Two YALSA members, Carla Land and Katherine Voss, have been named YALSA Emerging Leaders in the class of 2009.  Carla and Katherine were two of many who applied to be an ALA Emerging Leader under the sponsorship of YALSA. As the congratulatory letter sent from ALA to the winners says, being sponsored by YALSA:

…means that the sponsoring organization has agreed to provide you with financial support for expenses for attendance at both conferences, up to $1000 total.

Carla is the Children’s Services Department Head at the Summerlin Library of the Las Vegas-Clark County Public Library (NV). Katherine is Department Chair and Teacher Librarian at the Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School (MO).  In their applications, Carla and Katherine both expressed a desire to expand their professional and community networks through ALA’s Emerging Leaders Program.   As Carla stated:

My professional goal is to become a librarian who is respected by her peers and has a positive influence on the profession as a whole. In order to do this, I know that I have to go outside of the boundaries of “where I work” and become involved in library science on a national level.

And, Katherine wrote:

I believe that it is the responsibility of the profession to educate potential patrons about the important roles librarians and libraries play in their communities, and Emerging Leaders could take an important part in this process.

Carla and Katherine both pursue opportunities to investigate and integrate new and emerging trends in library services for teens.  For example, Carla started  Anime for Libraries,  a review site devoted to helping librarians make educated decisions about anime purchasing. Carla is the Senior Editor for Anime for Libraries.  And, Katherine made it clear in her application, that she believes new technologies have to play a role in teen services. She wrote:

It would be impossible to know, understand, and use all of the technology that is available to us today because it is constantly changing…. I believe that libraries need to tap into these tools to stay relevant in the wireless age…

Congratulations to Carla and Katherine!