On February 8–11, 2018, ARL hosted its 14th Annual Leadership Symposium, during the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting in Denver, Colorado. Symposium participants included master of library and information science (MLIS) students from ARL’s diversity recruitment programs, the Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce (IRDW) and the ARL/Society of American Archivists (SAA) Mosaic Program, and undergraduate students from the Fellowship for Digital and Inclusive Excellence.
The ARL Annual Leadership Symposium curriculum focuses on several major themes: leadership development; personal and professional opportunities and challenges for people from historically underrepresented groups; and strategies for transitioning into, and building career networks in, research libraries and archives. The program includes workshops and presentations from ARL program officers, professionals in member libraries, and human resource professionals. Scholars and fellows are also provided numerous opportunities to network with a broad range of stakeholders committed to ensuring the diversification of the profession, as well as the success of these students.
Funding for the Leadership Symposium was provided, in part, by a generous grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and from ARL member libraries. Additional support was provided by EBSCO Information Services, MIT Libraries, NYU Libraries, and the University of Miami Libraries.
About the Association of Research Libraries
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research libraries in the US and Canada. ARL’s mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at ARL.org.
