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Biography
Currently, Nichole is a Branch Manager at the Oakland Public Library with over 20 years in the field of Librarianship, all of which as been in California. Although infamously known for After Dark shenanigans, Nichole also has a reputation for being a consistent provider of cutting-edge content during CLA conferences. Before mental health content was trending in our profession, she hosted a session focusing on Mental Health at CLA 2014 in Oakland, CA. The 2015 Spring Fling on the same topic sold out. This experience was just the beginning of her contributions to CLA. Nichole continues to contribute to CLA and participated in many roles. When not a librarian, she is a mom of three boys who stares at her eternally empty fridge, amazed at how much food they can eat so quickly.
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Candidate Statement
I understand behind every conference registration fee, training, spring fling, and dues bill paid, there is a library employee that worked hard for that dollar. They deserve to know how the money is spent and the resulting outcomes. As treasurer of CLA, it will be my job accurately record where your money goes within CLA and report back to you. Professionally the word for this is “transparency.” I prefer to quote 50-Cent, “if it don’t make dollars, then it don’t make sense.” Vote for me, so I can make your dollars make sense.
Questionaire
1. How do you define leadership?
Leadership is the ability to encourage and/or inspire a group of people to follow them towards a common goal.
I wish I could make leadership sound more complex or sophisticated, but it really isn’t. The ability to lead people doesn’t guarantee you are a good person. History and politics provide plenty of examples of
great leaders who are horrible people. So for good or bad, the ability inspires others to follow you is leadership. I am pleased to report that I aim to be someone who leads others to wonderful common goals.
2. Why
are you interested in this position?
Back in 2018, I had the opportunity to participate in the CLA Conference Planning committee requesting sponsorships. I was floored at the generosity of our sponsors! I felt like
Mo Willems’ pigeon, “ you’re giving me $10,000 just because I ASKED FOR IT?!
This experience sparked my curiosity beyond CLA sponsorships. I want to know where all the money comes from and where it goes. Your dues money.
Your CLA conference fees. Your spring fling registrations. So I told myself, “one day, I am going to serve on the CLA board and figure this out. Then I’ll tell everyone how it works.” One day is today.
3. How
would you describe your personal leadership/communication style?
What’s my communication style? I’m a casual communicator who aspires to T.H.I.N.K before I speak. I am very straightforward but never intentionally
mean. I am able to ask and answer hard questions and have uncomfortable conversations. This attribute is important for a treasurer because talking about money is never easy, and one must be willing to take on this role.
Thanks
to my neurodivergent brain, I do not know how to shut up when talking about something I am passionate about. When I get elected, if you ask me about CLA financials, prepare to sit awhile. Thankfully I am a pretty good storyteller,
so you’ll be entertained as I tell you about spreadsheets, fundraisers, and financial reports.
So what is my leadership style? My leadership style is based on the philosophy that a team’s leader is not necessarily their
supervisor. Based on that, I strive to abide by seven leadership principles:
1. Always perform your work with the best intentions. Good people follow good intentions, not necessarily the person leading the project.
2. Always be honest, even when you mess up. Most people prefer an imperfect, honest leader to a perfect liar.
3. Give others grace when they need help or make mistakes. Folks will ask for help and respect your opinion when you are kind and gracious when they are vulnerable.
4. Have fun. It doesn’t matter your idea of fun is dancing the night away or spending the night with a bestseller, hot cocoa, and a warm blanket. Everyone wants to know where the fun is located and will follow your lead if you can show them a good time.
5. Take care of yourself. Mentally, physically, and spiritually. People want leaders who are actively practicing self-love and self-care.
6. Eat the carbs, dye your hair, and get the tattoo. Most people want leaders who are authentically themselves. Embrace who you are without apology.
7. When life gets hard, play some gangsta rap and handle it. Yea, life gets hard. Leaders do the hard things anyway.
4. What strengths would you bring to the position?
I bring energy and the desire to work hard as your CLA treasurer. I love making sense of spreadsheets and balancing accounts. I bring new ideas, the willingness to ask questions, and the audacity to continue to ask them until I have the answers. I also love budgets and numbers. I have an entire Happy Planner binder dedicated to my household expenses. It’s filled with spreadsheets, books-themed, and budget-themed stickers. As a single mom of three, I know how to make a dollar out of 15 cents. I appreciate the complexities of being a non-profit, and although I am not a tax expert, I am willing to learn what is needed to keep CLA in compliance with state and federal tax codes.
5. What experience do you bring to this position?
Long years ago, when I was in high school, my first internship was with Safeway Co.'s cash accounting department. The accounting manager quickly learned I had a superpower: if you unlock the spreadsheet, I will find the money. I could never find Waldo, but I would always find that missing money buried under years of ignored spreadsheets. So the manager took advantage of my superpower and adjusted my responsibilities to their advantage. This experience whet my appetite for making dollars make sense.
Throughout college, I always found myself flourishing in accounting departments during my different jobs. I enjoyed writing the reports and creating spreadsheets based on ledgers and receipts. While in library school, I was an administrative assistant to a Controller who was responsible for administrating federal and state research contracts. It was in this position learned about different forms of funding and their stipulations, such as grants, fellowships, stipends, and donations. Again the reports I wrote in this position required I “make the dollars make sense.”
Because spreadsheet and accounting is something I love to do but not necessarily something I want to make money at ( I never enjoyed the annual stress of audit season, but I am always happy to stress out over summer reading), I have continued to balance checkbooks, manage accounts, and make money make sense over the years in many volunteer capacities.
6. What issues or trends are particularly informing your work at this time?
I cannot shout this loud enough: SOCIAL MEDIA IS HERE TO STAY, AND LIBRARIES NEED TO LEARN HOW TO USE IT!
Yes, we were thrown into the social media space during the 2020 COVID shutdowns, and many librarians quickly decided that the online space was not where they personally wanted to be. That’s fine. But libraries, as a profession, need to entrench ourselves into the social media space and take it seriously for the marketing and outreach tool it is. Professionally run social media spaces engage our audiences, promote services, and educate while providing entertainment.
I have taken courses on how to create a social media branch for my branch library. I am learning how to create a social media promotion plan and how to work with my employers' official Media Relations team to have quality content that they can be proud of and my community can enjoy. I look forward to the day when I can implement everything I have learned.
7. Who are the thought leaders (in libraries or in other fields) who interest you?
First and foremost Lavar Burton. He was the only Black man to read a book to me as a child. I will be ever grateful to him for planting a love of reading in me via the television set. Other thought leaders that have inspired my life are Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Mr. Wizard, Eartha Kitt, Cher, Ru Paul, and my mom(s). Yes, I have more than one mom. That’s a story for another day.
8. Who are the regional and statewide stakeholders libraries need to be in communication with?
I was raised in a church that promoted equality among its members. When I was a child, I would always hear the Senior Pastor say, “ there are no big “I’s” and little “u’s” in this membership.” The message he taught with this saying was: although we may have different roles to play in church, from Sr. Pastor to bathroom attendant, we are all equally important because we all have something important to contribute to the success of the church. So understanding this, exactly does one define stakeholder?
According to simplystakeholders.com a stakeholder is defined as: “any people or groups who are positively or negatively impacted by a project, initiative, policy or organization.” They could be internal (people within your organization) or external (people outside of your organization).”
So using this simple definition, and based on my childhood values, there are no big “I’s” and little “u’s” when it comes to stakeholders. We are all equally important because we all have something important to contribute to the success of the library.
Everyone in libraryland has the responsibility to communicate with stakeholders with whom they have direct contact—starting with the state librarian, who communicates with the governor, to the HR manager, who communicates with library staff, to the library circulation employee, who communicates with patrons.
Everybody is a stakeholder. Everybody needs to be heard.
9. What do you feel are the most critical challenges and opportunities facing California libraries right now?
Please indulge me a few moments while I climb up on my soapbox and clear my throat:
The most critical challenge facing California libraries right now are the high rates of workplace trauma. If you haven’t read the Urban Library Trauma Study, click on the link. You will not be surprised. It's just that a group of researchers took the time to quantify everything you already know. A librarian need not work in an urban library to relate to the findings. My rural librarian colleagues will read this study and start nodding like a bobblehead doll relating to so many of the situations mentioned.
The opportunity this challenge gives us is permission to stop!
I love my profession, but y’all! Unless you have an MSW and you have passed the state licensing boards, you are not a social worker! We, librarians, need to stop acting like we are defacto social workers and therapists and putting our mental and physical health in an unsafe space. We literally do not have the skills or resources to provide the most effective help to our most vulnerable populations; THAT IS OK! When we try (unsuccessfully) to perform the tasks we are not skilled to perform in addition to our traditional duties, we are contributing to our own stress and burnout.
Let’s stop and remember what the mission of our library is and the tasks our profession is called to do. Let’s stop trying to be something we are not and take pride in what we are.
We are information professionals. We provide a space and information resources for the public to explore personal passions. We provide information and literary resources for people who are dedicated and ambitious about their life goals. We provide information about resources to people in vulnerable circumstances so they can improve their conditions. And while we are doing all of this, some of us are also singing the slippery fish song to preschoolers, kicking a teenager's butt in Mariokart, and patiently helping a senior reset their Gmail password for the hundredth time.
As public librarians serve the community, academic librarians teach college students how to cite sources properly so their paper is not flagged in the professor's plagiarism software. They are also explaining to the Ph.D. candidate why they cannot do their research for them while rolling up their sleeves and teaching them how to find what they need.
School librarians are also supporting students as they reach their educational goals. They are creating library lesson plans that meet Common Core standards and seamlessly integrate with a fellow teacher's learning module. Instead of taking much-needed bathroom breaks, they are allowing a kid without a public library card to read their favorite book in the school library during lunch and recess.
While all of this activity is happening on the outside, a Prison Librarian is providing inmates copies of legal forms so they can actively participate in their defense. They do this while hosting a book club for emerging adult readers and supervising inmate staff, allowing them to develop marketable skills and obtain employment upon release.
We do all of this and more. Most importantly, this is what we are good at. We love what we do because our profession matters. We are librarians, and we are more than enough.
Thank you for your indulgence
( climbing off my soapbox now)
10. Describe your experience serving on Association committees and/or interest groups.
I have experience serving in the CLA in the following capacities:
● CLA Begun Award - multiple years nonconsecutive
● John and Patricia Beatty Award and Tea/Breakfast - multiple years nonconsecutive
● Conference Planning Committee 2018
● Youth Services Interest Group chairperson - current appointment. Served since 2020 as vice-chairperson.
11. Describe your network of connections with library professionals and library stakeholders in California.
I don't have a “network of connections” with “library stakeholders.” I am not that important. I am a front-line, boots-on-the-ground, in-the-trenches public librarian that provides stellar service to the community while contributing to the professional association I love. I have partners, colleagues, mentors, collaborators, library supporters, and, best of all, friends. I couldn’t begin to describe all of these because it would take a million lifetimes to do them justice.
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