Alumni Spotlight: Cindy Boyden
M.L.I.S., '13
Senior Program Officer, U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
“The relationships I was fortunate enough to develop with my professors has proven invaluable. I remain in close contact with many to this day, and consider one professor in particular, Dr. Miriam Matteson, a close friend and mentor. She and I connected over in-person courses, common interests and eventually went on to submit a few academic papers and a book chapter together.”
COURSEWORK & RESEARCH
Cindy had an excellent experience with her professors at the iSchool, especially Dr. Miriam Matteson and Dr. Nancy Lensenmayer. Dr. Matteson continues to serve as a mentor and she really enjoyed her coursework, but her most memorable course was Indexing and Abstracting with Dr. Nancy Lensenmayer. Not only did the course allow her to creatively think, she felt it taught her to pay attention to the detail and get into the mindset of a cataloger. One of her favorite final projects was connecting certain aspects of Alfred Hitchcock films.
INTERNSHIPS
Cindy’s Culminating Experience was working in Government Docs at the State Library of Ohio, which not only helped to prepare her to think about how to work effectively with government docs, it helped to prepare her for her position at the State Library of Ohio.
“That internship allowed me to establish relationships with the folks at the State Library of Ohio; who knew that a few years later, I would be among their ranks?”
AWARDS & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Cindy was part of the Ohio ILEAD-USA program, both as a cohort member and later, as a steering committee member. This biennial (formerly bi-annual) program is an immersive program that facilitates library leadership skills and teaches librarians to use emerging technologies to solve a problem in their community. Over a 9-month period, teams of librarians work together to develop a project that will then be used as an ongoing library program or used as inspiration for a future project. As a cohort member, Cindy found this program to be transformative: “I broke out of my comfort zone and formed what I know will be life-long friendships among my fellow cohort members…, “ she said. This was true as a steering committee member as well. She said the program fostered “...trust, education, support, and leadership in a ‘safe space.’”
LIFE AFTER KSU iSCHOOL
After graduation, Cindy was hired to direct strategic planning for the State Library of Ohio. She spent much of her time visiting libraries, meeting with staff, assessing their community needs, and providing feedback that offered opportunities for improvement in the future.
Prior to leaving the State Library of Ohio position, she managed Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds received from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). These funds are designated to be used as grant funds to support Ohio’s libraries, museums, archives, cultural institutions, and organizations with similar missions. In this role, Cindy mentored grant applicants, reviewed grant drafts and final submissions of proposals, forecasted budget documents, confirmed state and federal grant guideline adherence, provided grant-writing training to potential applicants, and supported the State Library of Ohio in its mission to ensure a Smarter Ohio.
In her new position as Senior Program Officer for IMLS, Cindy is one of three senior program officers who are responsible for a portfolio of twenty State Library Administrative Agencies (SLAAs) that receive federal funding for libraries on a formula basis (CO, FL, GA, IL, KS, KY, MA, NE, NV, ND, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, and WY). Funding for these grants supports the purposes outlined by LSTA. Cindy will be the primary contact for these states in helping them administer their federal funding and responsible for reading and accepting their annual reports, five-year plans, and five-year evaluations. She will also conduct a site visit to each of the 20 states once every five years to help IMLS with monitoring and compliance efforts related to federal funding for LSTA. In addition, Cindy will work with the larger Grants to States team to plan annual training events for the states as well as serve on other agency-wide teams and as a point person for various initiatives on an ad hoc basis.
ADVICE FOR CURRENT STUDENTS
Cindy suggests that students take the time to get to know people, because your classmates are the people that“...you will be working with, competing for jobs with, seeing at conferences, sitting on committees with for the rest of your career….Make connections,” she recommends.
CONNECT
Cindy is open to receiving and answering questions from current iSchool students via email. Please reach out to ischool@kent.edu to obtain Cindy’s email address.
Photo: Courtesy of Cindy Boyden