NMRT Notes

In the spirit of ALA‘s NMRT, the Student Chapter of the Year Award is presented in recognition of a chapter’s outstanding contributions to the American Library Association, their school, and the profession. The purpose of the award is to increase student involvement in ALA through student chapters, and to recognize future leaders in the profession.

AWARD AND AWARD CRITERIA

The Student Chapter winner will receive $1,000 to help defray travel expenses to ALA Annual; the winning chapter and the runner up will each receive a certificate. Both will be recognized at the NMRT Student Reception at the 2012 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA.

The six categories of Student Chapter of the Year Award criteria include:

• Membership Engagement and Programs
• Communications
• Leadership
• Financial
• Awards and Honors
• Student Chapter Advisor Statement

ELIGIBILITY

All ALA Student Chapters in good standing are eligible to receive the ALA Student Chapter of the Year Award. There is no limit on the number of times a student chapter may win the award. Any ALA Student Chapter advisor, Student Chapter officer or member, or ALAmember may nominate a Student Chapter, and self-nominations are encouraged.

For more information, contact the committee chair, Michelle Chronister at michelle.chronister@gmail.com.

NOMINATION FORM

Please e-mail the completed form and any supporting documents in either Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format to the committee chair, Michelle Chronister at michelle.chronister @ gmail.com. Completed nomination forms must be received by March 2, 2012 at 11:59pm Eastern for consideration. All nominations will be acknowledged upon receipt.

Download the 2012 Student Chapter of the Year Award nomination form (PDF format)

Past Student Chapter of the Year Award winners and runners-up include the 2011 winners:  the ALA student chapter at Indiana University and the ALA student chapter at San Jose State University (respectively).

For more information, view the the full call for nominations on ALA Connect: http://connect.ala.org/node/66305

Have you been a librarian for 5 years or more?

Do you like to help others and want to give back to your profession?

The New Members Round Table (NMRT) Career Mentoring Program offers you the chance to meet a new librarian and guide them as they learn the ins and outs of librarianship!

The Career Mentoring Program focuses on long term mentoring. We will pair up “newbie librarians” with “seasoned vets” as part of a year-long mentoring program that will last from  February 2012 to July 2012. Conference attendance is not required. Membership in ALA is required, and NMRT membership is encouraged.

Applications are due January 27, 2012 with the goal of notifying the matching pairs by the middle of February.

For more information and to apply, visit:

http://www.ala.org/nmrt/oversightgroups/comm/mentor/mentoringcommittee

Application: http://www.ala.org/nmrt/oversightgroups/comm/mentor/careerMentorApp

Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions after visiting the site.

Sincerely,

The New Member Round Table Mentoring Committee

The November 2011 issue of NMRT Footnotes is now available:  http://www.ala.org/nmrt/news/footnotes/november2011

In this issue, you will find:

• How I Became the Master of My Own Destiny, by Sarah Travis
• App Reviews, by Caralyn Champa
• Headliners, by Heidi Steiner
• And more, such as the President’s Column and NMRT award announcements!

The purpose of Footnotes is to disseminate information and news to NMRT members; to alert members to developments of interest in ALA and in the library world; and to inform members of NMRT Board actions, state and regional events, and NMRTconference programs and committee activities.  Read more about Footnotes, and the committee behind it, here!

NMRT and the Endnotes Committee are pleased to announce publication of the latest issue of Endnotes: The Journal of the New Members Round Table. Vol. 2, Number 1 can be accessed here:

http://www.ala.org/nmrt/oversightgroups/comm/schres/endnotesvol2no1/endnotesvol2

Some of the articles that you will see in this issue include:

• Management Training in Library School: Do Graduate Programs Prepare an Individual for Real World Demands? by Susan A. Schreiner and Barbara M. Pope
• How to Become an Essential Librarian by Breanne Kirsch
• WorldCat Local and the Clinician: Is Discovery Improved? by Linda C.K. Crook
• Valuable website and book reviews!

Many thanks to the contributors for this issue, and to the members of the Endnotes Committee for their hard work preparing the publication. Article submissions for Endnotes are accepted on a rolling basis; please check the Submission Guidelines for more information.   Please direct any questions about the journal to editor Melissa Mallon (melissa.mallon @ wichita.edu) or the rest of the Endnotes Committee

NMRT is proud to announce that it will be sponsoring Heidi Steiner as a 2012 ALA Emerging Leader! Heidi will receive $1000 in funding to attend the ALA Midwinter Conference in Dallas, TX and the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA in 2012.

Heidi received her MLIS from Wayne State University in 2008 and has been the Distance Learning Library at Norwich University in Vermont since 2009. She previously worked at Oakland University’s Kresge Library and at the Southfield Public Library, both in Michigan. Heidi also serves as the Co-Chair of the ALA NMRT Footnotes Committee and as the Secretary of the Vermont Library Association.

“I’m in my third year of NMRT committee work, have branched out to ACRL committees, as well, and am also involved on the state and regional levels. I see Emerging Leaders as a natural extension of my work for ALA thus far and want to continue to give back and contribute to the profession that’s treated me so well,” Steiner said. “I hope to attain transferable leadership skills, lasting professional connections, and continued motivation to contribute to ALA and librarianship through the Emerging Leaders program. If nothing else, I know this will be a valuable learning experience.”

The ALA Emerging Leaders program, now in its sixth year, was instituted under ALA Past President Leslie Burger, and is designed to enable library staff and information workers from across the country to participate in project planning workgroups; network with peers; gain an inside look into ALA structure; and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity early in their careers.

Previous NMRT-sponsored Emerging Leaders are Linda Crook (then Shippert) in 2008, Alexandra Tyler-Annen in 2009, Janel Kinlaw (then White) in 2010, and Megan Hodge in 2011.

Congratulations to Heidi, and to all the NMRT members that are now part of the 2012 Class of ALA Emerging Leaders!