for Ohio ifla-alaolibraries and library associations to display their library banners.  ALAO‘s banner was displayed alongside all the other banners representing Ohio for all the visitors from all over the world to see!  On the last day I toured Chemical Abstracts Service and OCLC. I heard about patent families and saw an old card catalog! It was an exciting week!  The next IFLA Congress is in Wroclaw Poland in August 2017.

Missy Creed, Health Sciences Library at The Ohio State University

Posted in Vol. 34 no. 3 (Sept 2016) | Leave a comment

Membership Update

At the July 11-12, 2016 Board meeting, the Membership Chair reported 331 regular members, 5 retiree members, and 20 student members. As these members (and more) prepare to come together for the 2016 Annual Conference on October 27-28, 2016, we thought it would be fun to show where we are all coming from. Based on the membership database, the map below represents the zip code of the home institutions of all of our members. As the graph shows, most of us are from the major metropolitan areas of the state including Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, and Toledo. These analytics are not only interesting, but help us as we consider locations for conferences, workshops, and other events. We look forward to sharing more data with you about ALAO members in future newsletters!

alao

Katy Mathuews, Ohio University, ALAO Membership Chair

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Diversity Committee News

The committee has been working on a fall workshop this year, a first for the committee.  The theme focuses on outreach and collaborations around issues of inclusion and diversity.  Presenters are coming from several libraries, including ones from Kentucky and Tennessee – a truly diverse program.  Scheduled for Oct. 6, you can register here.

The committee is meeting for the first time later this month, welcoming several new members, as well as the past-president and the PR coordinator, serving ex officio.  One of the first items on our agenda is to discuss the annual diversity scholarship the committee oversees.
Eileen Theodore-Shusta, Ohio University, Diversity Committee Chair

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Interest Groups News

Assessment IG News

Please save this date for the AIG Spring Workshop:  Friday, April 27. More details will be forthcoming soon.

ALAO Annual will soon be here!  Two offerings you might be interested in:

AIG Sponsored Session: 9:55-10:40am

Measuring the User Experience in Libraries: What it is, why it is important, and how we can do it – presented by Joshua Ethan Sanchez from Michigan State University.

This session is a basic introduction to assessing the user experience within libraries both big and small. We will explore what the user experience in libraries is, why measuring the user experience is important to our work, provide examples of assessment techniques, and demonstrate the impact that UX work can have on our users.

ALAO Informational Roundtable:  10:45-11:30am

Your co-chairs, Eric Resnis and Melissa Engleman, will lead a lively discussion regarding the AIG and its course in the coming year.  We want to hear about your professional development needs regarding assessment, and what types of offerings you would like to see. Please stop by!

Eric Resnis, Miami University, 
Melissa Engleman, Denison University, Assessment Interest Group Co-Chairs

Distance Learning IG

DLIG @ ALAO 2016

The Distance Learning Interest Group (DLIG) will be sponsoring 1 session at the upcoming ALAO Annual Conference, 10/28/16.  If you like fun and are passionate about developing students’ information literacy understanding and skills, then attend our sponsored session:  Which Path Will You Take?: Building a “Choose Your Own” style interactive research tutorial by Jessica Long, Miami University – Middletown.  Participants will learn how gamification engages student learning as well as the technical steps of building a “Choose Your Own Adventure” tutorial for use on your campus.
In addition, DLIG members are invited to join our Round Table Discussion to get acquainted and discuss best practices, current challenges, and on-going projects of distance librarians in Ohio.  For more information contact the new co-chairs:  Beth Tumbleson, tumleb@miamioh.edu or Kristin Cole, kcole@muskingum.edu

Beth Tumbleson, Miami University
Kristin Cole, Muskingum University Distance Learning Interest Group Co-Chairs

Instruction Interest Group News

The Instruction Interest Group (IIG) is pleased to announce that Research Services Librarian Mark Eddy at Case Western Reserve University’s Kelvin Smith Library is IIG’s new co-chair.  IIG is also happy to share that Paul Clayton Campbell has joined the IIG planning committee. Paul is an instructional librarian/instructional designer at Ohio University-Lancaster. The IIG will shortly begin planning for its Spring Workshop. Stay tuned for details at ALAO’s Annual Conference.

Dana Knott, Columbus State Community College,
Mark Eddy, Case Western Reserve University, Instruction Interest Group Co-Chairs

Support Staff IG News

Chasity Gragg and Natalie Winland have been elected co-chairs of the Support Staff Interest Group for the 2016-2017 term. They will be hosting a round table discussion group at the Annual ALAO conference in Wilmington on October 28, 2016. Topics to be covered are support staff concerns, best practices for student workers and save the date for the SSIG workshop on March 15, 2017. SSIG will be sponsoring Joshua Michael’s (Cedarville University) session, “What Can the Library Do for You? Redesigning our New Student Orientation to Match Goals and Patrons.”

Chasity Gragg along with Katy Mathuews, Janet Hulm, and Patrick Koga (Ohio University) will be presenting, “Safeguarding the Collection: Procedures for Pest Prevention and Response.” Ensuring well-maintained print library collections is important for a positive user experience. Library staff developed a pest inspection and response procedure to ensure the integrity of the physical collection. The presentation will share an overview of the procedure and best practices for detecting and responding to pest issues.

The Support Staff Interest Group is excited to be presenting a workshop for Support Staff at the State Library of Ohio on March 15, 2017 from 10:00 am-3:00 pm. The keynote speaker for the workshop is Freedom Rider, Dr. David Fankhauser. He is a professor of Biology & Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati-Clermont College and Civil Rights Activist.

Natalie Winland, University of Cincinnati-Clermont College
Chasity Gragg, Ohio University, SSIG Co-Chairs

Technical, Electronic, and Digital Services IG Summer Workshop Recap

The Technical, Electronic, and Digital Service Interest Group (TEDSIG) held its workshop at the University of Akron’s Bierce (main) Library on August 12, titled “Streamlining Technical Services Workflows with MarcEdit.” Terry Reese, Head of Digital Initiatives at the Ohio State University, lead the workshop on how to use MarcEdit to streamline typical technical services workflows, especially pertaining to cataloging, file loading, and electronic resources. The workshop nearly filled to capacity, and was very well received. Terry Reese, who created the open-source MarcEdit tool, began the day with a general introduction to MarcEdit. He then explained various MARC tools within the program, and concluded the day with instruction on how to edit data with an editor program built into MarcEdit. He provided hands-on exercises and answered questions from participants.

TEDSIG wishes to thank the University of Akron Bierce Library for hosting the event, and Don Appleby, Michael Monaco, and Aimee DeChambeau for their invaluable assistance.

ALAO TEDSIG is accepting Nominations for its “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 the technical, electronic or digital services fields.  Contributions may include service, innovative practices, presentations, publications, and leadership in the profession.  The TEDDY is awarded annually at the ALAO Conference.   The award includes two waivers to a future TEDSIG event and TEDS, the TEDSIG mascot.

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.

To nominate a colleague, please send an e-mail directly to r.wisneski@csuohio.edu or calabrcm@miamioh.edu

Deadline for nominations is October 21, 2016.

Rich Wisneski, TEDSIG Co-Chair, Cleveland State University
Cara Calabrese, TEDSIG Co-Chair, Miami University of Ohio, TEDSIG Co-Chairs

Posted in Vol. 34 no. 3 (Sept 2016) | Tagged | Leave a comment

Conference and Professional Development Announcements

Fall Ohio IR Day 2016

The Fall Ohio IR Day 2016 will take place on Oct 5th at the State Library of Ohio from 10:00am-2:00pm.  The schedule will include a featured speaker, lightning round presentations, and birds of a feather discussions.  Please bring your lunch or go to a nearby restaurant.

The focus of our meeting will be tools, tips, and tricks to streamline your workflow.  Our featured speaker will be Bill McMillin, Digital Metadata Librarian from the University of Cincinnati Libraries, who will be presenting Garbage Reconciliation: Data Cleaning and Linking.   This session will demonstrate how OpenRefine can clean messy data.  Once the data has been cleaned, he will discuss reconciliation services and how you can use them to turn strings into things.

We are currently looking for Lightning Round speakers.  Have you been working a cool project that you would like to demo?  Have you figured out a way to speed up your workflow? Are you using a new tool that might be helpful to others?  Please sign up to present!  Presentations should be about 5-7 minutes long.

Registration and lightning round signups are now open.
Elisabeth Shook, Wright State University, Second Year Board Member

New to Libraries Network News

The New-to-Libraries Network, in collaboration with the Northeast Ohio Regional Library System, is offering a free professional development event titled “Building Your Professional Online Presence” on September 24thfrom 3-5pm at the NEO headquarters in Hudson, OH. Registration for the event is here. After the event we’ll have a casual networking social at the Malted Meeple. We hope you can join us!
Mandi Goodsett, Cleveland State University

Northern Ohio Digital Commons+ User Group meeting

Kent State University Library, Kent, Ohio
Friday, November 18, 2016

Save the date! The second meeting of the Northern Ohio Digital Commons+ User Group will be held on Friday, November 18, 2016 at Kent State University.  The meeting is open to all libraries in northern Ohio who use Digital Commons as their Institutional Repository or who are interested in using Digital Commons.

The day’s agenda will include

  •  lightning round presentations
  •  networking opportunities
  •  a presentation of interest to anybody interested in Digital Commons, Ohio        history, and wine!
  •  and more

A schedule of events and registration form will be posted soon. Check here for more information.

We look forward to meeting with you!

Virginia Dressler
Digital Projects Librarian

Stephanie Gaskins
Library Operations Coordinator

Elizabeth A. Richardson
Document Delivery and Institutional Repository Manager
Elizabeth A. Richardson, Kent State University

Posted in Vol. 34 no. 3 (Sept 2016) | Tagged | Leave a comment

People and Library News

Ashland University News

Please join Ashland University Library in welcoming Anita Slack to the AU Community. Anita is a reference and instruction librarian and will be the library liaison for Dietetics, Nursing, Health Sciences, Communication Studies, English, and Journalism & Digital Media.

Anita comes to us from Ursuline College, where she served as a Reference & Instruction librarian for three years. In addition to her Masters of Library and Information Science, she also possesses a Bachelor and Master of Arts in English with a concentration in literature and writing. Prior to Ursuline, Anita was an Information Services Librarian at Vincennes University.
Janice Marotta, Ashland University

 

Bryant & Stratton College, Cleveland News

Joseph M. Dudley (Bryant & Stratton College, Cleveland) co-presented “Developing Shared eBook Collections” with Paul Mitchell (Bryant & Stratton College, Eastlake) at the BSC system office in Buffalo, NY, to an audience of librarians from across the BSC four-state system on August 30, 2016.  The presentation noted Grigson’s (2011) position that standard library cataloging is not the most efficient way to market library eBooks (“Making e-book collections visible to readers”) and then detailed the work being done by the BSC Ohio librarians to create subject-focused mini collections, drawn from BSC’s existing eBook collection, which can be posted to LibGuides pages and shared across multiple library sites.  The presentation concluded with an invitation to BSC librarians outside of Ohio to share their subject expertise by contributing to the project.
Joseph M. Dudley,  Bryant & Stratton College, Cleveland, ALAO Webmaster

 

Case Western Reserve University News
Beloved Music Librarian Stephen Toombs Passes

On August 17, 2016, Stephen Toombs, director of the Kulas Music Library at Case Western Reserve University, passed away. Toombs, survived by Jean, his wife of 31 years, and a brother, sister and two nieces, is known for his selflessness to the music community at CWRU. “For me, his defining characteristic was quiet generosity,” says David Rothenberg, chair of the Department of Music. “While never calling attention to himself, he worked tirelessly to help our faculty and students make use of the resources in our music library. He was an invaluable resource and will be missed dearly.”

Toombs began at Case Western Reserve University in 1988, serving as the research services librarian for the performing arts (music, dance and theater) and classics, responsible for developing the collections, providing reference services and instruction in library resources, as acting as the library’s liaison to those departments. He was also a professional lutenist and played baroque guitar, with a special interest in chamber music and song of the 17th century.

Kelvin Smith Library Welcomes Mark Clemente

Cleveland native Mark Clemente returned to his hometown after spending at MIT in their scholarly communications role. He has joined CWRU’s Kelvin Smith Library as the new Digital Learning and Scholarship Librarian, providing education and support on scholarly publishing, copyright, open access and research data management.

KSL Celebrates 20 years

Kelvin Smith Library is celebrating 20 years this October! Events slated for the anniversary include:

A Night with Tom Bachtell: KSL will host the famed The New Yorker caricaturist in a talk at 4:00 on Monday, October 10, followed by a light reception.

“Innovating a Career in Games”: Phillip Orbanes [CIT ’70], who is the founder of Winning Moves Games and was senior Vice President for Research and Development at Parker Brothers, will be delivering a speech at Kelvin Smith Library on Friday, October 14, from 2o-3:30 p.m. Orbanes has written books about the board game Monopoly and the history of Parker Brothers. .

Open House: The Homecoming Open House centers around gaming, in honor of guest speaker Phillip Orbanes.In addition to games tailored around KSL resources and services, the event includes refreshments, prize drawings, tours and more.
Rachel Trem, Case Western Reserve University

 

Cleveland Institute of Art News

Laura M. Ponikvar, who was previously the Instructional Services and Image Librarian, is now the Library Director of the Cleveland Institute of Art’s Jessica R. Gund Memorial Library.

 Jackie Lagunzad has also joined the library staff as our new Library Assistant.
Laura M. Ponikvar,Cleveland Institute of Art

 

Defiance College News 

Defiance College has added some Ohio primary source documents to its DC
Memory website.  What would become Schauffler College was founded in
Cleveland in 1886 and moved to Oberlin in 1954.  After Oberlin closed
its theological department, Schauffler’s archives came to Defiance
College.

Defiance digitized two of Schauffler’s publications, The Bible Reader
(1892-1905) and The Schauffler Memorial (1906-1930), as well as a
collection of tracts advertising Schauffler’s graduates’ work with
European immigrants in the Cleveland area and beyond.  These
publications provide primary source material on American attitudes
towards immigrants in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Besides these documents, others related to Schauffler’s history are
also available, such as yearbooks and Commencement programs.  Here is
the link to the Schauffler material that has been digitized:
http://goo.gl/k6ITbD   Once on that page, you can select a
subcollection, such as publications, yearbooks, etc.  For further
information, contact the Library staff:
http://library.defiance.edu/c.php?g=334196&p=2244562
Barb Sedlock, Defiance College

 

Denison University News

Denison University is pleased to announce a quartet of new librarians:

Amy Elliott joined us as Humanities Liaison Librarian last September. She has her M.A. from the University of Connecticut and her M.S. from the University of Tennessee. Her past gigs include OCLC (the worldwide library cooperative), Georgia State, Boise State, Pellissippi State, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Connecticut.

Melissa Engleman has been our Assistant Director for Education & Research since January 2016. Melissa’s M.S.L.S. is from the University of Kentucky, and her M.A. was earned at Murray State. Melissa brings library and teaching experience from Murray State, the University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin, and Credo Reference.

Yiming Guo is our new Sciences Liaison Librarian. With his Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and his M.L.I.S. from McGill, Yiming brings a breadth and depth of experience. He joined us on August 18 and is originally from China, but has lived and worked in North America for 12 years, including Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Missouri, and Iowa.

Stephanie Kays, our Fine Arts Librarian, received her M.A.S. and M.L.I.S. degrees from the University of British Columbia. Stephanie has been working in libraries since 2001, and at Denison since late June. She has plied her trade at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Tate Gallery in London, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the University of Oregon, and Wright State University.
BethAnn Zambella, Denison University

 

John Carroll University News

Cindy Lenox, Business Librarian at Grasselli Library & Breen Learning Center received the 2016 Distinguished Member Award from the Business and Finance Division of the Special Libraries Association.
Cindy Lenox, John Carroll University

 

Marietta College News 

Jeffrey Cottrell is the new Serials Assistant at Marietta College.  He comes to Marietta College’s Legacy Library from the library at West Virginia University at Parkersburg.
Douglas Anderson, Marietta College

 

OHIONET News

David Green Honored with OPAL Service Award

(from http://www.ohionet.org/blog/2016/09/david-green-honored-opal-service-award)

The 2016 OPAL Conference recently held at the Roberta A. Smith Library on the Muskingum University campus culminated in a recognition of OhioNET staffer David Green with the OPAL Service Award.

The OPAL Service Award recognizes efforts “above and beyond” normal commitments made to the consortium.  This year, David worked with the newly-created OPAL Community of Interest for Website Revision to produce a brand-new website for the OPAL consortium.

David joins a long and illustrious list of past award winners (http://opal-libraries.org/calendar/past-conferences).
Christine Morris, OhioNET

 

Ohio Northern University News

Bethany Spieth has joined Heterick Memorial Library at Ohio Northern University as the Instruction and Access Services Librarian. She is originally from Beavercreek, Ohio, and holds a BA in German and Creative Writing from Ohio University, as well as an MLIS from the University of Illinois. She is so excited to be back in Ohio and part of the amazing Ohio library community.
Jennifer Donley, Ohio Northern University

 

Ohio University News

Paul Campbell has been hired on as the Subject Librarian for the Social Sciences at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.  In this position he will be the subject liaison for political science, psychology, and public administration.  He began this new position on June 20, 2016

His previous position was with Ohio University Lancaster as the Instructional Librarian/Instructional Designer.  And prior to that, he was the Reference & Instruction Librarian at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire.
Paul Campbell, Ohio University

 

Southern State Community College

Southern State Community College Librarian, Angel Mootispaw, has accepted the responsibility of Distance Education Coordinator the institution. Her title will remain Librarian but her job will now be a balance between distance education and library functions. Her role in the library will focus primarily on the oversight of Collection Development, Acquisitions, and Cataloging.
Angel Mootispaw, Southern State Community College, ALAO Secretary

 

The Ohio State University, Lima Campus News

Reference librarian, Calvin Cleary, and library director Tina Schneider co-authored a book chapter that came out just recently in the ACRL publication The Small and Rural Academic Library:  Leveraging Resources and Overcoming Limitations. 

Schneider, T. and Cleary, C. (2016).  Strengthening the small library: creating opportunities for archives development. In K. D. Kendrick and D. Tritt (Eds.), The small and rural academic library: leveraging resources and overcoming limitations(pp. 23-38). Chicago: ACRL.
Tina Schneider, The Ohio State University, Lima Campus

Posted in Vol. 34 no. 3 (Sept 2016) | Tagged | Leave a comment

Vice President/President Elect Report

Roundtable proposals for the 2016 ALAO conference. The conference will be held

O15513 Kristy McDonald

Krista McDonald

on Friday, October 28th at the Roberts Centre in Wilmington, OH. The theme this year is “User Experience: Exceeding Expectations By Design”. More information and submission guidelines are available on the conference website:

http://www.alaoweb.org/conferences/conference2016 

The deadline for submitting poster and/or roundtable proposals is June 24th.

To submit a proposal, use the online submission form available here: http://bit.ly/25eq3UL

If you have questions, please contact Carrie Girton program@alaoweb.org.

________________________________________________________________

The conference planning committee was excited to receive a slate of excellent presentation proposals this year covering a wide variety of topics. Acceptance letters will be sent shortly as the committee is completing the final steps in the selection process for the conference program. Thanks to everyone who submitted a proposal for helping us offer an excellent conference this year and also for your patience as we finalize the program.

Please visit the conference website at: http://www.alaoweb.org/conferences/conference2016 for additional information.

Posted in Vol. 34 no. 2 (June 2016) | Leave a comment

Past President Report

One of the most important responsibilities for the Past President and the Nominating

Eboni

Eboni Johnson, Past President

Committee is to put together a slate of candidates for the spring election.  I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t at all worried about this task during my 3-year term on the board. But the old folks used to say, “If you ready, you ain’t gotta get ready.” So I used this wise advice to start identifying possible candidates last summer — about eight or nine months before our recent spring election. We had group of really terrific candidates; I wish everyone could have been elected!  I’m so happy to welcome the following people to next year’s Executive Board:

  • Vice-President/President-Elect
    Katy Kelly
  • Secretary
    Angel Mootispaw
  • Board Member-at-Large (3 positions)
    Meghan Frazer
    Shelly Miller
    Gerald Natal
  • Membership Chair
    Katy Mathuews

I hope that everyone who wasn’t elected this time will consider standing for election next year.  And if you haven’t considered running for an office, think about it! ALAO is a wonderful organization to participate in, whether you are new to the profession or have a few years’ experience.  There are opportunities to be involved in interest groups or committees, to serve on the board, or even to volunteer to help with a specific task or project. Go to the ALAO website and click on the “Get Involved” link — fill out the volunteer form to indicate where you would like to serve.  Trust me, we will find a place for you!

Posted in Vol. 34 no. 2 (June 2016) | Tagged | Leave a comment