Sarah McHone-Chase, IACRL Vice President/President Elect

Sarah McHone-Chase, Northern Illinois University

Statement of Concern 

I am excited to be a nominee for Vice-President/President-Elect of IACRL. I am the Head of User Services and Associate Professor at Northern Illinois University, where I have been for 16 years. I have lived and worked in Illinois my entire life; I feel particular affinity for our institutions, including our universities and libraries, and I feel invested in their success. I am interested in exploring ways for our libraries to support one another and improve services for our users. I think that we are stronger together and I want to contribute to that effort. I especially want to identify and encourage opportunities for academic libraries to collaborate and learn from one another.

I am a long-time member of ILA and IACRL. I served on the ILA Reporter Advisory Committee from 2016-2020. Most recently, I am serving on IACRL’s Conference and Continuing Education Committee and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. I have served on the RAILS Board, and I served on and chaired several CARLI committees. I am the current Chair of ALA RUSA STARS, the section that addresses Resource Sharing. I am also the current Secretary of the Executive Board of my university’s union. In all of this service, I have focused on how best to support the organization, the work of the committee, and how to communicate clearly and carry out tasks efficiently. My all-over concern is considering the needs of the end-user, whether that user be a library patron, other library workers, or my own colleagues. I truly value service and I am grateful for opportunities to serve.

I sincerely appreciate IACRL for the opportunities I have had to work with my colleagues across the state on issues that affect our libraries and our patrons. If elected, I would like to continue working on fostering those opportunities for others. I think the leadership of IACRL has been strong in the past and I would like to build upon that success. Recently, we have seen several issues strongly impact the profession, such as Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility concerns, the effects of COVID, and the mass resignation movement. I would like to explore the effects that these and other issues are having on our libraries and library workers and investigate ways that we can support each other. When we unite our efforts, we can deliver great things! I would like to be a part of that effort.  

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