Past Events

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SIR INFORMATIONAL WELCOME MEETING

September 23 at 5:30pm. THANKS TO ALL WHO ATTENDED. HAD TO MISS OUT? EMAIL US, WE'LL FILL YOU IN: SIR@SIMMONS.EDU

Come learn about Simmons International Relations. See first- hand what we're all about.

This is your chance to meet others who share your love and passion for all things international, especially libraries!

Meet us in the 2nd floor lounge at Palace Road (GSLIS lounge)

All are welcome!


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COFFEE SALE TO BENEFIT THE SAN JUAN DEL SUR BIBLIOTECA

We sell coffee! Please contact a SIR member to order you very own! email us: sir@simmons.edu

Buy delicious, organic, fair traded Nicaraguan Coffee. 40% of the proceeds go to the San Juan Del Sur Biblioteca in Nicaragua!

$10/ pouch Please stay tuned for upcoming sales events near the holiday season.


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WORLD LIBRARY AND INFORMATION CONGRESS: 74TH IFLA GENERAL CONFERENCE AND COUNCIL


  • We are looking to get a gruop out to the IFLA World Library & Information Congress. Any interested parties, please sign up here:

http://gslis.simmons.edu/mw/sir/Conferences_and_Gatherings_of_Interest

  • Don't Miss out on this exciting opportunity!


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2007 - 2008:

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South African Children's Literature seminar

  • Saturday, July 12, 2008
  • 8:30 am to 5:00 pm
  • Simmons College
  • Linda K. Paresky Conference Center

Co-Sponsored by Simmons College Graduate School of Library & Information Sciences Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature and South Africa Partners

Lectures and breakout sessions will include topics such as: ·Historical and contemporary South African children's literature ·Reading African children's literature critically ·Children's literature and society ·Books in a globalized world ·Storytelling tradition of Southern Africa ·Introduction to the South Africa Partners' Masifunde Sonke: Let Us Read Together book project

In addition, your $50 registration fee includes: ·a continental breakfast, box lunch, and wine and cheese reception

Special Guest Speakers:

Sindiwe Magona: is a South African author, poet, playwright, story-teller, actor, and inspirational speaker who recently retired from a career with the United Nations. She is the author of 30 children's books including The Best Meal Ever! and Life is a Hard but Beautiful Thing.

Elinor Sisulu: is a South African writer and human rights activist. Her biography of her mother and father-in-law Walter and Albertina Sisulu won her the 2003 NOMA award for publishing in South Africa. The need for preserving history through stories was her main motivation for writing the children's book The Day Gogo Went to Vote, which won numerous awards, including the African Studies Association's Best Children's Book Award.

Donnarae MacCann: is a critic and scholar, specializing in African and African diaspora children's literature. She co-authored Apartheid and Racism in South African Children's Literature, 1985 - 1995 and African Images in Juvenile Literature: Commentaries on Neocolonialist Fiction, among many other relevant works.

To Register: Please visit www.sapartners.org or call 617-443-1072.




Film Screening on MIT campus

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 7:00pm

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Today the Hawk Takes One Chick by Jane Gillooly (2007, 72 min.)

MIT campus, Building 6 (Eastman Laboratories), Room 120 182 Memorial Drive (Rear)

In Swaziland, in southern Africa, the circle of life has been turned on its head. Grandmothers or "Gogos" are forced to watch their adult children die of AIDS, and to raise their many grandchildren on their own. Today the Hawk Takes One Chick follows three Gogos living in a society at the threshold of collapse. The women organize their communities to create nurturing lives for these orphans, at an age when they expected their adult children to be taking care of them. Gillooly's direction shines light on the individual suffering and perseverance of those affected by AIDS, inviting the audience to experience a world where HIV affects everyone. Discussion with director Jane Gillooly follows screening.

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): MIT Women and Gender Studies

If interested in attending with other SIR students, please contact helen_boos@yahoo.com (ASAP!) Thanks :-)


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Are NGOs Changing World Politics?

A Special Seminar at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Who: Anyone interested in going together with other GSLIS/SIR students, please contact Helen Boos (Helen_Boos@yahoo.com)

When: Wednesday, May 21, 4-6pm

Where: Taubman "C" (lecture room) in the Taubman Building (the newest bldg in the John F. Kennedy School of Government)

Why: Critics say the NGOs (non-governmental organizations) are private organizations with their own agendas -- and enough money to influence global policy and politics to serve their own ends. Defenders say it's all in the spirit of altruism. Are NGOs getting too powerful? What is the theoretical and practical impact of NGOs on world politics? How are they affecting the daily dynamics of global politics, strategy, economics and diplomacy? Find out what the experts say!

Speakers:

  • Peter Bell -- Senior Research Fellow, Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
  • Bryan J. Hehir -- Executive Committee and Faculty Associate, Parker Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; and President, Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of Boston
  • Robert L. Paarlberg -- Associate, Betty F. Johnson Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science, Wellesley College.
  • Jackie Smith -- Associate Professor of Sociology and Peace Studies, the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame

This seminar is co-sponsored by the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, John F. Kennedy School of Government; and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University.




  • SAN JUAN DEL SUR BIBLIOTECA INFORMATION NIGHT, Wednesday, April 2nd at 5:30pm. An information/fundraising session about volunteer opportunities in Nicaragua.Coffee for sale, all proceeds benefit the San Juan del Sur Biblioteca Movil.


  • GSLIS Study Abroad??, Thursday, November 29 @ 5:40 p.m., P310E. Did you know that you can study abroad - and get academic credit - through programs offered by other LIS schools? Hear from two students who participated in the Chapel Hill international programs during Summer 2007 (Oxford! Prague!). Information about Simmons' administrative requirements will also be available.
  • General Membership Meeting, Tuesday, November 13, 2007, 5:30 p.m., MCB C-302
    • After the general meeting (at about 6pm), we will show a film, called "Amandla! -- A Revolution in Four-part Harmony," a very dramatic, moving, and high-energy documentary about the role of music in South Africa's struggle to end apartheid. If there is one film you should watch this year, this is the one! Light refreshments will be served. Discussion after the film on life in South Africa during the struggle, the part libraries play in such movements, and the role of archives in preserving the kind of historically and culturally significant phenomenon depicted in this documentary.
  • General Membership Meeting - Thursday, September 20th, 2007, 5:35 p.m., 3rd Floor GSLIS Suite (directly above the student lounge). Come meet other people interested in international librarianship, hear what's in the works for the coming semester, and brainstorm events/projects/outings. Of course, there will be food!
  • South Africa Partners - Wednesday, September 26th at 1:00 p.m., Room P-206. Kate Sipples from South Africa Partners will be on campus in late September to discuss her organization's Libraries for South African Schools program. The goal of the program is to "support the establishment of libraries in under-resourced urban, township and rural schools in order to increase student literacy levels, improve teaching methods, and build community support for education reform."
  • Very Huế: A Report on the Vietnamese Librarian Project - Tuesday, October 2nd at 1:00p.m., Room P-206. Presented by Terry Plum, Assistant Dean, GSLIS and This lecture is co-sponsored with the GSLIS Research Colloquium. In October of 2005, Simmons College received a $1.8 million grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies to train a new generation of Vietnamese librarians for leadership roles. Professor Pat Oyler, who oversees the grant, has been working with Vietnamese librarians for more than 13 years. This report describes a 10 week program of four GSLIS courses, taught by Patrick McGlamery (Simmons GSLIS adjunct teacher) and Terry Plum in Huế, Vietnam from June – August, 2007. Participating were 25 Vietnamese university librarians from four different areas of Vietnam: Can Tho (in the Mekong Delta), Huế, Da Nang, and Thai Nguyen (north of Hanoi). Many of the Vietnamese librarians were as new to Huế as the teachers. This talk discusses teaching LIS in Vietnam, technological determinism, the role of the academic library in supporting university education, and how constructions of the cultural landscape can affect teaching and learning.
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2006-2007:

  • General Membership / Nicaragua Trip Planning Meeting - Thursday, July 12, 5:30
  • Ethiopian Dinner @ Addis Red Sea - Wednesday, June 27, 2007
  • Crimes of War, Crimes of Peace: Destruction of Libraries during and after the Balkan Wars of the 1990s- Presentation by Andras Rieldmayer, LIS '88, Bibliographer in Islamic Art & Architecture, Harvard University. Read the abstract. Co-Sponsored by the GSLIS Brown Bag Lunch Series. Tuesday, February 13, 1-2 p.m., P-207.
  • General Meeting - Get involved with SIR, learn about what events we have planned, and make suggestions for what you would like to see. Monday, February 5, 1-2 p.m., P206.
  • Libros para todos, a presentation by Jane Mirandette, founder and director of the San Juan del Sur Biblioteca Movil in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua- Thursday, November 16, 7:00 PM, Trustman Art Gallery.
  • SIR General Membership Meeting - Tuesday, September 26, 1:00 PM, P206
  • Life as a Library Director in Kuwait, a presentation by GSLIS Alum Harvey Varnet about his work as Library Director at the American University of Kuwait. (Read Harvey's blog). Monday, July 23rd, 1:00 p.m., P207.
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