USF librarian chosen for national program

A library specialist with University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee has been selected for the American Library Association’s Emerging Leaders program.

Only 50 applicants are chosen annually for the distinguished year-long appointment. This year, Jessica Szempruch, was one of those selected.

“That participation is from across the nation, so I was quite thrilled and honored,” Szempruch said in a statement. “It will provide me an opportunity to work with up and coming library leaders nationally.”

Szempruch applied to join the Emerging Leaders Program in July and received help in the form of support letters from Diane Fulkerson, director of library services at USFSM, and USFSM Associate Professor of English Valerie Lipscomb.

Szempruch will travel to Atlanta in January for a convention where she’ll be assigned to a committee to research a topic of importance to the association. Later, at a convention in Chicago, she’ll be expected to present a poster and discuss her findings.

Szempruch joined USFSM’s library and information center staff in January. Previously, she worked at USFSM’s facility in Northport.

This story was originally published October 24, 2016 at 4:56 PM with the headline "USF librarian chosen for national program."