ALA Student Chapter at Simmons College

Wednesday, February 7th
6 PM, Beatley Library, L428
"Life After GSLIS: Librarian for 'LibraryThing'"
Abby Blachly, Librarian for "LibraryThing", will demonstrate some of the
functions of this online catalog-your-own-collection phenomenon, and will also
talk about what she does for a living. Blachly earned her MS in LIS and MA in
History at Simmons. Visit Blachly's LibraryThing profile and peruse her
bookshelves .

Tuesday, February 13th
5:15 PM - 6 PM, GSLIS Student Lounge
ALA Student Chapter General Meeting

Thursday, February 15th
12:30 PM - 1:15 PM, GSLIS Student Lounge
ALA Student Chapter General Meeting

Monday, February 26th
6 PM, Faculty/Staff Room next to the Fens Cafe
"On the Library Crimes Beat"
A reporter for the Hartford Courant, Kim Martineau's recent assignments have
included coverage of the E. Forbes Smiley map theft case and other
library-related crimes. Join us to hear Martinueau share her experiences and
for a discussion with Simmons students about what can be learned from such
events. A link to one of Martineau's recent articles.

Posted by Joshua Turner Jackson at 08:31 PM | Permalink

The ALASC @ Simmons now has a Flickr page (joining the esteemed ranks of ASIS&T and SCoSAA). Representatives from Simmons student groups met & welcomed new spring semester students yesterday afternoon and we're looking forward to several events & general meetings in February.

Welcome back to class!

Posted by Melissa Brumsted at 07:32 PM | Permalink

1) So, I enter the exhibition and hear a distinctive voice that I know I’ve heard before from around the corner. Where have I heard that voice before? I turn the corner to look and her face doesn’t seem familiar. Why should it? It’s every grammar geek’s favorite disembodied voice: podcaster Grammer Girl! If you don’t know about Grammar Girl, check her quick and dirty podcasts (they tend to run only about 2 minutes) on all sorts of topics that may help with your writing and also student writing (if you’re in a school library).

2) So after taking pics of G.G. to wow Melissa, I walk down another aisle and someone wants to give me another free book. All right, that’s how this works, but part of the deal is having the author autograph it. Who’s that dude with the book on Vista? David Pogue! Wow, this is a like a who’s who of how Amy is using RSS.

3) Now, you might not be as excited as I am right now but I’m feeling pretty good about these exhibits. Chatting people up, learning tips from Grammar Girl, getting free books, when whose glistening head and Canadian accent are coming from down the aisle? Stephen Abram! He had some interesting things to say about web 2.0 stuff and the OPAC (If you haven’t had a chance to hear him speak, check out a video of him online; he’s really dynamic even if he has an agenda.) And just for fun he showed himself as a Simpson’s character, which you can do too, here.

4) The folks at School Library Journal who are giving away free year-long subscriptions for library students. They gave me tons of fliers to bring back. So if you want a free subscription, email me at amysprung@gmail.com and I can drop the form in your locker/file for you. I think it’s a new promotion for them, so let’s encourage free stuff for students!

5) Gordon from Sesame Street gave us a copy of his autobiography and signed it. A fun fact, and I hope I’ve got this right: According to Stephen Abram, in a study of 1000 autobiographies, 85% mentioned a positive experience with a librarian. He used this to highlight the importance of human interaction in libraries and how service is the really the cornerstone of what we do. It was a nice way of putting things in perspective. Kind of like what my mom was writing about getting a deeper understanding of the reference interview.

Posted by Amy Sprung at 07:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Going into the conference I knew it would be pretty safe to say that a big focus of conversations was going to be Web 2.0. Obviously. But the buzzword (killer app?) for the weekend was SecondLife. Librarians are obsessed with SecondLife. I practically couldn’t enter a room without there being a mention of it. While I was at a new members event someone joked to me, “I don’t see this catching on with any young adults or college students I work with; I think it might just be something librarians are really excited about. I bet pretty soon everyone will have moved on and SecondLife will be swarming with lonely librarians.” (I might live to regret having written that in a few years. I can’t help but think of my boyfriend’s undergrad thesis on the Internet in the New Millennium that he wrote in 2000. Edgy for its day.)
But what was particularly interesting to me was the resistance to figuring out what it was all about and trying it out. (And don’t get me wrong; there are some folks who are really paving the way here and getting their hands dirty, otherwise there wouldn’t be libraries in SecondLife for adults and teens.) Sure we can talk about it in meetings and get kinda hushed and think what is the future coming to, but maybe attending some of the multitude of meetings that actually teach you how to use Web 2.0 technologies would be really useful. The number of times I heard SecondSpace or MyFace or FaceSpace mentioned by meeting participants was ridiculous. (I wonder if they know what mashups are and are just trying to take it to the next level?) Sure, mistakes are great for learning, but it’s also clear folks are missing some great learning opportunities if they aren’t attending some demystifying sessions.
It makes me a bit nervous for when I’m out of library school and not getting updates on the latest technology. I’m seeing the value in a professional org like ALA to at least help me target what I need to be learning and where the conversation is. Although, at least according to one ALA presidential platform, lots of people are moving these conversations to informal discussion groups outside of the organization and figuring stuff out that way. I wish there were an easy answer to great continuing professional development. But then again that’ll probably all be different in a few years too. Maybe I’ll get it all via SecondLife.

Posted by Amy Sprung at 12:25 PM | Permalink

While not a Simmons GSLIS alum (she went to Rutgers for library school), I thought ya’ll might be interested in a different conference perspective. So, here were my mom’s conference highlights:

Hearing first hand the Newbery winners was so exhilarating I was surprised by my feel good reaction. There are so many facets of our job that are now electronic or web-based or digital, however you want to characterize it, the Newbery is so very special, now more than ever. The book awards coming from a librarian’s love of books, reading and life long learning and library use begins in the children’s room and before that in the home with being read to by care givers. The other people connection related highlights for me were from a reference meeting and the storytelling meeting.
The reference interview discussion that was facilitated by a dual accredited professional psychologist and librarian was truly enlightening. I am of the correct answer school, thinking that if you don’t know, say so and get help elsewhere fast to “satisfy” our customers. WRONG! The “answer” is important, but the human interaction may determine if the person returns to ask again and possibly gain more skills for future successful searches. Walking an information seeker through a possibly humbling experience of admitting they don’t know something but making them feel comfortable, capable and empowered is the challenge. We are making people connections that count more than the answers. Of course the answers are out there, but the questions are harder and more elusive than ever and not necessarily unique.
The other sharing experience of the conference was the storytelling discussion. The room was never so quiet, as when we were waiting for the next victim, I mean volunteer, to tell their tale. Peers are difficult audiences but the tellers were funny, talented, professional, theatrical, and the best treat of any library experience. Exhausted, exhilarated and not an ex-librarian, I think I have quite a few motivated years left to spread the word and the FISH (more on FISH from Amy later).

Posted by Amy Sprung at 12:24 PM | Permalink

I landed at Seatac on Friday night and headed straight to the hotel to drop off my stuff, only to promptly leave (around 2 a.m. based on the time zone I was still operating in) and head off to a meet-up group that Linda Braun (I had her for Technology in the School Library at Simmons, which I would highly recommend to anyone interested in working with young adults, including non-School Library Teachers) had organized. I should mention that my mom, who is a school librarian in Harrison, NY, came with me to the conference, which made the experience rather interesting. I’ll elaborate later.

Anyhow, I got to meet some super-active YALSA types and attempted, while a bit bleary-eyed, to articulate the ways in which I was inspired by Linda’s class and what was going through my head as I officially became overwhelmed figuring out where I fit in at the conference. Sara Ryan also gave me a copy of her book Empress of the World, which I’m excited to read during the trip back. I think I set a new record for getting free books within mere minutes of arriving at ALA. I should also mention that I’m wearing a few different hats while I’m here. One is as a Harvard College Library employee. I work in their HR department, so while I’m here I’m trying to get a sense of how recruitment works at ALA. I also got to sit in on an AASL/ACRL committee meeting on info lit, which brings me to my other role: an aspiring school librarian (who is getting increasingly interested in other youth library work outside of the classroom).

Prior to arriving, I had aggressively planned every moment of my time here, primarily using the midwinter wiki, which seemed a wee bit disorganized, especially for librarians. This may have also contributed to my deer-in-the-headlights response. Since I had minimal experience with ALA and conferences, here’s what I didn’t know going into it, but have since figured out based on conversations with all sorts of librarians and library students. Midwinter is where the hard-working types buckle down and get lots of committee work done. If you’re interested in getting involved with a committee or task force this seems to be the place to get a real sense of the work they’re doing, but depending on the group they may or may not want you there. I have yet to figure out how you go about finding an awesome committee to join who wants you. Once you get past that point, figuring out what interests you the most so you’ll want to devote all sorts of time to it is also pretty tough. But doing what mom’s do best, my mom reined me in and said I don’t need to go crazy immediately trying to join everything while still working and being a student. The opportunities will be there. Take a deep breath.

Good advice. I gotta run because I’ve planned out today as well, but I’ll post some highlights of booths/exhibits and meetings soon.

Amy Sprung

Posted by Amy Sprung at 01:01 PM | Permalink

Mark your calendars, LibraryThing is coming to Simmons College! Abby Blachly, the librarian from LibraryThing will speak with GSLIS students on Wednesday, February 7th at 6 pm. Abby's a Simmons alum (January 2005) who landed a job with LibraryThing when it became an official company. Will Richardson, edu-blogger extraordinaire, got hooked just lately and you should too!

Here's a snippet from a series of questions we asked Abby about her experiences working at LT. Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks!

* Can you describe Library Thing in a nutshell?
I think the shortest description I've ever given would be "social networking for bibliophiles". But if I could expand that to a slightly larger nutshell, I'd say it's a site where you can catalog your books using library-quality data, and then also connect with other people based on shared books and tastes. (Abby Blachly, Librarian for Library Thing)

Posted by Melissa Brumsted at 05:56 PM | Permalink

I had intended to blog this after I got back from my vacation to sunny Indiana, so I apologize for my tardiness. Thought you all might be interested about my encounter with the Allen County Public Library, which is the library in my hometown. The main branch and its satellites have been undergoing major renovations and have had a windfall of funding--so it was great to know that some libraries out there aren't as strapped as most seem to be. The library renovations are part of an effort to revitalize the downtown area of Fort Wayne, which has practically become a shell. Currently they have reconstructed two branches entirely, and are moving their main branch into their new building as of the 27th of January. I'd suggest seeing this link to get a better idea of the major changes they're making. I wasn't able to get into the new library while I was in town (as it was still considered a construction site) but I was able to talk with a couple of librarians about what they thought was new and interesting, and what excited them. Parking was a major concern previously (I think they only had about twenty cost-free spaces, with a small lot that could hold an additional 30 cars)--they've taken care of that by creating underground parking. The library has also purchased a lot across for them, which is being converted into a garden pathway--lounging spaces seem to be a serious focus of the new building and its environs. A cafe will be housed in the library, where patrons will be able to take their drinks with them into the library. What I thought was best about the new building was that it was designed so public meeting spaces would be accessible after library hours.
Some interesting notes about the library: it houses the largest public genealogical library, is the 11th largest public library in terms of circulation, and is in the top 15th in terms of patrons.

In other notes, I was able to get my fiance to photoshop a new logo for our program. Here's the link to the same version in different formats. Let me know what you think!

Posted by Michael Wick at 09:31 AM | Permalink

In Seattle one week from today, you won't be able to swing a canvas tote bag without hitting a librarian. The ALA's 2007 midwinter meetings are taking place from the 19th-24th of this month. The conference wiki has a section for Library Students at ALA Midwinter, and a Flickr page for the conference is forthcoming, also accessible from the wiki.

Stay tuned for guest bloggers posting from the conference this week!

Posted by Melissa Brumsted at 10:24 AM | Permalink