Our very own Librarian-in-Residence, Katherine Donaldson, has been named a 2016 Emerging Leader by the American Library Association. The ALA Emerging Leaders Program, which began in 2006, is a leadership development program that selects no more than 50 newer library workers to participate each year. These participants are divided into small groups and tasked with undertaking a 6-month project proposed by one of the ALA units. Being an ALA Emerging Leader gives individuals the opportunity to network, gain insight in ALA structure, and have the opportunity to support librarianship in a leadership capacity.
Not only was Katherine selected as 2016 Emerging Leader, but she was also among the few participants to be sponsored by an ALA unit, the ACRL University Libraries Section, which will subsidize her attendance to the national ALA Midwinter and ALA Annual conferences in 2016.
Katherine’s capacity for leadership is evidenced by her experience and professional volunteer roles. She works with the ACRL Residency Interest Group (RIG) Web Committee, where she shares responsibility for maintaining the RIG website and posting job advertisements. She also worked with the Reference and User Services Association Emerging Technologies Section Outreach Committee, collaborating with more experienced librarians to promote section events at the ALA Annual Conference. Before working at LMU, Katherine was a Special Projects Librarian at the University of Washington. She also served as a Research Assistant for the US IMPACT Study group and was a teaching assistant for an online core course in the UW MLIS curriculum.
In her personal statement, Katherine stated, “I would highly value the opportunity to meet and work with other librarians across the country and from a variety of institutions and types of libraries. As I continue to explore my place in the profession, I would love to be able to tap into the national conversation surrounding librarianship that would arise by working with a diverse group of early-career librarians and hearing their perspectives.”
Katherine’s selection brings LMU Library to a total of four current librarians with the honor of having been selected as an ALA Emerging Leader: Shilpa Rele (2010), John Jackson (2012), Nataly Blas (2014), and Katherine Donaldson (2016). In addition, our first Librarian-in-Residence, Cynthia Orozco, currently at CSU Long Beach, participated in the 2015 class of Emerging Leaders.
Reference & Instruction Librarian Nataly Blas, who developed a Marketing and communications plan for the ALA Learning Round Table as part of her Emerging Leaders’ project, said of the program: “It was a valuable, fun, and engaging program. I was able to work with highly motivated people, learn about leadership in my profession, and build a network of support. And the trading cards* were pretty cool!”
*Outreach & Communications Librarian John Jackson would like to note that the Librarian Trading Cards were not offered until the year after he went through the program. Not that he is bitter or anything.