Vice Chair/Chair Elect
Katherine Ott
Katherine Ott is currently the Head of Access and Information Services at the Clayton State University Library. She graduated from Texas Woman’s University with her M. L. S. in 1999 and earned her M. S. Education from Northeastern State University in 2004. She served on national and state committees including ACRL EBBS, RUSA MARS and Georgia’s BIG. Her Georgia activities include COMO, GCILiteracy, BIG, GOLD, and GLA Midwinter. She is currently active on the BIG Board and the GLA Handbook committee. Her interest lies in customer service with an emphasis on delivering services where the students want it.
Elijah Scott
Elijah Scott currently serves as Director of Libraries at Georgia Highlands College in Rome, GA. His previous academic experience includes positions as Coordinator of Reference Services at Chattanooga State Community College, Coordinator of Reference Services at Georgia College & State University, and also Information Organization Librarian at GC&SU. Mr. Scott holds a BA in English, History & Political Science from Cumberland College; the MS in Information Science from the University of Tennessee; and the MA in English from Georgia College & State University. Mr. Scott also currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Catoosa County Public Library Board of Trustees.
Mr. Scott is the third generation librarian in his family, following the sensibly clad footsteps of his grandmother, who was an elementary school librarian, and his mother, who worked in both community college and public libraries. He and his wife, Nicole, and their ever-smiling Samoyed, Sasha, reside near Ringgold, GA. When not working together with Nicole on their garden, he can most likely be found driving or restoring a vintage Imperial automobile.
ACRL Representative
Ruby Cross
Rubye Cross is the Periodicals Librarian for the Collection Acquisitions Management Department at Georgia Institute of Technology, and enjoys the challenges presented in serials management. She has over 23 years of library experience, including 7 years in public libraries and 16 years in academic libraries. She has worked in both technical services and public services. Rubye currently is responsible for ordering and receiving serials in print, oversight of any needed binding of all library materials, and maintains the Current Periodicals stacks. In addition to her other duties, Rubye is also a member of NASIG, serves on the ALA ACRL University Libraries Section Committee (Membership), the GLA Membership Committee, and was the Secretary of the Technical Services Interest Group for GLA in 2008.
Amy Eklund
Amy Eklund, a native Georgian, holds a bachelor of music degree from Southern Methodist University and a master of library science degree from University of North Texas. Prior to obtaining her MLS, she was Manager and Librarian for the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestras and Library Assistant for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. While obtaining her MLS, she was awarded a research assistantship for the MARC Content Designation Utilization: Inquiry and Analysis project. She also worked as a manuscripts cataloger at Southern Methodist University’s DeGolyer Library. Since 2006, she has held the position of Catalog Librarian at Georgia Perimeter College (GPC). She also volunteers in chat reference and social networking for the GPC libraries, and serves on the libraries' committees on social networking and distance learning as well as the college-wide Faculty Senate.
Amy has given two presentations at GaCOMO, and is currently preparing her second invited ALA presentation and paper, "Research on the Next-Generation Catalog", for the June 2010 annual conference. Her article "Comparison of MARC Content Designation Utilization in OCLC WorldCat Records with National, Core, and Minimal Level Standards" was published in the Journal of Library Metadata in 2009. Amy has been a member of GLA since 2006, and has been active in the organization, serving as Secretary of the Technical Services Interest Group for the past two years, and as a member of the Georgia Student Media Festival committee for the past three years.
Lorene Flanders
E. Lorene Flanders serves as Professor and Dean of Libraries at the University of West Georgia, where she was appointed in 2005. She is a member of the Association of College & Research Libraries and the American Library Association, and served on ALA’s Emerging Leaders Selection Committee in 2006 and 2007. A member of the Library Administration & Management Association, she served as the mentor for the 2006-2007 ALA/LAMA Emerging Leader project “Millenials in the Workplace.” She currently chairs the Academic Library Division of Georgia Library Association, and has previously chaired the Awards Committee and served on the Scholarship Committee. She is a member of Southeastern Library Association, the University System of Georgia’s Regents Academic Committee on Libraries, and the Library Council of the Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education. She chairs the 2010 Southern Books Competition committee of SELA and serves on the Membership & Mentoring and Resolutions committees.
She holds the A.B. from Wesleyan College, the M.Ln. from the University of South Carolina, and the M.A. in History from Georgia College. She co-founded the Bibliographic Instruction Group of Georgia: Eastern Region (BIGGER) in 1994 while at Georgia College & State University, where she served as Instruction Librarian, Associate Director for Instruction & Reference Services, and Associate University Librarian from 1989 to 2005, prior to her appointment at the University of West Georgia.
Andrea Heisel
Andrea Heisel is the Associate College Librarian at Oxford College of Emory University. She received her MLIS from Florida State University in 2005 and graduated Summa Cum Laude. In 2001, she was named one of the GLA’s Paraprofessionals of the Year, and she also was the 2003 recipient of the Hubbard Scholarship. Andrea’s areas of research include not only library management and leadership but also best practices in library instruction and user services. In March 2008, she co-authored, with Dr. Nitya Jacob, the article “A Faculty-Librarian Collaboration Partnership for Investigative Learning in the Introductory Biology Laboratory” in the Journal of College Science Teaching.
As a GLA member, Andrea has served as the Vice-Chair and Chair of the Paraprofessional Division. If elected as the ACRL representative, Andrea will proudly represent GLA and communicate clearly and effectively with its members. She is looking forward to serving GLA in this capacity and having the opportunity to pay back all that this organization has provided her.
Rita Spisak
Rita Spisak has worked as a library assistant and a librarian at the Horace W. Sturgis Library at Kennesaw State University for twenty-five years. She has worked in the serials & circulation departments. Presently, she is an instructional, reference, and outreach librarian. Rita chairs the KSU Sturgis Friends of the Library and she represents the Sturgis librarians on the KSU campus-wide Faculty Library Committee.
Acquiring items for the Difazio Children’s Collection and the Robert B. Williams Teen Literature Collection in collaboration with the Bagwell College of Education is another one of her tasks. She has partnered with the KSU Bentley Rare Books curator to present at the KSU Children’s and Young Adult Literature Conference and in a NASA outreach program at a local public library.
In the past she has served as the KSU Staff Council Chair and the founding Chair of the Programming Committee of the KSU EXCEL Staff Leadership Program and of the KSU Take Your Child to Work Day. She has served as the GLA Vice-Chair of the Circulation and Access Services Interest Group and as a member of the GLA Scholarship and Awards Committees. Her COMO presentations include the topics of Friends Groups and Circulation. Currently, she is a member of the GLA Membership Committee.
Secretary
Chris Carroll
Chris Carroll has served as the Circulation Manager at University of West Georgia’s Ingram Library since 2004. He graduated this past December from Valdosta State University with an MLIS, and also holds a B.A. in English from UWG. In 2009, he served as the Chair of the Circulation/Access Services Interest Group in GLA, and presented at COMO in 2009 as well. His immediate goal is to find a librarian position in the state.
At UWG, he has served on several campus and library committees, and is now serving on the Library Renovation Committee as Ingram Library undergoes an $8 million renovation. In Circulation, he supervises six regular employees and two graduate assistants.
He lives in Carrollton with his wife Lisa and two children, Peyton, age 8, and Lindsay, age 16.
Charlene Gross
I am pleased to be considered for the position of Secretary for GLA’s Academic Division. Although I am still seeking a full-time position in academic librarianship, I feel it’s a good time to get significantly involved with GLA by serving on a committee.
I received my MLIS from Florida State University August, 2008. In 2005, as a student, I became a member of GLA and looked forward to opportunities after graduation. I have benefited and learned so much simply by being a member. After my internship at Georgia State University, under Leslie Madden, I looked for ways to connect with more librarians in the area. I got involved with Atlanta Emerging Librarians since its beginning and served on the AEL Planning Committee in 2009. I was selected to participate in ALA’s Emerging Leaders Program, 2010 Cohort and am currently completing my group’s project for CALM (Joint Committee on Archives, Libraries, and Museums). Each group will present in a poster session at ALA’s Annual Conference in June. I have had the privilege of serving as our group’s Team Facilitator using my strengths in communication, facilitation, and project management.
As I continue to learn and grow in my library work as a circulation assistant at SCAD-Atlanta, I am eager to make a contribution for others through GLA. I also welcome the reward of working with other colleagues across the state in whatever ways possible.
Tessa Minchew
Tessa Minchew began working in academic libraries in 2001, as Documents Cataloging Specialist at the University of Southern Mississippi. She received her MLIS from USM in August of 2003 and began her professional career as Catalog Librarian at Georgia Perimeter College in January of 2004. In August of 2006 she moved into the position of Systems/Catalog Librarian at GPC. She feels privileged to have held several offices in the GLA Technical Services Interest Group and to be currently serving as Chair of the GLA Interest Group Council. Tessa likes long walks in the stacks, amusing LCSH typos (e.g, Angelo-Saxon poetry), and taking copious and thorough notes.
Yadira Payne
Yadira V. Payne has served as Reese Library’s Government Documents Librarian since 2007. She earned her B.A. in Spanish & Cultural Diversity from Augusta State University; her master in library science and information technology from Drexel University in 2007 through their distance education program. A Puerto-Rican Army “Brat”, she grew up in Europe and Japan and has developed a sense of thinking outside of the box and never shies away from a challenge.
Yadira has served on the GLA Handbook Committee and the Government Documents Interest Group (GDIG) since 2008. She is the current chair of the GDIG. Other service to the profession and her home community include serving as the Central Savannah River Area Library Association Vice-President (2008-Current), the Friends of Columbia County Libraries Newsletter Editor (2005-2007), reference book reviewer for Feminist Collections Quarterly (2008-current) through her membership in the ALA ACRL Women’s Studies Section. She is a member of GLA, ALA, ACRL, GODORT, and CSRA-LA. She is also very active with her campus community most specifically with the Women’s Studies and Foreign Language departments as well as the Lyceum Committee and various arts projects.
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