Lingo

Ohio’s first ILEAD USA was a multi-state immersive continuing education program that develops library leaders through projects based on community needs via the application of participatory technology tools. Ohio participants joined others from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, and Utah in this national initiative. ILEAD USA was funded by a Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program grant to the State Library of Illinois from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Myself, and a former CSCC colleague Julie Zaveloff, were selected as part of the initial group from Ohio. Our team was rounded out by other librarians from around the state:

• Kirstin Krumsee, State Library of Ohio
• Jessica Crossfield McIntosh, Otterbein University
• David Green, OhioNet

As part of the first in-person session in March, teams had only a few hours each evening to create short videos explaining their projects. [insert initial Lost In Translation video here]

Our team was called ‘Lost In Translation’, as our original idea for the project was to create a dictionary that would demystify library jargon… but we ended up designing a classification translation tool.

I’ve met some lifelong friends during this year. I’m sure we’ll meet again on a number of future projects. Project code is available on GitHub, although unmaintained.

We made a final pitch of the application to our local library administrations, participating organizations and partners, as well as to the State Library of Ohio Board.