Membership Committee 

NDLA Membership Committee did not meet this quarter.

EDI Committee

The Bylaws, & Policies Committee work seemingly never ends, but it’s gratifying to assist in supporting the great work of our NDLA leadership and members. As a result of discussions at the October Executive Board meeting, we are preparing some Bylaws change proposals to be put before the membership vote.

Please make sure you keep your Active membership (defined in the Bylaws Article III, Section 1A) up-to-date and participate when the voting opens. There is a 30-day review period before voting occurs.

It’s important to hear from as many voices as possible for these important changes

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EDI (Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) Committee has put together a list of openly or easily available resources to help the NDLA community develop understanding and empathy around equity, diversity, inclusion, and related topics. It is our hope that this list of resources can be a starting point in our collective journey toward equitable, diverse, and inclusive libraries. The list is available in our committee’s section of the NDLA website: https://ndla.info/EDI-Resource-List.

We intend this list to be updated regularly. To that end… Do you have personal or institutional lists of resources, or can you recommend individual resources? We’d love your input! Send resources to Amanda Walch, amanda.walch@uj.edu, or Karlene Clark, karlene.clark@und.edu. Resources can be in any format—books, articles, videos, websites, podcasts, webinars, etc.—but should be freely available or easily obtainable through library collections. We welcome resources about any aspect of EDI work or any expression of identity, and resources don’t have to be library-focused.

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The Good Stuff Editorial Committee has a committee chair stepping down. Interested in the position? Fill some not-so-big shoes and help an org out! Contact Kerriane Boetcher for more information.

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The Legislative Committee are still looking for more members for the Legislative Committee. "We especially need people that are interested in helping keep track of legislation during the ND legislative session, which starts in January." If you are interested, please contact Tressa Graves at tgraves@undeerc.org.

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The Membership Committeemet in October to discuss the plans for the coming year. "We plan to review the membership webpages on the NDLA website and the policy handbook. We have a couple of other ideas as well that we will develop over this year. Our next meeting will take place in February, so if you have a suggestion for our committee, please reach out to us."

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The New Members’ Committee will have a short virtual meeting on Monday, January 9, 2023, at 4pm to start planning our work for the year—watch the usual listservs for reminders and a Zoom link. Join us to meet new members and learn about the work of the committee! All are welcome to attend.

In the meantime… we'd love to hear from you!

• If you're new to NDLA, what questions do you have about the association? What kinds of programming or information would be most useful to you?
• If you're not so new to NDLA, what do you hope new members know about or get involved in? What do you wish you had known when you joined NDLA?

Send your thoughts to Amanda Walch, NMC Chair, at amanda.walch@uj.edu.

Be sure to check out the updated New Member Information Packet available on our section of the website. Even if you've been part of NDLA for a while, feel free to give it a read-through and remind yourself about the work of the association and all of its committees and sections.

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The Professional Development Committee is rounding out the year with the opening of our grant application period as well as several events (both past and upcoming!) focused on empowering library workers.

Past sessions:

• August’s meeting was focused on negotiation during the hiring process, and the reading, "Normalize negotiation! Learning to negotiate salaries and improve compensation outcomes to transform library culture" from In the Library With the Lead Pipe, fostered a lively and wide-ranging discussion on negotiating as a process as well as more regional aspects of this aspect of the hiring process.

• For October’s meeting we welcomed Gail Betz as our first speaker. Gail spoke about her research, which focuses on the experiences of people with disabilities navigating library hiring processes. We recorded Gail’s portion of the meeting, and this recording is available to view.

Next session: December 15, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. Central. Register for this session now! In the upcoming December meeting, we will really dig into Gail’s research. In order to fully participate in this meeting’s guided discussion, attendees are asked to read one or both of Gail’s articles prior to the meeting:

• "Navigating the academic hiring process with disabilities"fromIn the Library with the Lead Pipe
• "Researcher's corner: Navigating the library interview process with disabilities" from Hiring Librarians

This meeting will not be recorded.

February Session

This session is still under development.

If you have any ideas for future session speakers, themes or topics, please reach out to the Professional Development Committee at professional.development@ndla.info

Grant applications now open! Apply now for a Professional Development grant! Applications are now open for several of the PD Committee’s grants:

NDLA Professional Development Grant: Apply here!

NDLA believes that furthering an individual's skills is beneficial to the North Dakota Library environment. Each year NDLA sets aside

general fund dollars for this purpose. The Professional Development grant may be used for college or university classroom work, independent study, workshops, conferences, or participation in any committee that may benefit the library community of North Dakota.

Mike Jaugstetter Memorial Leadership Grant:Apply here!

The Mike Jaugstetter Leadership Memorial Grant honors the superb leadership skills in librarianship which Mike Jaugstetter demonstrated while he was employed as the State Librarian of North Dakota. The grant money may be used for library leadership institutes or programs.

Rod Rudser Memorial Continuing Education Grant:Apply here!

Ron Rudser was a librarian and library science instructor at Minot State University at the time of his death in 1986. This memorial grant fund was initiated by his wife, Kaye. The Ron Rudser Memorial Continuing Education Grant may be used for credit courses, workshops, seminars or pre-conference programs that enhance the education of a practicing librarian in any type of library. Regular conference programs or conventions do not qualify.

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The Web Editor's Committee keeps busy with post-Annual Conference updates. Did you know that the annual reports of the outgoing Section and Committee chairs can now be found on their respective pages? It’s a way to see the work they are doing and hopefully an inspiration for you to see involved (you can even see our website committee annual report). This year we will work with the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee on Website accessibility improvements

These committees have no current business to report: Bylaws & Policies; Finance; Flicker Tale; Legislative; Membership; Nominations, Elections & Voting; Tech Services/Government Documents; and Web Editors.

EDI (Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) Committee 

EDI Resources List on the NDLA Website

The EDI Committee has put together a list of openly or easily available resources to help the NDLA community develop understanding and empathy around equity, diversity, inclusion, and related topics. It is our hope that this list of resources can be a starting point in our collective journey toward equitable, diverse, and inclusive libraries. The list is available in our committee’s section of the NDLA website: https://ndla.info/EDI-Resource-List.

We intend this list to be updated regularly. To that end… Do you have personal or institutional lists of resources, or can you recommend individual resources? We’d love your input! Send resources to Amanda Walch, amanda.walch@uj.edu, or Karlene Clark, karlene.clark@und.edu. Resources can be in any format—books, articles, videos, websites, podcasts, webinars, etc.—but should be freely available or easily obtainable through library collections. We welcome resources about any aspect of EDI work or any expression of identity, and resources don’t have to be library-focused.

Good Stuff Editorial Committee needs a volunteer to assist with contribution editing/newsletter formatting responsibilities. No experience required, only a willingness to participate. Contact the Editorial Committee Chair for details. 

Intellectual Freedom Committee

We're in the final stages of updating our handbook and web presence, and transitioning to our next project of offering workshops to help schools and libraries prepare for book challenges. We're happy to announce that Troy Kuntz of Dickinson Public Schools has joined the IF committee. More volunteers are always welcome, library staff and librarians alike. If you're interested in volunteering, or have questions/comments, contact committee chair Emily Wros (emily.wros@und.edu). Our September meeting date has not been set yet. COMMITTEE BLOTTER 9 COMMITTEE BLOTTER CONTINUED... New Members’ Committee Join the Committee in the dining area at the conference and get to know other (new) members of NDLA! Whether you’re new to NDLA or the only librarian from your library at the conference or just want to branch out, everyone is welcome to join the group for any or all meals. We will have a sign up and likely a colorful tablecloth. Look for us and come say hello! We're also working on promoting the Grassroots Grant and the New Member packet is in the final stages of review. For more information, including future meetings, contact: karlene.clark@und.edu

Professional Development Committee

Hello, all! Our committee, co-chaired by Jessica Gilbert Redman and Devon Olson, is picking up where the previous members left off. We are excited to jump in and get started! In the short term, we are focused on streamlining the grants-awarding process and the website, including the jobs listing section. In the near future, we also hope to work with NDLA President Will Martin to launch a mock interviews initiative, providing training for both interviewees and interviewers. In the long term, we want to look at re-launching the mentorship program as well as possibly developing more formal policies for the role of the PD committee in facilitating PD-type events hosted by other committees. We will be contacting committee members (as outlined in the NDLA bylaws) soon, but would love to hear ideas and suggestions from all NDLA members. We also would love to see a variety of library types and library employees involved on this committee; don't hesitate to check in with us. If you're interested in applying for the committee, send a quick message to ndla.pd@outlook.com with your current employment type (academic, school, public, special, etc.) and location, along with a bit about your interest in joining. 

We are excited to announce the launch of a new series of online professional development meetings: The NDLA Professional Development Series Meetings will be held every other month and will alternate between journal-club and featured-speaker formats. Anyone with an interest in librarianship and professional development may attend, regardless of NDLA membership. The theme for our first few meetings is “Hiring and Interviewing Best Practices." We’ll first dive into some specific topics within the hiring process, and eventually broaden out to explore those “best practices” a few months from now. Our first meeting is a journal-club meeting on August 25 at 2 p.m. to 

The Bylaws & Policies Committee wishes to thank those of you who responded to the Bylaws & Policies Committee call for policy manual revision suggestions. We have incorporated them into the April 2022 revision and have added a new section - Executive Board actions and voting. Begone confusion! There are more changes needed to make the policy manual more reflective of the terrific work NDLA Leadership does and we anticipate further revisions in the next few months.

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The EDI (Equity Diversity Inclusion) Committee is considering a conference session on writing EDI Action Statements for libraries. We’d love to feature your input and experiences in that session! See below for more information: Does your library or broader organization have an EDI action or goal statement? Were you involved in the process of writing it, or are you involved in the process of assessing progress towards the goals outlined in that statement? We are looking for 3-5 panelists from across library types who are willing to share insights and strategies for crafting actionable EDI statements as part of a moderated panel sponsored by the EDI Committee.
Individual time commitment would likely be fairly minimal beyond being present at the 2022 conference in Minot. An EDI Committee member will coordinate and moderate the live session; at most, panelists would be asked to prepare a brief presentation about their library’s statement, drafting process, and assessment process.
Questions?Contact Karlene Clark and join our next meeting - June 13th at 3pm
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The Finance Committee has nothing to report.
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TheFlicker Tale Committee is pleased to announce the 2022 Flicker Tale Award Winners...

• Younger Readers: Dinosaurs Are Not Extinct: Real Facts about Real Dinosaursby Drew Sheneman
• Middle Readers: A Wish in the Darkby Christina Soontornvat

• Older Readers: We Are Not From Hereby Jenny Torres Sanchez

2023 Nominees can be found on theNDLA website!
P.S. Did we mention that we received over 8000 votes?
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TheGood Stuff Editorial Committeeis settling into this new newsletter format. Change can be good, right?! The committee is also seeking new members: Do you have maybe one or two hours to give per quarter?
The more we have on board, the lighter the workload.
Interested? Contact Shannon Yarbrough
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Currently, the Intellectual Freedom Committee is updating its handbook and web presence. Future committee plans include increased outreach to library workers along with constructing a framework to monitor and report Intellectual Freedom issues in North Dakota.
We still need two more volunteers to join us and we're especially interested in recruiting from K-12 schools, tribal colleges, and community colleges. Please note, we welcome library staff as well as librarians. Our next meeting is June 1st. Contact Emily Wros if you are interested in volunteering
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The Legislative Committee has no current business to report.
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Not fresh news, but still pertinent...
The Membership Committee is actively seeking volunteers - specifically, an Interim Chair!! If you feel an obligation, a calling, maybe even a vague sense of guilt for not being more involved (No shame here), email Will Martin, NDLA President, for more information________________________________________________________________________
TheNew Members’ Committee is working on updating a new member document to share on the NDLA website. Stay tuned... As always, we are also working on ways to connect new people at NDLA.Next meeting is 11 am on Monday June 13. Contact Karlene Clark if you would like to join!
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The Nominations, Elections, and Voting Committee is currently seeking nominees for Secretary and President-Elect.
The term for the Secretary position would start immediately after a special election and would end at the conference in 2024.
The term for the President-Elect position would start at the 2022 NDLA Conference and trasnition to President at the 2023 Conference and then Past-President at the 2024 Conference.
If you have any questions or concerns or want to volunteer for a position, please email BreAnne Meier.
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The Professional Development Committee has no current business to report.
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The Tech Services/Gov Docs Committee has no current business to report.
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Web Editors Committee has been continuing the tweaks needed to pull the new website into line. It is still a work in progress... and yes, there may be (ahem...are) dead links. Please bear with us! Good news is that we are approximately 6 months ahead of schedule. Bad news is that corrections are currently on the shoulders of only two volunteers who have full-time jobs... just like the rest of you. It is slow-going at times. If you feel you can share your time (it is not particularly technical) please contact us or better yet, join the next meeting on June 7 at 2:30 pm

In December, the Bylaws & Policies Committee ran the first of two training sessions for NDLA Leadership. The first one was live and included several members who have been involved with the Executive Board for some time, and we really appreciated their advice and support. Our committee then recorded a presentation separately in January and it went well! If you want to see a recording contact Kristen Borysewicz.

Coming soon....

We will be asking Executive Board members and Committee Chairs to look at the policy manual and suggest any revisions to make that document more exact.

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The EDI (Equity Diversity Inclusion) Committee is looking at developing a resource list and best ways to share it with NDLA. We are also looking at what to present at NDLA and who will be involved in that. We continue to do brief writeups for Good Stuff addressing EDI issues. For more information or if you have questions, check out our new EDI Committee webpage

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The Finance Committee has nothing to report.

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The Good Stuff Editorial Committee has uploaded the standard elements of the newsletter on the new NDLA website in an effort to provide a quicker and simpler newsletter release. A PDF version will be made available shortly afterwards and will be kept in the website archive for posterity. Check out the changes here.

We are also seeking new committee members! Can you copy/paste and add a few stylish touches to a preset Canva template? Do you like to edit? Do you have maybe one or two hours to give per quarter? We have a spot for you! The more we have on board, the lighter the workload. Interested? Contact Shannon Yarbrough

Coming soon....

Member contributions for the June issue will be gathered at the end of April/early May.

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Recalled to life!

The Intellectual Freedom Committee works to promote and protect Intellectual Freedom in North Dakota. Its members provide resources and expertise related to Intellectual Freedom and give support to librarians and libraries in the event of a challenge. We are looking for two volunteers to join us and especially interested in recruiting librarians from K-12 schools, tribal colleges, and community colleges. The monthly meetings take place virtually.

Contact committee chair Emily Wros at emily.wros@und.edu if you are interested in volunteering, or if you have any questions

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The Legislative Committee has no current business to report.

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The Membership Committee is actively seeking volunteers - specifically, an Interim Chair!!

If interested, contactwilliam.d.martin@und.edu

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The New Members’ Committee is working on the Grassroots grant and preparing for the best ways to promote and do outreach for it. Next meeting will be on April 4th. Sign up is on the NDLA New Members webpage for anyone wishing to join.

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We have a President-Elect for the 2021-2022 year!

Now, the Nominations, Elections, and Voting Committee is looking for...

• Candidates to run for the 2022-2023 President-Elect position.
  • This position is a three-year commitment that begins at the 2022 Conference as President-Elect, becomes President starting at the 2023 Conference, and Past-President at the 2024 Conference.
• NDLA Sections are also looking for candidates for the Chair-Elect positions.
• • These position are a two-year commitment that begin at the 2022 Conference as Chair-Elect and become Chair of section starting at the 2023 Conference.

If you are interested in getting your name on the ballot, or have any questions, please contact BreAnne Meier or the current section chair of the section you are inquiring after. Information about the roles and responsibilities of these positions can also be found here.

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The Professional Development Committee has no current business to report.

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The Tech Services/Gov Docs Committee has no current business to report.

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Our new website went live in January! Since the move was approved in December, the Website Committee has transitioned content, as well as membership functionality. President Martin used the platform to email everyone about a special election for President-Elect position, calls for volunteers, and we ran a successful vote using it. Members are also renewing their membership on the new site.

If you are experiencing any of difficulties, here is our advice:

• Not receiving emails sent to all members? Check your Spam Filter and make sure mail from this address is not blocked: NDLA44@wildapricot.org
• Membership questions? Contact the Membership Committee
• Notice “dead links” or inaccuracies? Notify the Website Committee

We are just at the beginning of making this website really highlight what is happening around NDLA and the many ways to get involved. Those are the leadership’s top two goals for the page!! Look forward to many updates this year.

*Note: For this issue only, all links in the images below cannot be followed. If you would like to follow a link, please see the pdf version of the December issue.

The new NDLA website is now underway... Goal: Complete transition by mid-January! In the meantime, information may not be where you are used to and links may not be fully functioning. Bear with us and if you have any questions or an immediate need for something website-related, please contact Josh Pikka (Web Editor) or Kristen Borysewicz 

Thanks for your patience! 

2021 NDLA AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Winners were announced in October at the 2021 NDLA Awards Banquet. 

Library Champion Award: Howard Klug, Erin Oban & Nancy Guy

Major Benefactor Award: Linda Lindemann

Youth Excellence Program of the Year Award: Lesley Allan

President’s Award: Viginia Bjorness

Librarian of the Year: Mary Soucie

Congratulations to all those recognized at the 2021 Awards Banquet, and a big Thank You to all who make North Dakota libraries the great places that they are!!