Team X works on Accessibility Toolkit
Indianapolis

row 1: Marilyn Irwin, Annelise Sklar, Olivia Morales row 2: Alan Aldrich, Adri Edwards-Johnson, Michael Witt

Marilyn Irwin, Associate Dean - SLIS Indianapolis, was the mentor for one of the American Library Association (ALA) Emerging Leaders Teams - Team X. The team's project was to "assist ASCLA in planning and promoting the release of an 'accessibility toolkit' of fifteen pamphlets that provide information on different aspects of accessibility as well as an Electronic Accessibility Checklist. The subjects of the pamphlets included developmental disabilities, learning disabilities, service animals, vision, mental illness, physical disabilities, and more."

"Seven SLIS Grads Chosen as ALA 2008 Emerging Leaders" was the title of a recent SLIS News feature that included Michael Witt (Team X), as well as other recent graduates. Marilyn Irwin gave insights into this successful ALA program:

"Each of the teams was asked to set up a poster session for their projects. The posters were presented at a reception at the ALA Conference in Anaheim on Friday, June 27, 2008. I attended the reception and can say that the presentations were very professional and there was evidence of a lot of very hard work. My specific knowledge is of the work of Team X. They completed a phenomenal marketing plan project for some materials on accessibility developed by the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA), a division of ALA. It is particularly noteworthy to add that this was not their original project. They signed on to assess the accessibility of the ALA website; however, a new site is under development and they couldn't get access to enough of the information to do a comprehensive assessment. The team quickly shifted gears and agreed to take on this new project. As one of the team members pointed out to me, that's the way it goes sometimes in reality, so it shows flexibility and the ability to change directions when needed."

Michael C. Witt (MLS'06) is now the Interdisciplinary Research Librarian, and Assistant Professor of Library Science at the Purdue University Libraries, West Lafayette, Indiana. He commented on the Team X experience via email, "The Emerging Leaders program was structured with real-world projects to give all of the participants opportunities to exert practical leadership skills. We all 'led' the project at different times and in different ways. It was an interesting group dynamic, to have five team members who were all 'leaders' in a situation that required us to self-organize in order to be successful." Witt also wrote: "The content of the leadership workshops was terrific, and the opportunity to network and bond with this year's cohort of leaders as well as our project team was invaluable. Our team worked with our mentor, Marilyn Irwin, and ASCLA's Barb Mates to help promote the upcoming ASCLA Accessibility Toolkit [2].

It is clear to me now that I belong to a greater professional community through ALA, and I feel much more engaged with it as a result of being an Emerging Leader. Thank you again for all of your hard work and also to the other ALA presidents for their support of the program. The future of our association will be bright if we continue to engage and cultivate its future leaders."

Posted July 14, 2008