Abstract
In October of 2010, LLAMA, the Library Leadership and Management Division of ALA, agreed to sponsor two emerging leaders as it has done in many previous years. LLAMA's Executive Committee first suggested names of LLAMA individuals fitting the EL criteria, and then voted on two candidates. These candidates met in January 2011, at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in San Diego, along with the new class for the first time. For LLAMA's project, Project N, these five librarians were brought together: LLAMA'S mission is to encourage and nurture current and future library leaders, and to develop and promote outstanding leadership and management practices. Based on this mission, LLAMA President Janine Golden, serving as Member Guide, and Kerry Ward, LLAMA Executive Director serving as ALA Staff Liaison, created this Emerging Leader Project as a three-year initiative to explore the quality and quantity of LLAMA promotional materials, resources, and professional services as well as their impact on Library and Information Science faculty and students. LLAMA was curious to know if its current marketing strategy was reaching LIS faculty and future library professionals. Questions were concerned with whether or not members of the library profession understand LLAMA'S mission and the sheer amount of resources available through membership in the organization; and if newer generations of library professionals interested in leadership and management have needs that are not currently being addressed by the organization. These are some of the larger questions that LLAMA hopes to answer in the work of three consecutive Emerging Leader classes. Through the leadership of Janine Golden and Kerry Ward, the multi-year LLAMA Emerging Leaders project will culminate in new strategies for LIS student recruitment and greater collaboration with LIS schools - a main goal of Dr. Gulden's presidency. Along with the completion of the survey analysis and evaluation study conducted by the 2011 cohort of ALA Emerging Leaders is the conclusion of the initial phase of the LLAMA project to determine the best ways that LLAMA can collaborate with LIS schools in nurturing and promoting leadership and management concepts and skills among LIS students. The 2011 group focused on surveying faculty and management course instructors in ALA accredited programs within the United States. The survey focused primarily on the leadership and management topics and skills most significant to instructors and instructor awareness of how well these aligned with LLAMA's offerings.