By Linda Crook
Greetings NMRT Members!
I hope that those of you able to attend the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Dallas, TX had a good conference. I had a fantastic time. I got to speak at the NMRT Orientation, which is one of my all-time favorite things (if you've never been to an NMRT Orientation, it's worth coming to one at your next conference, even if you're an experienced Conference goer. I've attended Orientations at every ALA Conference for the past six years, and I still learn something new every time). My other all-time favorite thing is meeting new library people, and I got to do lots of that, too, especially at the NMRT Midwinter Social, which was a seriously happening scene.
Conferences are pretty much the only time I get to see my best ALA friends face-to-face. Near the beginning of the Conference I ran into NMRT Vice-President Janel Kinlaw, and it really struck me how lucky I am to know great people like her. I started thinking about the saying, "It's not what you know, it's who you know," and realized I've had it wrong all these years. It's not about knowing the social elite, or the people who can get you jobs, it's about knowing great people to work with, who can help get things accomplished. From my first NMRT events, in Seattle, 2007, I have been meeting fantastic people, and I am so glad to have made these connections. I couldn't do it without you!
I've met a lot of great people who are current or past NMRT Board members, or current or past ALA Councilors, or Emerging Leaders (and, not surprisingly, some people who are all three!). I love it that NMRT events include library school students, new librarians just starting out, new librarians already changing the world, and experienced librarians getting re-energized from interacting with these new and future leaders of our profession. NMRT is so welcoming, and so diverse, it's full of all the right kinds of "who to know."
I talked to several people at Midwinter who found a home in NMRT because they didn't really fit into the other segments of ALA - special librarians, librarians working for vendors, generalists. Everyone new is welcome in NMRT, and everyone who wants to support new members is welcome in NMRT. For the next couple of months, Janel will be looking for NMRT members with less than ten years in ALA to appoint to NMRT Committees for 2012/2013. If you are looking for a way to get more involved, to help NMRT accomplish great things, and to work with some of the best people in our profession, please consider volunteering.
The NMRT Board and Committees will be doing a lot of online work between now and the Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA. We're going to be working on the budget, planning events for Annual, continuing our collaborations with LLAMA, and otherwise helping new ALA members make and maintain the connections they need to be successful. I'm so lucky to be working with so many great people who are excited about librarianship and dedicated to making sure NMRT and ALA are the best they can be.
As ever, if you have questions or suggestions about NMRT, please feel free to contact me. I’d love to make a connection with you!
Linda Crook
ALA NMRT President 2011/2012