ABOUT ME 

I am the Assistant Director at the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative (SJRLC), a multi-type consortium in New Jersey. One of my main duties is to provide continuing education opportunities to library staff in the 630+ libraries in the southern seven counties of New Jersey.  Beginning on August 2, 2010 I will be the Assistant Director at the Princeton Public Library.

I am proud to have helped develop and manage QandANJ.org, New Jersey's 24/7 virtual reference service. We were the first 24/7 collaborative virtual reference service, and sometimes I get asked to go somewhere and talk about how we "did it good". 

My ALA activities include a three year stint as Secretary for ALA's Learning Round Table (LearnRT), where I also served as membership chair and webmaster. I developed our first blog CEBuzz (now morphed into ALALearning), a collaborative blog that addresses continuing education and staff development.  I am also very involved in the planning of ALA's Emerging Leaders program.  Locally, I have served as Chair of NJLA's Professional Development Committee, and have collaborated on numerous regional and state projects..

I enjoy speaking and presenting, and currently serve as President of a Toastmasters club for librarians (Club #: 660075, District 38).  I'd be happy to talk to other librarians who are interested in setting up their own local chapter. 

In my spare time I play as much tennis as I can and have been enjoyed learning improv and attempting to learn to play guitar. 

COACHING

I have been offering formal and informal personal coaching services (sometimes called life coaching, or executive coaching) since July, 2006. I am still learning how to do it, but seem to have a natural ability for it and enjoy it quite a bit. I receivied training on how to be an effective coach from one of the best -- a former President of the NJ Coaches Association--through a grant to CJRLC.

If you are interested in learning more about coaching, or think you may find value in being coached, check out my coaching page, or get in touch with me.

LEADERSHIP

I have been involved with library leadership issues in one way or the other for the past ten years. 

• In 1998 I had the honor of attending the Leadership Institute at Snowbird. 
• In 2001 I was selected to attend a "recall" session of the Leadership Institute at Snowbird. 
• In 2004 I participated in (and helped plan) the New Jersey Library Leadership Academy. 
• In 2006/2007 I served as a Mentor to a group of ALA Emerging Leaders.
• In October, 2007 I served as a Mentor for the Maryland Library Leadership Institute.
• 2007-present: I am serving on the Emerging Leaders Task Force, a select committee charged with instituting the Emerging Leaders program, securing funding, creating a sustainable structure and planning future programs.

My ideas about leadership revolve around authenticity and honesty, self-awareness, courage to act, the ability to stand in the future, and a deep respect for the power of strong visions, healthy systems and  organizational cultures, and the integrity and wisdom of individuals.

In addition to continuing education and staff development, I am very interested in customer service (aka customer experience) and the idea of "library as place". These interests and ideas are often informed by my experience working at Nordstrom.  Sometimes I blab about these and other topics at my blog, Library Garden.