NELA is pleased to announce an excellent slate of candidates for the positions of Vice-President/President Elect, Member-at-Large, and Secretary for the 2024 - 2025 Executive Board. All people with active NELA memberships should have received a ballot from NELA's official QuestionPro account. We have gotten feedback that some people have been finding it in their spam folder. If you have an active membership, and you have double-checked your spam folder, and you still are not seeing a ballot, please email Megan Bishop at [email protected].
Vice-President/President Elect | Member-at-Large | Secretary
Candidate for Vice-President/President Elect
Joanna Fuchs
Joanna M. Fuchs is the Metadata Coordinator for the Arts and Humanities at Brandeis Library and has been a cataloger for over a decade. At Brandeis, her work focuses on enhancing metadata, original and copy cataloging of physical and electronic resources, and promoting discoverability of physical and digital collections. She currently serves as the Chair of the Boston Library Consortium’s Media Community of Interest, which explores various media formats and best practices. Over the years, she has organized events for the group that looked at preservation practices, copyright and accessibility for various forms of media. Alongside her work with the Boston Library Consortium, she serves as Treasurer for the New England Technical Services Librarians (NETSL) board and has assisted in organizing the annual conference since 2020. Throughout her career, she has presented on metadata and discoverability, focusing on music resources, for local conferences in the New England Area. Joanna has been a moderator for several events including: the Fall 2023 New England Music Librarians Association meeting and most recently a BLC webinar titled “Equity and Ethics in Cultural Heritage Preservation.” Outside of the library, Joanna is a trained musicologist. She received her Master’s in Musicology from Brandeis University and her Bachelor’s in Music History from Youngstown State University. Her main interests include the late works of Hungarian composer Béla Bartók and the music of the Chaouia Berbers of Algeria.
If elected, she looks forward to sharing her experience and knowledge to promote the collaboration across all areas of the library world. She further looks forward to providing learning opportunities to the NELA community by using her experience in program planning.
Candidates for Member-at-Large
Chris Hemingway | Jacklyn Linsky
Chris Hemingway has been at the Hagaman Memorial Library in East Haven, CT for almost 30 years, where he is the Reference, Archival, and Local History Librarian. He has a BA in Political Science and History from the University of Connecticut and an MLS from Southern Connecticut State University. He has served as a region representative, awards chair, and conference co-chair for the Connecticut Library Association. He is a graduate of NELLS and the author of two poetry books. If elected, Chris looks forward to helping and promoting NELA with its mission of serving librarians and libraries in New England.
Jackie Linsky is currently the Programming and Marketing Librarian for Weymouth Public Libraries. She holds a degree from Simmons and has been in the world of libraries for over five years. In the past she has worked as a Local History Librarian in Gloucester (Sawyer Free Library) and as a Reference Librarian in Wellesley (Wellesley Free Library). While in Gloucester, Jackie helped to lead a grant that digitized and preserved historic city records. In Wellesley, she brought in more tech to the Teen room and helped start the process of getting their remaining newspapers digitized. Throughout her career she has learned amazing things about libraries and is excited to see what the future holds.
Candidates for Secretary
Kate Byroade | Sara Slymon
Kate Byroade is the director of the Cragin Memorial Library in Colchester, CT. Kate began working in libraries as a teenager, shelving books and assisting patrons at the West Hartford Public Library, then as a student assistant in the cataloging office of her college library. Once she got a full-time job after college as a library assistant at the Welles-Turner Memorial Library in Glastonbury, it finally occurred to her that being a librarian would be a great career—and it has been! Kate earned her MLIS at Simmons University. Roles at the Portland, Bethel, and Manchester (all in CT) public libraries in circulation, technical services, teen and reference services become becoming a director gave her experience doing pretty much every library task. She currently serves as the ALA Chapter Councilor for Connecticut and co-chairs CLA’s Legislative Committee and has served as President of both CLA and the Library Connection, Inc. (LCI) consortium board. Kate has volunteered in a mix of community organizations, including over a decade as a Girl Scout leader. Kate has enjoyed attending NELA conferences and sees the role of Secretary as a way to contribute and learn more while making broader connections across New England’s library community.
Sara Slymon have been a practicing, professional librarian for 30 years, serving in both public and corporate libraries. I have been in senior management for 16 years.
Equal access is one of my guiding principles, guaranteed by the ALA Bill of Rights. I have worked tirelessly to implement best practices in this arena by adding new language collections, ELL and ESL materials and programs, inclusive library programming, and outreach to people of all ages, origins, and abilities. I have a wealth of experience leading teams large and small, managing collections, diversifying staff, providing cultural and educational programs, and building community relationships. I am successful when working with Trustees, Town officials, fellow Department Heads, Library Foundations, Friends groups, staff, and community stakeholders. I excel at maximizing the impact of the Library on the communities we serve.
Professional development and continuing education are a priority of mine, for myself and for staff. I have presented at ALA, MLA, NELA, at the Boston Public Library, and throughout the Minuteman Library Network. I have been a featured speaker at the Library Directors Summit, and have presented symposia at Simmons College, where I am on a sabbatical from the Doctoral Program.
If I elected I pledge to continue to further the core values of our profession and to record all business activities faithfully and clearly.