Letter from VLA President Jessica Scalph: November 2018

Hello VLA colleagues!

For me, November is a month to focus on gratefulness.  I am very grateful for the career I have enjoyed in librarianship (most of it being in Virginia for the last twenty years).  I am especially grateful, that I will have the opportunity to lead VLA this year.

In order to go full circle with gratefulness we should give back to our profession.  The following are ideas that I feel are admirable and achievable by most of us:

1. Mentoring someone in your library that is interested in furthering his or her career in libraries.  The New Members Round Table of VLA, will be asking for mentors and mentees starting in February 2019.  Look for information on Facebook (VLA NMRT) or the VLA website https://www.vla.org and consider volunteering. (If you would like to learn more on this topic, I would recommend this book, The Elements of Mentoring by W. Brad Johnson and Charles R. Ridley.)
2. Attending local career fairs for middle or high schools to interest young people in our career field.   As part of this initiative, we should consider reaching out to schools in diverse neighborhoods.
3. Planning and offering VLA workshops in your area.
4. Joining a local service organization to give back to your community. 

Looking ahead to December, the conference committee will be meeting in early December to start the process of planning an engaging and relevant conference.  The conference committee  will be meeting in Norfolk where the conference will be held, Hilton Norfolk the Main, October 23-25, 2019.  Our executive committee will also be meeting in December to go over the designated agenda for the upcoming year in Roanoke.  I look forward to updating you all on our December activities in our December newsletter.
Please feel out to me by email if you have comments, questions, etc. [email protected]