ALA Student Chapter at Simmons College

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 | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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)
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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 | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Kim Martineau, reporter for the Hartford Courant, gave an intriguing account of unthinkable crimes against rare maps in esteemed academic libraries. E. Forbes Smiley III stole upwards of 100 rare maps from a number of institutions before a stray x-acto blade on the floor next to his seat in the rare books room at Yale gave him away.

"I love covering crime as a reporter," said Martineau, "but you also are learning so much about American History." She noted a few responses from libraries in the wake of the devastating thefts, including libraries who are stepping up security measures in rare book rooms and increased digitization of collections. Stolen maps are still being recovered, the latest one of Yale's copy of the Cortes map of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan.

It's good to know Kim's on the case, and we'd like to thank her for making the trip to Boston to share her experiences from the field.

See Flickr for photos of the event!

Posted by Melissa Brumsted at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

ASIS&T has organized a great event this coming Thursday, February 22nd with top tech-blogger Michael Stephens. Meet & greet Stephens, author of the weblog "Tame the Web: Libraries and Technology", from 5-6 pm in the GSLIS student lounge. Learn more about Library 2.0 from Stephens at 6:30 pm in C-101 (the lecture hall in our main campus building).

Please join us for an entertaining & informative evening!

Posted by Melissa Brumsted at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you missed our first general meeting on Tuesday the 13th, please join us for a lunch-time gathering in the GSLIS lounge, 12:30-1:15 on Thursday, February 15th. We'll gaze into a crystal ball of cataloging with faculty fortune-teller, Daniel Joudrey, who was a panelist discussing future of cataloging at the ALA midwinter conference in Seattle.

Now showing on YouTube: March of the Librarians. This 4-minute video offers a fascinating look at these complex & socially attuned creatures.

Happy Valentine's Day...safe commuting in all the slush!

Posted by Melissa Brumsted at 06:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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 | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)