Receiving a NCNMLG Professional Development Grant for 2025-2026 enabled me to enroll in a Library Juice Academy course called “Leadership Essentials,” offered in January of this year. I had had my eye on the course for some time, and I would like to thank the NCNMLG for giving me the chance to finally seize this opportunity. While I do not supervise anyone in my current role, I have been called on to lead in less formal ways (e.g., chairing committees, serving as an officer in NCMLG and elsewhere, mentoring new librarians, etc.) and thought the course might help me feel more confident taking on these roles by providing instruction in the basics.

Library Juice Academy’s “Leadership Essentials,” taught by Cinthya Ippoliti, University Librarian and Director of the Auraria Library, is an asynchronous online course in which students can “explore who [they] want to be as a leader and leverage leadership models to help [them] apply this content to a broader institutional context.” Over the course of four weeks, we learned about various leadership theories, models, and approaches, with an emphasis on inclusiveness. We were asked to think about specific situations in our own libraries and how what we were learning might be applied in those situations in our weekly reflections and class discussions. I appreciated the highly reflective nature of the course, as well as the opportunity to discuss issues with the other students, many of whom have far more leadership experience than I do. While I wish that we were able to have some of these discussions in real time, the asynchronous nature of the course allowed the other students and I to fit our learning into our busy schedules. The readings, assignments, and discussions gave me a starting point for my own, individual exploration of this important topic and skillset.

All in all, I am glad I was able to complete this short, asynchronous online course on leadership basics and encourage other NCMLG members who are, perhaps, unable to travel to a conference but still wish to engage in professional development to remember that the grant can be used for courses like “Leadership Essentials.”

– Submitted by Elena Azadbakht, Health Sciences & Evidence Synthesis Librarian, University of Nevada, Reno