Author Archives: Christa Porter

All Nebraska public libraries are members of United for Libraries through the Statewide Group Membership purchased by the Nebraska Library Commission. The Commission provides this membership to ensure that public library staff members, Friends, Trustees, and Foundations can take advantage of United for Libraries’ services to enhance fundraising, advocacy, and public awareness.

United for Libraries’ monthly virtual series, Learning Live, will continue on Tues., Feb. 8 at 12:00 noon Mountain Time/ 1 p.m. Central Time / 2 p.m. Eastern Time with “Cybersecurity: What Your Friends, Foundation, and Library Need to Know“.

The Learning Live program is presented free to United for Libraries group, personal, and Statewide Group Members (MA, MD, MI, NE, SC, SD, TX). Statewide Training Partners (CO, MT, ND, NH, OR, VA) receive live participation and/or 30 days of on demand viewing.

To register for the February Learning Live session, click here.

In October 2021, the Toledo Lucas County Public Library (TLCPL) experienced a cyber security attack. Prior to this incident, the library maintained robust safeguards against threats, but still a threat actor was able to infiltrate their systems, forcing a systemwide shutdown of the entire technology infrastructure. During this presentation, TLCPL Executive Director Jason Kucsma and TLCPL Director of Operations Mike Graybeal will share their experiences and lessons learned to hopefully help your organization better protect itself from a similar situation. Also presenting will be cyber security experts Nathan Little and David Kruse of Tetra Defense.

Jason Kucsma’s 13 years of leadership in libraries comes after nearly a decade leading a nonprofit independent media organization and publishing an internationally distributed politics and culture magazine while living in Northwest Ohio. Kucsma is a born-and-raised Ohioan who earned his bachelor’s degree in Communication and master’s degree in American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University. He earned his master’s degree in Library and Information Science at the University of Arizona before moving to New York City to work with public, academic, school, and special libraries as Executive Director of the Metropolitan New York Library Council. Kucsma returned to Ohio in 2015 to assume the role of Deputy Director at Toledo Lucas County Public Library. He was appointed Executive Director in August 2019 where he helms a leadership team and staff of nearly 400 employees providing world-class library services to the diverse communities of Lucas County. His work in libraries is informed and driven by his dedication to the role public libraries play in building strong communities through equitable access to information and technology—and the expertise library staff bring to help navigate both.

Mike Graybeal is the Director of Operations/Deputy Fiscal Officer at the Toledo Lucas County Public Library. Mike is on the Executive Leadership Team and leads the Operations teams which consist of the Finance, Facilities & Operations, IT, and Public Safety departments. Mike joined the Library in 2019 where he took project lead in the midst two major capital projects, one of which won two AIA awards in 2020 and 2021. Mike has been featured in Library Journal for COVID mitigation strategies, helped financially steer the Library through challenges brought on by the pandemic and has pulled together a legal and compliance team to mitigate risk for the Library. Prior to the Library, he was on the Executive Leadership team at the Toledo Museum of Art, where he oversaw all Facility operations on it’s 36 acre campus. Mike is a LEED Green Associate, CPIM certified (Center for Public Investment Management), has a degree in Civil Engineering from Wayne State University and is now pursuing his MBA at Bowling Green State University.

Nathan Little is Senior Vice President of Digital Forensics & Incident Response at Tetra Defense. He leads the Digital Forensics and Incident Response team at Tetra Defense, specializing in containing ongoing incidents, finding their root cause, and determining the exact actions of malware and threat actors. Some of the most common cases Nathan’s team encounters are related to ransomware, business email compromise, financial data theft, insider threat investigations, wire transfer fraud, and more.

David Kruse is Director, Strategic Client Services at Tetra Defense. He has spent the lion’s share of his career helping organizations of all sizes understand, manage, and transfer their cyber risk. At Tetra Defense, David works daily with executive teams as they recover from severe ransomware attacks and begin to plan for future security posture improvements. As a thought-leader in the cyber insurance community, he also helps connect insurance carriers and brokers with the best cybersecurity resources available. In a prior role, David served as the Cyber Practice Leader for the Hausmann Group, a Midwest-based insurance and risk management firm.

United for Libraries Learning Live sessions take place on the fourth Tuesday of each month at 12:00 noon Mountain Time/ 1 p.m. Central Time / 2 p.m. Eastern Time. Each month’s session will cover a hot topic of interest to Trustees, Friends and/or Foundations, followed by a Q&A and/or discussions. Sessions are open to all personal and group members of United for Libraries.

United for Libraries: The Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations, is a division of the American Library Association with approximately 4,000 personal and group members representing hundreds of thousands of library supporters. United for Libraries supports those who govern, promote, advocate, and fundraise for libraries, and brings together library trustees, advocates, friends, and foundations into a partnership that creates a powerful force for libraries in the 21st century. For more information, visit www.ala.org/united/ or call 312-280-2160.