ACRL-ULS Fostering Leadership through 2014 Emerging Leaders

Editor’s Note:  Nataly Blas, Business Librarian, Loyola Marymount University

The creation of the program Emerging Leaders (EL) has been one of several initiatives ALA has developed in order to foster the growth of leadership skills in early career librarians. ACRL-ULS has taken an active role in promoting leadership opportunities to librarians by sponsoring one participant of the Emerging Leaders program. This year, I feel very fortunate and am thankful to ULS for sponsoring my participation in the EL program. Emerging Leaders kicks off with a leadership workshop during the ALA Midwinter Meeting. Afterward, it grows and develops in an online learning and networking environment. The program concludes with a poster session presentation to display the results of the project planning work of each group at the ALA Annual Conference.

The ULS sponsorship adds to the Emerging Leaders experience by providing insight to an ACRL section and allowing exploration among the various ULS committees. As an early career librarian, participating in an ALA committee can seem a bit intimidating — the ULS sponsorship alleviates the first-time jitters by extending a warm welcome. As the EL program approaches its end in ALA Annual, the Emerging Leader will participate in an ACRL ULS committee and is given the opportunity to further develop their leadership potential by networking with fellow academic librarians and collaborating in ULS projects.

The EL program has been a fulfilling experience that has sharpened my leadership skills and has given me the opportunity to network with other leaders in our profession. My team, Team L, was charged with developing a marketing and communication plan for ALA’s Learning Round Table. As part of our project, we surveyed its members in order to ascertain communication preferences and current involvement with the round table. Team L developed a plan based on the survey findings – the marketing and communication plan includes goals and objectives which encompass social media, website maintenance, branding, outreach, and assessment.

I look forward to the culminating Emerging Leaders poster session in the 2014 ALA Annual Conference and participating in ACRL ULS! I am also delighted to work with the former ULS Emerging Leader and talented librarian, Tarida Anantachai and look forward for the announcement of the 2015 ULS sponsored EL participant!