10 Reasons Why Georgia Public Librarians Should Apply for the ALA Emerging Leaders 2010 Program (by July 31)!
- There are not nearly enough public library people in the program! The program is academic-heavy. If we’re talking about future ALA leadership – everybody should have equal voice and vote.
- It is good to stretch out of your comfort zone. You might not think you’re a leader. You might be perfectly happy where you are, doing what you do. But if you’re not scaring yourself a little with your professional development efforts, you’re probably not reaching far enough. Take a risk!
- You will learn things about yourself and your capabilities. You might not think you’re a leader. You might be perfectly happy where you are, doing what you do. But if you’re not scaring yourself a little with your professional development efforts, you’re probably not reaching far enough. Take a risk!
- You will network like crazy and love it. Even if you’re an introvert, you can do this. Spending several days with a group of passionate, ambitious librarians will be like drinking a pot of coffee all at once, and you’ll be chomping at the bit to see them again.
- You will work on an interesting project. Yes, yes, I know: you’re up to your eyeballs in work already. Me too. But you will have the opportunity to choose a national-level project that interests you, and work on something that could affect the world outside your neighborhood. And that’s really, really cool.
- You will learn, from the inside, a little more about how ALA works. For most of us, ALA is that great mythical winged beast up in the sky that does things and says things and publishes things, and every other year or so, we visit it. What ALA really is, though, is an organization made up of lots of cool people trying to accomplish cool things. You should come meet some of them and see how they roll.
- Georgia needs to be represented. There are some mighty talented new librarians in the state, and with PINNACLE up in the air, we need to take advantage of every opportunity we can get to learn, grow, and show the rest of library world just how much we have to bring to the table.
- You will get to give a poster session at ALA annual 2010. Don’t let those poster-making and presentation skills from library school go to waste! Seriously, do you know how hard it can be sometimes to be accepted to present at the national level? Programs like EL make it a little easier to get you and your ideas out there.
- You’ll get the opportunity to serve on an ALA committee. Now now, don’t roll your eyes. You get to CHOOSE what kind of committee work you want to do, and believe me, there’s a lot to pick from. You might even choose to serve on the committee that plans EL, to make it even better next time around. No matter what you’re really interested in, there’s an ALA committee that tackles it, so you’ll have the freedom to pick something that would be meaningful and fun for you.
- Because it’s there. If an opportunity comes your way, why not try for it? What do you have to lose, really?
To learn more, though, look at the Emerging Leaders wiki, which has information about the program, the projects, and a link to the online application. You will need two letters of recommendation, and the deadline is 7/31/09, so start thinking about who can best sing your praises….
Many thanks to Leigh Anne Vrabel, senior staff librarian in the Reference Services department Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and blogmaster of the Library Alchemy for permission to use, and alter freely, her recent blogpost aimed at librarians in the Pittsburgh area.
