Mary Fellows: 2010 ALSC Vice President/President-Elect Candidate

1. What do you consider the most important role of the ALSC President? What strengths would you bring to the office?

Naturally, the ALSC President’s most important role is that of leader — which has many facets. Three key aspects are:

Ambassador: The president is the face of ALSC both within ALA and to the outside world. She or he must know what ALSC stands for and be able to communicate that clearly, and when necessary, firmly.

Visionary: While all members participate in creating ALSC’s future, the president has responsibility for identifying a compelling vision and articulating it.

Mentor: Leaders mentor. Without mentoring, we impoverish ourselves of future leaders.

As for strengths, I think I’m strong in vision, creativity, humor, integrity, assertiveness — and after this long list, let’s not forget humility!:)

2. Why should someone choose to join ALSC? What services do you feel ALSC provides that are valuable to new members? To long-term members?

Joining ALA is a bit like beginning to date. Some of us start by sampling what’s out there — other divisions, in this case. Others of us have an innate sense of the “right” division, or stumble upon it immediately, and then it’s a matter of developing the relationship. When you commit to a person, or to a division like ALSC, you enrich your opportunities for personal growth. You also make an indelible impact on the person, or division.

For new members, ALSC is a treasure trove of potential mentors and role models, opportunities to broadly impact the profession, useful contacts, continuing education, fun and exciting social events like the Newbery Caldecott banquet, occasions to meet admired authors and illustrators, and a whole division full of potential friends who share your interests.

These same advantages apply to established members. With the pace of change in today’s world, more seasoned members also need role models and mentors from among our younger colleagues, and we enjoy the other benefits as well. ALSC also provides us a community of deep collaborations and decades-long relationships, and a sense of long-term, shared endeavor on behalf of something larger than any of us.

3. If elected, what topic would you like to highlight for either a preconference or the Charlemae Rollins President’s Program?

Oh, what a big, fun decision! I think it’s important that our more focused training offer a breadth of experiences. So I’d want to look at what we as an organization highlighted most recently in our Institute and other programs and what’s new in the world of research on youth before I made that choice. There has been much discussion of late about service to tweens so that’s a possibility.

4. How has ALSC membership impacted your life? How has your membership in ALSC impacted library service to children?

ALSC has given me a professional home, in a sense. I have moved quite a lot, so my coworkers and library or office home have changed often. But I always had my ALSC home, created by coming to conferences and working and learning among my ALSC friends.

The importance of that ALSC home became clear to me during a brief period when I departed youth services for administration. To my dismay, my heart did not accompany me. I sorely missed youth services work, but I was afraid that the statement, “You can’t go home again” applied here. After too much struggle, I realized that I could go home again, and I did — to ALSC.

ALSC has given me much more than a home, of course — opportunities to develop leadership skills, exciting experiences like serving on the Caldecott Committee, forums in which to meet personal heroes, and perhaps most of all, another opportunity to make a difference in the world and to give back.

My ALSC membership has impacted library service to children through the partnerships, new knowledge, and rekindled passion that I bring back to my job after the professional “feeding” that happens in ALSC activities. Bring on the banquet!

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Thanks so much to Mary Fellows and Marge Loch-Wouters for answering these questions for the ALSC Blog!