MIDWINTER MEETING HIGHLIGHTS                              SEATTLE                            COGNOTES 11

ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition

June 20-25, 2019 Washington, DC

Check out alaannual.org for registration, housing and schedule information.

Application Deadline for 2019 ALA Leadership Institute Quickly Approaching

The application process for the 2019 “Leading to the Future” ALA Leadership Institute (August 5 - 8, Hilton Oak Brook/Chicago Conference Center and Resort, Oak Brook, Ill.) is underway, with applications accepted through March 8. Building on the success of the past ALA Leadership Institutes, the four-day immersive leadership development program for 40 mid-career librarians will be led again by ALA Past-President Maureen Sullivan and library and leadership consultant Kathryn Deiss.

Now in its seventh year, the institute helps future library leaders develop and practice their leadership skills in areas critical to the future of the libraries they lead. Through reflective and active learning, it offers participants an opportunity to delve into leadership practices, concepts, and frameworks, and to shape their own sustainable leadership vision and ethos, at the same time as building a learning community and network. With content based on real-world cases and nuanced situations, participants explore topics related to the greatest challenges and possibilities of leading into a future marked by turbulence and ambiguity.

Participants in past institutes highlighted a wide range of benefits, describing it as the “best professional development…related to leadership,” with a “wonderful atmosphere and congeniality among participants and between participants and facilitators.” Most attendees have given the ALA Leadership Institute the top rating possible in the postevent survey.

The application form as well as details and guidelines are at www.ala.org/educationcareers/leadership. Applicants may nominate themselves or be nominated by their employer. Participation includes a free one-year membership in the Library Leadership and Management Association, a division of ALA.

Pack Your Bags for a Literary and Cultural Tour of North and Western Ireland with ASGCLA!

The Association of Specialized, Government, and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASGCLA) is sponsoring a seven-night themed tour of North and Western Ireland. The May 11 – 18, 2019 tour focuses on some of the greatest writers to come from the region. These writers include W.B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, C. S. Lewis, and hundreds of others that are part of the collective culture of the Irish literary world.

This fascinating tour will take you to the writer’s birthplaces, schools, writing rooms, and final homes. History and epic scenery will be taken in each day to delight and wonder the visitor to this ancient and wildly beautiful country. For details and full itinerary, go to www.asgcladirect.org/travel/.

Isha Sesay on Reading Widely, Doing the Work