Hello Fellow Book Warriors, Bibliognosts, and Bibliothecaries! So, I may have panicked a little when I remembered that being NDLA President meant having to write a message for The Good Stuff! What would I write? How would I start? What if no one likes it? Then, I took a deep breath and said to myself…just introduce yourself, girl!
If you don’t know me, I am Kerrianne Boetcher and I am the Library Director at the Ward County Public Library in Minot, ND. I grew up in a small town north of Minot and my number one career goal was to be tall. That obviously didn’t happen, so librarian made the next best sense. I have been director at Ward County since 2012 and I absolutely love it….most days.
I am excited to be NDLA President this year and a little nervous. Librarians across the country have been under attack recently and I am worried for our profession. We must work together to combat these attacks as they affect all of us together.
The Public Library section passed a resolution at the annual conference for NDLA to release a statement in opposition of recent book challenges and censorship taking place across our state. I believe this is great, but I want to do more because it isn’t about me or you or that librarian friend that you see once a year at conference. This is about ALL of us working together.
If you have wonderful ideas about what NDLA can do, please let me and the rest of the Executive Board know.It doesn’t just have to be about book challenges or censorship or the like. If you have an idea of how we can work to better NDLA and libraries across the state, let us know! We truly do want to work to make your North Dakota Library Association work better for you and for your library.
To end, I do want to make one plea before we start the next ND Legislative Session in January. If the NDLA Legislative Committee and/or the North Dakota State Library puts out a call for testimony or letters of support; PLEASE consider doing so. Librarians have been considered a silent group for too long and we need to work together to make our voices heard.
Kerrianne Boetcher, NDLA President