Dara Bradds, Escondido Public Library
Candidate for President Elect
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Candidates for President-Elect Candidates for Treasurer Candidates for Director At-large (3 positions open) Candidate for Student Representative Candiate for ALA Chapter Councilor
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Candidate Statement
My name is Dara Bradds and I’ve been a member of CLA since 2019 when I moved to this beautiful state. I was inspired by my first CLA Conference and excited to get to know all of you when COVID kept us from meeting in person the following year. As a new Director, I was busy navigating new waters in librarianship and trying to keep staff morale up. Now that is behind us, and I am ready to dive into an elected role with CLA. I’m writing to express my interest in running for the position of President-Elect.
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I’ve been a Director at Escondido Public Library for three years where I have the privilege to lead a dynamic and talented team. During my time in Escondido, we have increased our digital offerings by 30%, improved our library campus with a mural and fitness center, gone fine-free, and completed our five-year strategic plan. We also navigated COVID by offering virtual programs and curbside pick-up, while navigating the constantly changing County mandates.
I’m excited by the idea of working in a leadership position for CLA. I want a chance to get to know my California Library colleagues while serving them in a role where I can offer support, challenge myself, and contribute to this organization
Questionaire :1. I think of leadership as coaching a team. Each team member has a unique set of strengths. It is the leader’s responsibility to encourage each team member to use their strengths as it benefits the team to create a positive work environment that allows for the team and its members to grow, improve, and meet the needs of their library community. This requires flexibility to adjust to changes in the organization while helping employees meet their own career goals through mentoring and connecting staff to new opportunities that provide growth.
2. I formerly served as the Membership Chair and Conference Co-Chair for the New Hampshire Library Association. In these roles, I learned a lot about the diverse ways many different libraries in the state-operated to best serve their communities. This helped me bring new ideas to my library, instigating change and growth in how we served our community locally. Change and growth are important for libraries, as communities are in a constant state of dynamic flux. COVID accelerated a lot of change in a very short time, which I experienced first-hand as the Director of the Escondido Public Library; a position I started six months prior to the start of COVID. With so many changes and unknowns, library services were and continue to be affected. Going forward, I want to be an active part of the conversations statewide for my library and to participate with other library professionals to navigate the future together.
3. I have a very collaborative leadership style. I sincerely believe that everyone has a unique perspective based on their own personal and professional experiences. I like to hear as many points of view as possible when determining an approach for services, programs, or initiatives that our library is spearheading or participating in.
4. While I have strong research and grant writing skills, my greatest strength is a combination of empathy and understanding that I l developed on the job. Working with the public requires an open mind because learning about another person’s experiences that you may not be able to fully understand, requires kind, active listening without judgment, in order to best assess what resources will help them with what they are requesting. Over the years, I think that I have become a better version of myself because of all of the people that I have worked with or helped in some way over the years.
5. I have worked in several different types of libraries, in multiple states over the past 20+ years. While the bulk of my experience has been in public libraries, I have also worked in archives, special collections, and academic libraries in Ohio and New Hampshire. Having graduated from Kent State with my MLIS in 1999, I am always interested in continuing my education to stay current with library trends. I have participated in ALA Bootcamp to learn how to be a better advocate for libraries, attended Harwood training to learn how to better evaluate community needs, and as I mentioned above I was an active member of the New Hampshire Library Association.
6. Bouncing back from COVID-19 has definitely created a trend of offering a more diverse array of programs in a variety of formats and is causing many librarians like myself to wonder which library services that resulted from the pandemic will become permanent offerings. Trends that seem to thrive in our new landscape include shifting more areas of the library to be spaces for individuals working remotely, offering programs in hybrid virtual/in-person formats, and shifting to more sustainable environmental practices and programs
7. Mother Teresa has always stood out to me as a remarkable leader. A five feet nothing nun that was able to broker a cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerillas to travel through a war zone with the Red Cross to save 37 children got my attention at a young age. While I hold helping others in high regard, I can hardly imagine sacrificing a life of comfort to the extent that she did. After she passed, her memoirs were released surrounded by controversy because people felt she would not want them to read. However, reading them was reassuring to me because she questioned her faith and choices, like many of us do and she pushed forward anyway.
8. The most important stakeholder is the community we serve, and all other stakeholders involved in the library’s strategic focus also work in service to the community. Libraries must work directly with a municipal or county governing body (stakeholders in their own right) to respond to community wants and needs. Trustees, foundations, and Friends groups are yet more stakeholders that work in concert with each other and library staff to be ambassadors for the library to the community. It is important to network with other libraries in our cooperatives and close geographic areas, as well as libraries throughout the state, to discuss common threads and solutions for communicating to our stakeholders, as we share similarities. The State Library, and professional state and national organizations are also key stakeholders in the direction of librarianship as a whole.
9. I served as a membership chair for the New Hampshire Library Association, and also as a co-chair on the NHLA 2016 and 2018 conference committees. I am also a member of ALA and PLA.
10. My network of connections with library professionals exists through the SERRA cooperative, participation in CSL Director Meetings, and LS&S Directors.
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