The weather was unusually cold and icy in Baltimore, Maryland, as we all made our way into the expansive convention center, ready for a day of meeting new people and getting to work. Although each of us had flown in from different states, we now all sat at the same table, decorated with a large picture of a giraffe. We were the emerging leaders’ team G, assigned to work on a project for the New Members Round Table.
As we engaged in icebreakers, leadership and personality tests, and initial planning and brainstorming sessions, we found ways to complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We formed an idea of how to accomplish our goals over the next several months. Our tasks included publishing five new informational videos, launching a new biannual newsletter, making a poster to present at the ALA annual conference in San Diego, and creating a report, blog post, and video detailing our experiences along the way.
We discussed the tools and skills we could each bring to benefit the team and set up monthly meetings. At each check-in, we progressed, falling into a rhythm of scripting, storyboarding, recording, and editing the videos. Stella wrote the scripts, and everyone provided feedback. Tynisha and Annmarie took on alternating roles of storyboarding and recording the scripts, while Kate did the daunting task of screen recording and editing the videos. This rhythm was somewhat interrupted when ALA completely redesigned its website in the middle of our project. Luckily, we were able to adjust the videos we had already finished and pivot to focusing on the newsletter while the dust settled.
For the newsletter, we considered the visual appeal, minimalist design, and the aspects of NMRT programming and participation that would best be highlighted in the inaugural issue. In conversation with the NMRT leadership and communications teams, we decided to focus on three main areas: spotlighting current members, upcoming events, and critical NMRT services. We ended up including a welcome from the current NMRT president, Julie Gabb, as well as upcoming event articles, NMRT benefit highlights like the resume review service, a feature page on the NMRT Member of the Month, Carissa Neary, and an advertisement for the new informational videos we created a part of this project.
As ALA San Diego approached, we decided to meet more frequently. Over the months, everyone has been supportive and accommodating as we each navigate our own lives and full-time jobs and meet the demands of this project. We hope that the materials we have created will help new librarians find the resources and communities they need to thrive as part of ALA. We want our work to be informational and inviting, to welcome students and professionals into the world of librarianship. Everything has been set up to be easily continued, even after our time as team G has ended. We each learned and gained so much from this experience, which we hope can be shared with those who engage with the things we worked so hard to create.
The NMRT 2024 Emerging Leaders:
Annmarie Magurany – magurany@uchc.edu
Pronouns: she/her
Annmarie Magurany is the Interlibrary Loan Librarian at the University of Connecticut Health Sciences Library in Farmington, CT, where she is the leader of the Interlibrary Loan Department. She Co-Chairs the Connecticut Academic Library Conference. Previously, Annmarie was a reference librarian at the University of Hartford, where she taught classes to first- and second-year students on navigating the library’s resources.
Stella Hudson – stellahhudson@gmail.com
Pronouns: she/her
Stella Hudson is the Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian at American University in Washington, DC. She is part of the Research, Teaching, and Learning team serving the College of Arts and Sciences and oversees all instruction, research assistance, honors programming, and collection development efforts in her assigned areas. She previously served as the social science and Assessment Librarian at Wheaton College, Massachusetts.
Tynisha Dungey – tdungey@willard.lib.mi.us
Pronouns: she/her
Tynisha Dungey is the Director of Youth Services and Community Engagement at Willard Public Library in Battle Creek, Michigan. Tynisha leads a team of three Youth Services librarians and two clerical staff. She oversees all youth programming collection development, provides budgetary oversight, and coordinates all of the library’s community engagement initiatives. Her current initiatives are training all Youth Services staff in the Science of Reading, continued diversification of the children’s print collection, and adapting services to meet the needs of library patrons.
Katherine (Kate) McNally Carter – kmcarter@uh.edu
Pronouns: she/her
Kate McNally Carter is the Open Educational Resources Librarian at the University of Houston Libraries. In her role, she works with the Head of Open Education Services, Ariana Santiago, to support instructors in the adoption, adaptation, and creation of OER in order to meet teaching and learning needs and advance the University’s student success goals. Prior to joining UH Libraries, she previously worked as a Research & Instruction Librarian at the University of Houston-Clear Lake.