ALA Student Chapter at Simmons College

Dr. Robert Roth is the Library Director of The English High School (EHS) Library. One of three Emerging Leaders Project participants on the panel, Doc also leads by serving on several committees for the Massachusetts School Library Association & American Association of School Librarians. He is a GSLIS graduate.

"Going to Simmons College GSLIS and taking paraprofessional library positions marked a career change for me. I began leading in this profession by taking on the job of overseeing the production and sale of Simmons GSLIS t-shirts and sweatshirts; then by serving as treasurer of LISSA. I graduated from Simmons in May 2002.

At EHS, I oversee all library functions in my position as Library Director. In addition, I serve on the Instructional Leadership Team and the Teacher Leadership Team. I served as Co-chair of the committee that rewrote the Mission Statement and Expectations for Student Learning and as Co-chair of the Accreditation Steering Committee.

In the library profession, I sit on the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts School Library Association in the capacity of Co-chair of the Legislation Committee and previously as Constitution and Policy Chair. In the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a Division of ALA, I serve on the Legislation Committee and the Publications Committee. Both of these 2-year appointments terminate at the time of the ALA Annual Conference in June. The AASL recently reorganized its committee structure. I have not heard what my upcoming appointments will be although I hope and expect that they will be in the areas of advocacy for school libraries and the interactions of a school’s library program with teaching and learning throughout the school’s curriculum. The AASL sponsored me and the ALA selected me for the Emerging Leaders Project."

Posted by Melissa Brumsted at 09:12 AM | Permalink

Mimi is a Reference and Instructional Technology Librarian at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA. She is a recent Simmons graduate putting her IT skills into practice as a consultant and instructor as well as taking on responsibilities such as reference and collection development. Mimi will attend the upcoming Educause leadership conference, and is currently writing a bibliography about "leading from within."

Posted by Melissa Brumsted at 09:06 AM | Permalink

Sarah is a GSLIS student working her way through the program while serving the Newton Community as Assistant Supervisor of Circulation at the Newton Free Library.

"I am most interested in library administration, access & user services and staff development. I have worked as an Assistant Supervisor, Circulation for almost two years and been with the Newton Library for over four. Only two classes after this semester and I will be a GSLIS graduate! I plan on furthering my studies in Business and would like to apply business models to the library environment."

Posted by Melissa Brumsted at 09:01 AM | Permalink

Lana is a December 2006 GSLIS alum, now working as the Deputy Director & Outreach Librarian at the Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library in Watertown, MA. She's an Emerging Leaders participant, sponsored by the Asian and Pacific American Librarians Association & upcoming MLA Emerging Leaders participant.

"I graduated from GSLIS in December, 2006 and two weeks later began working at the Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library, which is the free public library for anyone in Massachusetts with a visual, physical, or reading disability. I am active in (too?) many LIS groups and am particularly focused on librarianship's contributions to / intersection with social justice, services to underserved populations, and recruiting and supporting librarians of color."

Posted by Melissa Brumsted at 11:36 AM | Permalink

Diane is a GSLIS alum who taught in Morocco as a Fulbright Senior Specialist last year and is currently the librarian for the Modern Foreign Languages & Linguistics Department at Boston University's Mugar Library. Read more detail about her experiences in Morocco in her "Dispatches from the Field" blog entries.

"I have been a librarian for only 10 years, but I have had much experience before this new chapter in life. Living abroad for years helped me learn many languages, and I've brought that knowledge into my professional skills as a librarian for the Modern Foreign Languages & Linguistics Department at BU. Before BU I worked at MIT, at the BPL, in a business library, and now feel settled at BU. I applied for a Fulbright because one of my tasks is to represent the Arabic department in my collection duties. I knew very little of that world - culture, civlization, language. Having spent 6 weeks in Ifrane at the Al Akhawayn University, I now feel competent to purchase and evaluate works for our collection. It was a stupendous experience for me."

Posted by Melissa Brumsted at 12:35 AM | Permalink

Join us for a panel discussion about leadership in libraries this coming Thursday, April 19 beginning at 7 pm in the Main College Building, room 101. The panel features 5 excellent librarians who demonstrate leadership in their current positions at academic, school and public libraries.

Light refreshments will be served. See the ALASC wiki for more about the panel & further resources. Also, check out some leadership-related titles on display this month at Beatley.

See you there!

Posted by Melissa Brumsted at 11:59 PM | Permalink

Please read on to find out about podcasts @ Simmons College, courtesy of the folks in the GSLIS Technology Lab...journalist Kim Martineau is one of the first podcasts to be featured!

(Original photo by David Dwiggins, posted on Flickr)
***
Did you miss Hartford Courant reporter Kim Martineau's recent talk about the pursuit of notorious map thief E. Forbes Smiley? What about library technologist Michael Stephens' enumeration of the top trends in library technology for 2007?

These events, among others, are now available to the world through GSLIScast, a new podcasting service offered by the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. The podcasts can be accessed directly over the Web at http://gslis.simmons.edu/podcasts. They can also be downloaded for later use on an iPod, Zune, or other portable media device, and are accessible through Apple's iTunes music store.

The new service, operated by the GSLIS Technology Group and supported by a $2500 Staff Technology Support Grant from the Pottruck Technology Resource Center, is focused on expanding the audience for educational events, workshops, and lectures here at GSLIS, as well as exploring how new multimedia distribution technologies can support the educational mission of the school.

A key audience for the service are commuter students and students enrolled in the GSLIS West program at Mount Holyoke College who may be unable to attend events on the Boston campus. GSLIS alumni and others in the LIS field are also potential listeners of GSLIScast.

As part of the grant program, the GSLIS Technology Group will report on the project, assessing its overall success and making recommendations for others interested in implementing educational podcasting programs. We are evaluating methods of access for the hearing-impaired and looking at different transcription services as part of the project. Transcriptions are already available for some of the podcasts -- see, for example, Crimes of War, Crimes of Peace.

We welcome your feedback on the project -- please e-mail us at gsliscast@simmons.edu.

Best,

Linnea Johnson, David Dwiggins, Cindy Fisher, Terry Plum, and the GSLIS Technology Group Team

Posted by Melissa Brumsted at 10:49 PM | Permalink