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By LISSA West, January 20, 2010 2:11 pm

FYI, all: We’re canceling this Friday’s field trip (1/22/10) on account of bad upcoming weather and scheduling concerns. We’ll likely try to resched for later in the spring; stay tuned, and thanks for understanding.

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By LISSA West, January 11, 2010 1:06 pm

Feeling like you need more library in your ‘tween-semesters life? Here’s what’s happening in the coming weeks:

• Tuesday, January 12, online: The Alliance Library System (ALS) of Illinois and TAP Information Systems are teaming up to bring you a full day of information about starting, changing or improving your library career, beginning with a keynote speech from Rachel Singer Gordon, the webmaster of LISjobs.com (http://lisjobs.com).  The student associations at Simmons College GSLIS have purchased a group free.  To find out more and RSVP, please visit http://liscareerfair.eventbrite.com.

• Friday, January 15, Boston: Opening evening of ALA Midwinter. You can still register here, and pore over the numerous workshops and presentations: http://ala.org/ala/conferencesevents/upcoming/midwinter/2010/index.cfm

• Saturday, January 16, Boston: From 5:30-6:30 pm, GSLIS alum Molly Raphael will host a kick-off for her ALA President candidacy. All Simmons students and alums are invited to attend: Westin Waterfront, Lewis Room. If you’re interested in meeting up afterward for dinner downtown somewhere, perhaps even with our GSLIS Boston comrades, please drop a note to lissawest@simmons.edu.

• Tuesday, January 19, South Hadley: Mount Holyoke College will host a Library, Information, and Technology Services (LITS) Open House, a celebratory showcase of the wide range of work done at LITS, including collaborations with partners among the faculty, staff, and students on campus and across the Five Colleges. Come see what awesome projects and services are being devised on the same campus we attend class at year-round: Topics range from cutting-edge digitization practices and the implications of web 2.0 tools when teaching todayÂ’s digital natives, to unique resources (web and physical services) for students and faculty across the Five Colleges. Williston Library Reading Room, 1-2:30 pm. (For more info, see http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/openhouse/index.html.)

• Friday, January 22, Ipswich: Field trip to EBSCO. A crew will be escorting up to 10 of us around their Integrated Search and Discovery Service division and providing a tour of the servers and explanation of EBSCOhost technology. The trip will also include tours of the museum, library, and historical scanning operation. Lunch will be provided. WeÂ’ll be on the EBSCO campus from 9:30-1:30, so itÂ’ll be an early morning but a super trip all around. If interested, please RSVP to lissawest@simmons.edu. (Carpools will be arranged.)

• Tuesday, January 26, Northampton: Librarian Libations. Come have a drink or two with fellow GSLIS Westers at the Northampton Brewery, 7-9pm.

• Saturday, January 30, South Hadley: First day of class breakfast in the GSLIS West office. New semester, new breakfast sweets.

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By LISSA West, December 10, 2009 10:26 pm

This is going to be excellent. Also, you deserve it. We hope to see you there!

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By LISSA West Co-Vice President Graham Christian, November 13, 2009 10:58 pm

Sat., December 5, 12:20pm: Lunchtime Discussion of the UMass DuBois Digitization Project

Members of the Du Bois Digitization Project at Umass Amherst will present on the project and creating metadata records with MODS. With a generous grant from the Verizon Foundation, SCUA embarked on a project to digitize the papers of W.E.B. Du Bois in the Spring of 2009. The project is truly a massive undertaking, digitizing 368 boxes, or nearly 165 linear feet of correspondence, essays, lectures, and notes. When complete, however, Du Bois Online will be one of the largest, freely available online repositories of primary materials for the study of African American history and culture.

Join us at 12:20 in the GSLIS Office for a brief presentation and walk-through of MODS record creation in the Oxygen XML editing program with GSLIS alums Jeremy Smith and Aaron Rubinstein, and GSLIS students Abby Baines, Pam Harnois and Danielle Federa.

Bring your bag lunch and questions, we’ll provide the screen shots and cookies!

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By LISSA West, October 27, 2009 9:05 pm

Here are several LISSA events we cordially invite you to attend.

• Sat., November 7, 4:30pm: Happy hour at Johnny’s Bar & Grill in the Village Common (South Hadley). Librarianship is about networking: Grab a libation with your classmates and future colleagues.
• Sat., November 14, 12:15pm: Lunch with Dean Cloonan in the Cassani Room of Shattuck Hall. We’ll provide sandwiches, salads, chips, and dessert on the first floor of Shattuck; come meet the Dean and hear the latest program updates.
• Sat., November 14, 4:30pm: GSLIS Job Search Resources & Professional Networking Workshop with Cheryl Kohen, Career Resource Librarian. (Meet in the GSLIS West office.) Cheryl will reveal where you should be hunting for LIS specific job banks, paraprofessional postings, internship resources, networking opportunities, and job market trend information. This workshop will provide you with the skills and resources needed to conduct successful job searches and career-advancing networking opportunities.
• Tues., November 17, 7-9pm: Happy hour at the Northampton Brewery. (We heard you when you asked for an away-from-campus gathering; meet us in Noho if you can!)
• Sat., November 21, 4:30pm: Terry Plum’s slideshow and presentation about his library assessment experience in Belarus. Potluck snacks + beverages.

ALSO: As you’ve likely heard, registration is open now for the American Library Association 2010 Midwinter meeting, which will held be in Boston, January 15-19, 2010. You can sign up here.

And a final reminder: Oct. 30th is the deadline for professional development reimbursements. The form can be found here. Use this to be reimbursed for Midwinter ALA early registration, or any other professional organization you’ve signed up for this semester.

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By LISSA West, October 7, 2009 2:15 pm

NEA (New England Archivists) wants to hear from you!

Are you involved in an innovative project that you think your colleagues
would be interested in learning about?  Have you conducted research recently
and want to share your findings?

The Program Committee for Spring 2010 invites you to submit a proposal for a
poster session at the NEA meeting on March 20, 2010 at UMass Amherst.  Any
NEA member is eligible to participate, and current students and new
professionals are especially encouraged to apply.

Deadline for submitting a poster session proposal is December 15, 2009;
accepted poster sessions will be a notified January 15, 2010. Poster session
presenters should be prepared to create and display a poster describing
their project or research and should be available to answer questions from
colleagues during a brief scheduled period on Saturday, March 20, 2010.

Submit your proposal to Spring 2010 Program Committee co-chairs Mary Caldera
(mary.caldera@yale.edu) or Michael Rush (michael.rush@yale.edu).

(Learn more about the New England Archivists’ Conference, November 6-7,  at UMass.)

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By LISSA West, October 2, 2009 10:48 am

Meet Dean Cloonan to find out whatÂ’s new in GSLIS, ask questions, express concerns, and enjoy snacks and good conversation. All coffee chats held in the Matarazzo Student Lounge on the Boston campus.

Choose your session:

• Mon Oct. 5, 12:30-1:30
• Sat Oct. 10, 12:30-1:30
• Tues Oct. 13, 5:30-6:30

NO RSVP REQUIRED. Email lisa.woronzoff@simmons.edu with questions.

AND: Stay tuned for a lunch date with the dean in the GSLIS West office.

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By LISSA West, September 28, 2009 4:24 pm

Join the LISSA West crew for pizza, assorted beverages, and crafting as we watch Parker Posey bumble around the stacks in Party Girl, an awesome library-set flick from 1995.

We’ll have lots of pizza and assorted libations. Bring your knitting, bring some beer or wine or whathaveyou to share, and sit a while with us in the GSLIS West office. We’ll be there after class (4:30) until about 6:30.

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By LISSA West, September 16, 2009 4:10 pm

The Association of College & Research Libraries – New England Chapter’s Information Technology Interest Group will be holding its next meeting on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island  (time to be announced).  All are welcome to attend!

Presenters include:

• Joe Murphy (General Science Librarian and Instruction Coordinator) @ Yale University on Iphones http://mobile-libraries.blogspot.com/2009/07/librarian-extraordinaire.html

• Bonnie Buzzell (Senior Knowledge Systems Librarian) @ Brown University on Mobile Catalogs

• Pat Crawford (Head of Access Services) @ Bryant University on Kindle Loans

• Jenifer Bond (Assistant Director) @ Bryant University

More details to come!

(To learn more about the Information Technology interest group, visit our website @ http://www.acrlnec.org/sigs/itig/

OR become a fan on their Facebook page @ http://www.facebook.com/pages/ACRL-NEC-Information-Technology-Interest-Group/94498255372?ref=mf)

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By LISSA West, September 8, 2009 1:35 pm

A quickie, as classes are unfurling this week: You now can post for rides needed/ offered here (or using the tab above). Use it, and watch gas prices plummet!

Also, please join the LISSA West crew for breakfast before the first Saturday classes at 8:15. We’ll have coffee, tea, cider donuts, fruits + juices. Please stop by to caffeinate and say hey.