 An Acknowledgment of ARL Research Library Leadership Fellows, convened by Wendy Pratt-Louget at the 161st ARL Membership Meeting. Now we're going to move on to the capstone of our Research Library Leadership Fellows. I should say, I think we've taken informal vote and none of us can pronounce R-L-L-F, so we're going to try to come up with a new name at some point. Since 2004 and through four iterations of the Fellows, and I'm going to just call them that, we've had 89 aspiring leaders who have completed the unique program and aimed at recruiting and cultivating talent that will succeed us and take research libraries into the future. To date, 11 sitting directors and two interim directors at member institutions are graduates of the program, another eight are directors at other academic and medical libraries, and dozens have transitioned since the experience into roles with increased responsibility, either at the same or different institutions. These fellows are outstanding leaders and powerful voices within our organizations and our campuses and in our professional community. We are fortunate to have this program in response to the need for developing the kind of talent that we need for the future. An important piece of information just to highlight here is that since 2006, over half of the ARL director positions have changed leadership. That's a pretty astounding statistic. There's clearly a need for this program. Now one of the things that makes the program unique and so effective in the considerable contributions of many people in time and in resources and expertise and in energy. And without their dedication to the program, it simply would not be the transformative experience that it has been for so many. For the 2011-12 program, I want to acknowledge the current group of sponsor directors, Mary Case, Jeff Horrell, Sarah Micolak, Ingrid Parent, Sarah Pritchard, Bill Walker, and Jim Williams. Now these colleagues have contributed, have created unparalleled learning experiences for the class of 2012. And have served as hosts for three institutes at North Carolina, at British Columbia and at Miami, and then three site visits as well. So we want to recognize you for your dedication to the program. I know personally just how much effort it takes to put on one of those institutes, having done one a few years back. But you truly are contributing to the next generation of leaders. So can we give a round of applause to thank those sponsors? But we know there's more to that complement of support that's necessary. And there are other directors who have supported the fellows that came from their institutions of this particular cohort. So I want to acknowledge Tom Wall, Deb Jacobs, Rick Loos, Artemis Kirk, Helen Shenton, Colleen Cook, Carol Pitts-Dietrichs, Sarah Lohman, Carol Lang and Larry Alford, Jim Cogswell, Fred Heath, Betsy Wilson, and Jeff Treziac. They also helped by supporting the individuals who have been part of this particular cohort. I also want to extend our appreciation to Dwayne Webster and Deanna Jones, who have served as consultants to this program. They created the program, really, and helped to develop it and refine it and have managed it for the last eight years. So on behalf of the membership, we want to extend our sincere thanks to all of you who have been so much a part of creating the program, have helped in particular and Dwayne and Dieta in helping deliver the program with grace and passion and with the true interests of the association at heart. So I hope Dwayne and Dieta, can we acknowledge you for all that you've done here? And last we want to recognize that there's hard work that goes on behind the scenes at ARL and in particular the program assistant for the program, Jennifer Champagne. Jennifer has worked countless hours communicating with all the involved parties, directors, fellows, all the staff. She's put together the publications, helped with the logistics, deranged calls, lots of plates in the air for these last 18 months. So thank you Jennifer as well. And now it's time for graduation. So we'd like to recognize the cohort for 2012 who are completing their program at the conclusion of this meeting. And we look forward to tracking your continued contributions to our profession and look forward to welcoming many of you into our fold again in the coming years. So as I call your name, could you please stand? And someone will be handing you a certificate, hopefully standing nearby. And could I ask the rest of you to hold your applause until we reach the end of this long list? Are you ready? Scott Britton from University of Miami. Katherine Carpenter from University of Illinois at Chicago. John Cotter from Boston College Libraries. John Kalshaw from University of Colorado at Boulder. Jose Diaz from Ohio State University Libraries. Susan Fliss from Harvard College Library. Peggy Fry from Georgetown University Library. Jeff Garrett from Northwestern University Library. Heather Gendron from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Alicia Greenwood from University of British Columbia. Joseph Hapner from McGill University Library. Geneva Henry from Rice University. Joy Kirchner from University of British Columbia. Jay Lambrick from University of Illinois at Chicago. Sarah Leidley from University of Washington Libraries. Jonathan LeBreton from Temple University Libraries. Vivian Lewis from McMaster University Libraries. John Renault from University of Miami Libraries. Anne Campion Riley, University of Missouri at Columbia. Marianne Ryan from Northwestern University Libraries. David Seaman from Dartmouth College. Molly Tamraken from University Libraries. Jennifer Taxman from Dartmouth. Henshimo Wang from University of Cincinnati Library. Now can we give them all a round of applause? You can tell from just how many people we're standing that it truly takes a village to make this program happen. Truly wonderful. I'd now like to invite one of the fellows, Susan Fliss, the interim librarian of Harvard College Library, to share a couple reflections on her experience in the program. Thank you. I know that there are some tears in some of these eyes of my fellows here. I've been asked to speak to you briefly about our experience. But what I'd like to do is to bring to you the words of my fellow fellows about what this has meant to us. So to share our experiences with you, we've considered three questions. The first question is we were asked what one word or one phrase would categorize your experience. We said motivating, eye-opening, invigorating, enlightening, empowering, amazing, and aspiration booster, a new opportunity for self-awareness, the richest professional development experience of my career, a singular opportunity to reflect, revise, and reshape myself to better meet the needs of the 21st century research library. The last is this is like getting a second graduate degree, this time in university leadership. The second and third questions we asked ourselves are what experience session or speaker was the most meaningful to you, and what did you learn that will make an impact in your work on your career plans? We have four main themes in these responses. Access, access to library directors, and to the top university administrators, fundamental transformation, strategic planning, reorganizations. The third is the support network that has developed among the fellows, and the fourth is self-discovery. I'd like to share some quotes that illustrate these four themes. Access to library directors, how do we pick just one? So these are my colleagues' words. There were so many outstanding experiences. In some, I would say that the most meaningful was when we had one-on-one time with the current directors, whether at an institute, site visit, or ARL membership meeting. It was so inspiring to hear their stories, successes, and failures. And we'd like to thank you, those of you who are members here and who have hosted us in these last four meetings. One meeting host in particular was quite generous and shared with me her personal experience. I'll never forget that. It's important to have mentors along the way, people who are willing to let down their guard, share their mistakes, and remind you that the path to success isn't about perfection, but it's about taking risks. A reminder that you will find the path to success, but it's not about perfection, but about taking risks. A great leader will learn from her mistakes, not let them drag her down to a halt. I met a lot of compassionate, intelligent, and very tough people in the program. So a comment on access to top leadership. Hearing from the upper administration, presidents, vice chancellor, provost, and where they see the role of the library at the institution was very helpful, especially observing the relationships between the library dean and the people in those positions and then seeing or hearing about what each dean was able to accomplish and how. Fundamental transformation. Participation in the RLLF meetings, institutes, and site visits has provided broader perspective on change management and the different ways it can and has been done successfully. The exposure to different contexts and immersions in a variety of organizational environments was invaluable. For the value of our peers, we fellows also mentored each other along the way in mostly informal ways. There were a lot of serendipitous moments that became mentoring moments. The mentoring aspect wasn't always planned, but the fact that we were present as fellows in and of itself created an environment of informal mentoring throughout the program's lifetime and I'm sure beyond. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to build a network of peers who I can come and call and talk to about common issues, personal or professional. The transition from AUL to UL is a challenge and having peers to rely on will make it so much easier. And we've heard this from you, from all of you. And then the last is self-awareness. The overall experience of meeting with library and campus administrators underscored for me that we are all different and bring to the jobs we're in, our own diversity of strengths and weaknesses. No director in the program was just like another. I felt that with this simple observation, I could be myself and find my own place as leader. The word that, so these were the words of my colleagues, the word that I would choose to describe this experience is real. We've seen real challenges, real political situations. We've been able to see campus-wide strategic plans, library strategic plans, how they fit into that, what the intentions are, and then how things might have worked out. They might not have ended up in the final outcomes that you were looking for, but you ended up somewhere and you keep on going from there. We've benefited greatly from conversations with higher ed colleagues about the realities we will face as library directors and leaders. For this opportunity to step into your realities, we thank you. And in return for your efforts, our aim is for the ARL community to see the benefit of the RLLF experience in our work and our lives wherever they may take us. So the last quote that I'd like to give you is, I learned that ARL believes in the importance of effective leadership. The association cares deeply about the future of research libraries and the people who aspire to lead them. Thank you. Thank you, Susan. So to our member representatives, in February 2013, you will receive the call for applications for the next iteration of the program. And we look forward to engaging our new executive director in planning for that and there will be details obviously forthcoming. So once again, thank you for all for your contributions and making the experience such a rewarding one and one that will pay back certainly for all of us. Thank you for listening. Music was provided by Josh Woodward. For more talks from this meeting, please visit www.arl.org.