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In this Issue:
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Welcome to the North Carolina Library Association’s monthly eNewsletter! A production of the NCLA Marketing Committee, the eNewsletter is devoted to highlighting professional events and programs, librarians making exceptional differences in their communities, and how the association is working to serve YOU! Please subscribe and your feedback is always welcome. |
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I would like to start this newsletter with a shout out to two of our colleagues. Congratulations to Timothy Owens, who has been appointed our next State Librarian. The partnership with the State Library is always important for NCLA and our members and we look forward to many more wonderful collaborations. Also congratulations to Lynda Kellam, our ALA Councilor, who will be taking a new position at Cornell this summer. We wish her the best of luck. She has provided strong service to NCLA over the years and that is appreciated. The executive board will be looking to fill her position starting in October. If you are interested, please let me know. Speaking of the Executive Board, I would like to share highlights from Friday’s meeting as we are moving forward on some significant changes. Already announced is the departure of Kim Parrott, who has served as the Executive Assistant to the Association for many years. We discussed how the Assistant position will look moving forward. A small group of us are working on both a transition and a long-term plan for association support moving ahead. Other discussions included: - The approval of the 2019 budget including consideration for the assistant change and looking at new membership software.
- We approved a motion to sign up with Wild Apricot as a membership software management system. Wild Apricot is a web-based software for small associations and non-profits to help manage membership, website, events and other activities. The idea is to run this program concurrently with our current system and migrate over by conference in October, also providing an opportunity to do some training for everyone at conference.
- We also discussed conducting a joint conference with SELA in 2021. Details obviously need to be worked out, but we think that could be an exciting enhancement to what we offer. As a reminder, we are going back to Winston-Salem in 2021.
- Rase also updated the board on his committee’s Librarians Build Communities programs. They raised just under $1,000 for the Samaritan ministries in donations. Thanks to all of you who contributed. LBC is also working on some exciting plans for conference.
- Finally, and I won’t say much as to not spoil the planning committee’s fun, but our conference theme for 2019 will be “Libraries: Spaces to_______”, more info to come!!
Thanks and have a great February, Mike |
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Nora Brumeister Online Learning and Electronic Services Librarian Central Carolina Community College 1. What was the first library job you had that made the little voice in your head go, “Yes—I have found the profession for me!” My first experience with libraries was running an ABE/ESL library at Clark College in Vancouver, WA. That was one of the first jobs I’d ever had where I was able to clearly see the direct positive impact that libraries have on their patrons. One day, a student I had been working with and supplying with GED study materials came in to talk to me and told me, through tears, that she’d gotten her GED and with it, a better job, and because of this, her 3 year old son was going to have a Christmas tree for the first time in his life. She hugged me and thanked me for all the help I had given her, and that was it - I was hooked. 2. What part of your job keeps you going to work every day? How do you continue to find inspiration and passion in the library field? I love my job because it’s wildly different from day to day. It allows me to indulge so many aspects of my personality - my analytic side is satiated by managing online database access and usage statistics, I can express my creativity by creating innovative instructional sessions, and my curiosity is stimulated by getting to explore obscure reference questions with patrons. But ultimately the thing that keep me engaged and coming back to work is the same thing that hooked me on libraries in the first place - getting to lend assistance to the amazing community college patrons who are actively trying to better their lives. Seeing them succeed in their personal and professional goals and knowing I played a small part in that success gives my job so much meaning and at the end of the day, makes me feel like I’ve made the world a slightly better place. 3. Who are your library heroes in North Carolina and beyond? North Carolina is a treasure trove of incredible librarians, and I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with some really amazing professionals. At my local level, Samantha O’Connor and the work she does with library instruction is constantly inspiring - she is always looking for (and finding!) ways to make our CCCC library instruction more engaging and more relevant to our students, and through our collaborations, she pushes me to integrate active learning into everything we do. Outside of CCCC, my NC library heroes are Sam Harlow (UNC-G), Kate Hill (UNC-G), and Amanda Glenn-Bradley (UNC-A). All three of them are incredibly competent professionals, but what inspires me most about these women is the way they infuse their day to day library responsibilities with emotional intelligence and compassion. They not only connect with and serve the academic needs of their patrons, but also recognize the human needs of patrons - I’m always floored by the compassion they bring to their positions, and they inspire me to do the same. On a national level, my library hero (who I’m also fortunate to count among my personal mentors), is Rebecca Marrall at Western Washington University. Rebecca is one of the kindest and most capable librarians I’ve ever met, and works tirelessly to make sure that the WWU library systems work seamlessly together to serve all students regardless of ability level or personal expertise. She is a model of the type of librarian I’d like to be - she somehow manages to balance being incredibly prolific in scholarship and service with being an emotionally intelligent leader at her institution. 4. Tell us a little about your interests and hobbies outside of the library. Outside of the library I like to keep myself engaged with creative pursuits. I do some local community theatre, and I’m trying to learn the ukulele so I can accompany myself when I sing. One of my biggest passions is costuming, and I’m in the process of learning to sew so I can make my own creations instead of assembling them from disparate pieces. I love experimenting with makeup and hair and generally being a chameleon in my physical self-expression. And of course, the standard librarian answer, I love to read - I’m currently on a true crime kick, and anyone who knows me knows I will talk your ear off about serial killers if given a chance! In less morbid reading obsessions, I love philosophy and finding different ways to look at and find meaning in the world. Finally, I love spending time with my 13 year old husky mix dog, Jade. |
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Afrofuturism:
The world of black sci-fi and fantasy culture
by Ytasha Womack
In this hip, accessible primer to the music, literature, and art of Afrofuturism, author Ytasha Womack introduces readers to the burgeoning community of artists creating Afrofuturist works, the innovators from the past, and the wide range of subjects they explore. From the sci-fi literature of Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler, and N. K. Jemisin to the musical cosmos of Sun Ra, George Clinton, and the Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am, to the visual and multimedia artists inspired by African Dogon myths and Egyptian deities, the book’s topics range from the “alien” experience of blacks in America to the “wake up” cry that peppers sci-fi literature, sermons, and activism. With a twofold aim to entertain and enlighten, Afrofuturists strive to break down racial, ethnic, and social limitations to empower and free individuals to be themselves.
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North Carolina Library Association
1811 Capital Blvd.
Raleigh, North Carolina 27604
(919) 839-6252www.nclaonline.org/ |
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