Last night ALA Student Chapter (ALASC), San Jose State University hosted the webinar "Making the Most of Your ALA Membership." A few friends mentioned the session on Twitter, and then ALA President-Elect Molly Raphael mentioned it in passing during our monthly ALA Executive Board conference call. I decided to attend.
Program Description:
Do you have questions about the American Library Association? Do you want to get involved with librarianship at a national level? Do you want to learn what ALA can do for you and your career?
Join ALASC on February 22 in Elluminate for a session on "Making the Most of You ALA Membership." Speakers will include Ken Haycock, former director of SJSU SLIS; Tiffany Mair, a recent SLIS graduate and 2011 ALA Emerging Leader; and Molly Raphael, the 2010-2011 ALA President Elect.
I was pleased to discover Jamie Renton, SJSU's ALASC Chair, was moderating the session. I had the pleasure of meeting Jamie during the Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. We emailed a bit after conference, but it had been a while since I connected with her. It was great to reconnect and receive such a warm welcome.
I really enjoyed the program. Lots of great perspectives and advice about getting involved in the association, and some really great questions from the audience. I even contributed a little bit, adding a few tips via the text chat on ways to get involved in the Association (especially NMRT) based on my experience. I hope to participate in one of their programs in the near future.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Council Membership Information Session - 2012 changes
The following was posted to the ALA Council list.
Dear Councilors,
We want to let you know about some changes we are proposing to make to the ALA Annual Conference meeting schedule.
As you know, we are actively working on ALA’s first virtual membership meeting. We’re excited that this virtual meeting will open the experience up to members who may be unable to attend the Annual Conference. The Committee on Membership Meetings is currently working on the date for the virtual membership meeting (they’re looking at either May or June) and the agendas for both the virtual and face-to-face membership meetings. The Annual Conference Membership Meeting will be held on Saturday, June 25th, from 3:30-5:00pm.
We are also proposing a change in the scheduling of the ALA Council/Executive Board/Membership Information Session beginning in 2012. This meeting will now precede the ALA Membership Meeting at Annual Conferences. This change will bring us into compliance with ALA Policy 5.5.2, which states: “there shall be at least one joint session of Membership and Council with the Executive Board, for information only, to be held prior to other meetings of Council and Membership.” We note that for many years, the membership meeting has preceded the information session instead of the other way around. Beginning in 2012, the Council/Membership Information Session will be now held from 2:30 to 3:30 on Saturday, just prior to the Membership Meeting.
We believe the Saturday date is optimal because so many members are there that day, and that focusing our attention on informing members about the one meeting will help us increase awareness and attendance. We also believe that the information session “fits” naturally prior to the membership meeting, as it includes reports from the officers and information on the Association’s financial state, all of which we want to share widely with members. The new schedule will also simplify communication with members about the meetings (in addition to bringing us back to conformity with our policy).
The purpose of this message is to let Councilors know that the Executive Board will be considering this change to the skeleton schedule at its next Board call (the Board has to approve any changes to the schedule). We want to let everyone know about the proposed change in advance, and will be sharing the updated schedule with you once it is finalized.
Roberta Stevens, 2010-2011 ALA President
Keith Michael Fiels, ALA Executive Director
Dear Councilors,
We want to let you know about some changes we are proposing to make to the ALA Annual Conference meeting schedule.
As you know, we are actively working on ALA’s first virtual membership meeting. We’re excited that this virtual meeting will open the experience up to members who may be unable to attend the Annual Conference. The Committee on Membership Meetings is currently working on the date for the virtual membership meeting (they’re looking at either May or June) and the agendas for both the virtual and face-to-face membership meetings. The Annual Conference Membership Meeting will be held on Saturday, June 25th, from 3:30-5:00pm.
We are also proposing a change in the scheduling of the ALA Council/Executive Board/Membership Information Session beginning in 2012. This meeting will now precede the ALA Membership Meeting at Annual Conferences. This change will bring us into compliance with ALA Policy 5.5.2, which states: “there shall be at least one joint session of Membership and Council with the Executive Board, for information only, to be held prior to other meetings of Council and Membership.” We note that for many years, the membership meeting has preceded the information session instead of the other way around. Beginning in 2012, the Council/Membership Information Session will be now held from 2:30 to 3:30 on Saturday, just prior to the Membership Meeting.
We believe the Saturday date is optimal because so many members are there that day, and that focusing our attention on informing members about the one meeting will help us increase awareness and attendance. We also believe that the information session “fits” naturally prior to the membership meeting, as it includes reports from the officers and information on the Association’s financial state, all of which we want to share widely with members. The new schedule will also simplify communication with members about the meetings (in addition to bringing us back to conformity with our policy).
The purpose of this message is to let Councilors know that the Executive Board will be considering this change to the skeleton schedule at its next Board call (the Board has to approve any changes to the schedule). We want to let everyone know about the proposed change in advance, and will be sharing the updated schedule with you once it is finalized.
Roberta Stevens, 2010-2011 ALA President
Keith Michael Fiels, ALA Executive Director
Friday, February 4, 2011
Being busy is rarely my barrier
I really enjoyed this piece and many of the comments from the Chronicle blog. It made me think about how I characterize the work I do. I believe other people tell me I'm very busy more than I do, and I rarely use it as an excuse not to do something. I keep saying that the limited use of "no" in my vocabulary will increase but I've been too busy. :)
I'm chipping away at my growing to do list. This week I managed to make progress on a few things:
Much to my surprise, my calendar was a relatively light on meetings. It allowed me to make some progress getting my files into my new file cabinet. There's still a lot to do. I'm not completely sure I'm happy with how I'm going to organize my files, but it will have to do for now. On the plus side I've been able to find things, so the system at least works.
I also sat down with my LIS intern Sarah to catch up. She actually asked to sit down with me which was great. This is as much her internship experience as it is ours to have an intern. She is demonstrating a growing confidence with reference service and taking full advantage of working a different schedule from last semester.
I'm hoping to get some more work done this weekend, specifically Saturday. Sunday it is all about the Superbowl.
I'm chipping away at my growing to do list. This week I managed to make progress on a few things:
- Faculty Activity Report for 2010. I've copied most of my information into Digital Measures. Unfortunately it looks like all my book reviews are missing.
- ACRL Panel Presentation. We have our third and hopefully final assigned time slot for the session. My speaker agreement is complete. Now to crack open the books and articles I've been carrying around and put together my part. April Fools Day is two months again.
- Bits and pieces for a YALSA webinar. More soon, I promise!
- Wrote a letter of support for Janel. It still amazes me to be in a position to do this type of thing. I really enjoy it.
- Budget update conference call on January 31. I'm very proud of myself for having a meeting with my my full time staff member January 28 to prepare for this meeting. After all, it's a new process for me and I want to minimize asking forgiveness on matters related to money.
Much to my surprise, my calendar was a relatively light on meetings. It allowed me to make some progress getting my files into my new file cabinet. There's still a lot to do. I'm not completely sure I'm happy with how I'm going to organize my files, but it will have to do for now. On the plus side I've been able to find things, so the system at least works.
I also sat down with my LIS intern Sarah to catch up. She actually asked to sit down with me which was great. This is as much her internship experience as it is ours to have an intern. She is demonstrating a growing confidence with reference service and taking full advantage of working a different schedule from last semester.
I'm hoping to get some more work done this weekend, specifically Saturday. Sunday it is all about the Superbowl.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
new media = change = libraries
At the end of January there were candidates on-campus interviewing for an assistant professor of communications position. I was able to attend two of the candidate's teaching demos. I wanted to show my support since I've been on that side of the hiring process recently and learn something new. I believe I managed both.
The presentation where I took the most notes and made me think was the candidate whose session focused around an introduction to new media. The goals for the session were to define "new media" and discuss it in conjunction with business communication studies. New media was defined as traditional media + interactive power of technology.
The candidate asked us as the class for examples of new media. We mentioned the internet, mobile phones, digital music, digital photos, and digital film. Then the candidate noted basic characteristics of new media included instant access anytime, the notion of a "global village", two way communication, and Democratization. He then added that new media adds user generated content and media mash-up.
New media = change
One other idea mentioned is that with new media, there is a "wildfire nature of passing information from ordinary people to ordinary people."
This got me thinking about how this applies to libraries. I have many colleagues who are more on the forefront of electronic content access for e-readers and e-books in libraries than me. However, I had an epiphany sitting in that candidate presentation: traditional media + interactive power of technology = 21st century libraries. Oh, and since we're already in the 21st century, that means today's libraries. Since new media = change, Library Renewal is completely on target.
The presentation where I took the most notes and made me think was the candidate whose session focused around an introduction to new media. The goals for the session were to define "new media" and discuss it in conjunction with business communication studies. New media was defined as traditional media + interactive power of technology.
The candidate asked us as the class for examples of new media. We mentioned the internet, mobile phones, digital music, digital photos, and digital film. Then the candidate noted basic characteristics of new media included instant access anytime, the notion of a "global village", two way communication, and Democratization. He then added that new media adds user generated content and media mash-up.
New media = change
One other idea mentioned is that with new media, there is a "wildfire nature of passing information from ordinary people to ordinary people."
This got me thinking about how this applies to libraries. I have many colleagues who are more on the forefront of electronic content access for e-readers and e-books in libraries than me. However, I had an epiphany sitting in that candidate presentation: traditional media + interactive power of technology = 21st century libraries. Oh, and since we're already in the 21st century, that means today's libraries. Since new media = change, Library Renewal is completely on target.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)