Bridging the Gap: ALA “NextGen” Leadership

Keri Cascio

Director of Innovative Technologies and Library Resource Management

Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology

How did I get here?

2003 MLS

2006ALCTS Member

2007ALCTS EL

2007 - 2008ALCTS Board Intern

2008 - 2009 Electronic Member

Participation

2009 - 10ALCTS Pres. Program

2008 - 2013ALCTS CE Committee

2012 - 2013ALCTS CE Chair

2013 - 2016 ALCTS Director- At-Large

Leadership in ALA

“ALA has a key role to play in developing formal and informal professional leadership opportunities throughout all the stages of our careers. I like to think of it as situational leadership training—wherever you may be in your career, ALA will have a leadership program that enables you to move to the next step.”- Leslie Burger, 2006

Bridge generation

Octave and Morison. The Kansas City Bridge, 1870.Image courtesy of the Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology

Heels or flats?

• Mentoring flows both ways

• Listen to all sides• Organizational

culture plays a part• Be open to change,

failure, and assessment

Image courtesy of Flickr user macinate

New(-ish) communication

• Think beyond listservs– Twitter– Facebook– Google +– Tumblr

• Tweeting for help– http://twitter.com/#libchat– https://twitter.com/yo_bj/magical-metadata-fairie

s-8

Start eavesdropping

Twitter

#ALATT

I Need A Library Job

Hack Library School

ALA Council

Image courtesy of Jennifer Young via The Keep Calm-O-Matic

Perceived barriers

• Work/life balance• Size of organization

is intimidating• Cost of membership

and travel• Availability of

appointments

Transparency

• Virtual participation• Online discussions• Streaming board meetings• Live tweeting• Posting on ALA Connect

Case study: ALCTS

• Commitment to– Appointing as many volunteers as possible– Appointing new members– Representing variety of library types and sizes– Creating virtual roles on committees

• Emerging Leader– Automatic appointment to Board as Intern

• ALCTS 101 events

Case study: ALCTS

• New Member IG, est. 2009– Monthly online chats– Events at ALA meetings– Webinars– Social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

• Members have gone on to:– ALA Council– Division committees– President’s Program Committee

Case study: YALSA

• Commitment to make governance more transparent

• Board Fellow Program– Serves one-year term as a non-voting member– Receives $500 stipend for each conference– Assigned mentor who currently serves in elected

board position– Open to ALL members, not just new members

Case study: LLAMA

• New Leaders’ Representative to the Board of Directors– Appointed by President-elect for two-year term – Fewer than 5 years of membership in LLAMA– Full voting member of board – Eligible for one re-appointment– Opportunity to contribute to LLAMA’s journal,

Library Leadership & Management

Other programs

• New Members Round Table (NMRT)– Mission to get members of < 10 years actively

involved in ALA– Options Fair, Sunday 1 - 2:30p, S Building Hall A

• AASL– “Small Contributions Add Up”– http://www.ala.org/aasl/getinvolved/form

• ACRL– New Members Discussion Group, 2006

Wrap up

• Eavesdrop• Find your place

– Sit in on committee and IGs of interest

– Follow FB and Twitter feeds for divisions, roundtables, etc.

• Participate on any level

Image courtesy of Flickr user striatic

References• Bell, Stephen. “The Next Generation May Not Want Your Mentoring.” Library

Journal, April 4, 2013.• Flowers, Sarah. “Top Ten Reasons Not to Run for YALSA Board and Why You Might

Be Wrong About Them.” Young Adult Library Services, Spring, 2013. • Furlong, Katherine. “Are You Really NextGen?”Library Journal, May 15, 2010. • Gorman, Michael. “Revenge of the Blog People.” Library Journal, February 15,

2005.• Schneider, Karen G. “Armadillos on Fire: Revisiting ALA’s Open Meeting Policy.” Free

Range Librarian. Accessed June 17, 2013. http://freerangelibrarian.com/2011/01/14/armadillosonfire/

• Singer Gordon, Rachel. “The ‘Bridge’ Generation.” Library Journal, November 15, 2005.

• ---. “Revenge of the NextGen People.” Library Journal, May 15, 2005.• Yelton, Andromeda. “In which I comment on the LITA board and transparency.”

Across Divided Networks. Accessed June 17, 2013. http://andromedayelton.com/blog/2012/02/24/in-which-i-comment-on-the-lita-board-and-transparency/

Thank you!

http://lindahall.tumblr.comGeorges Buffon. Histoire Naturelle, 1760.

Image courtesy of the Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology