The American Library Association (ALA) has selected Vidhya Jagannathan of the Cobb County Public Library to participate in its 2023 class of Emerging Leaders (EL). The EL program is designed to enable library staff and information workers to participate in project planning work groups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA structure, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity early in their careers.

Jagannathan is a Senior Library Assistant who manages the makerspace at the North Cobb Regional Library. She is pursuing her Masters in Library Information Science from the University of Florida. She has a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Madras, India, and an Early Childhood Teaching Certificate from Western Governors University.

The Emerging Leaders program will kick off with a virtual day-long session during the ALA LibLearnX: The  Library Learning Experience (LibLearnX) virtual event. Participants will continue in an online learning and networking environment for six months. The EL program culminates with a poster session where the Emerging Leaders will highlight the results of their project planning work during the ALA 2023 Annual Conference in Chicago in June.

Christina Fuller-Gregory and Libby Holtmann, co-chairs of the Emerging Leaders program, look forward to working with this most recent cohort of talented and committed early career leaders who are eager to pursue leadership opportunities in the Association. Fuller-Gregory stated “for the first time since 2019, we are excited to have Emerging Leaders come together for both LibLearnX and ALA Annual. We recognize the important connections that are nurtured through these in-person opportunities, and we look forward to welcoming the EL Class of 2023.”

The 2023 class of Emerging Leaders consists of 46 people from across the United States and Canada. They are from public, school, academic, and special libraries. This year, 83 percent have received scholarships. Jagannathan is sponsored by Public Library Association (PLA) of the ALA. Each sponsor commits to financial support of an Emerging Leader to help defray costs of attending LibLearnX and the ALA Annual Conference.

Jaganathan is passionate about innovation at work and community collaboration and consciously plans and implements library programs that support equity, diversity, and inclusion, and is enthusiastic about non-traditional library services, she said. She has been a member of the Cobb library system staff for five years.

For information on the ALA Emerging Leaders program, visit www.ala.org/educationcareers/leadership/emergingleaders.