The SLIS American Library Association - Student Chapter (ALA-SC) wants to help new students feel welcome. ALA-SC Vice President Lisa Hooper (MLS student) is providing copies of an article on SLIS Student Chapters of Professional Associations for the new Spring 2008 students. The article was compiled by Janet Anderson (MLS student) for the ALA-SC newsletter in 2007 (excerpts are below). Student organizations help introduce networking options in the profession that will be useful when searching for jobs. In addition to the SLIS student groups, there are many national, and even international, professional associations to participate in.
The SLIS American Library Association - Student Chapter won the National Chapter of the Year (2005), and the National Chapter of the Year Runner-Up (2006). Tom Nisonger and Mary Popp are the faculty advisors to the group.
Introducing SLIS Student Groups - Excerpts
- by Janet Anderson
American Library Association: The IU student chapter of the ALA provides a link to this professional organization and strives to benefit the students of SLIS by promoting a sense of community and supporting the professional goals of its members. The ALA has already been actively working to meet these goals this year by setting up a mentoring program that links new students with students who have been "around the block" at SLIS. The ALA recently organized a group visit to the Mercantile Library in Cincinnati, one of less than two dozen subscription libraries in the United States. They also prepared the annual ALA Wine and Cheese event which helped promote the sense of community they strive to uphold and will continue to host speakers to educate SLIS students on the various aspects of librarianship. The most significant feature of the ALA, according to current president Lisa Gardinier, is the broad base it covers anyone interested in any library discipline would benefit from joining, especially from membership in the national ALA which offers even more opportunities. To find out more, including meeting times, visit the ALA website at: http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/g/alasc/
American Society for Information Science and Technology: ASIS&T members are dedicated to finding new and better theories, techniques, and technology to improve access to information. Jaclyn Schuenzel, current president, says that they are trying to revive interest in this student group because though involvement with the national organization is beneficial she believes having a strong student chapter is just as important. To do this the ASIS&T intends to provide opportunities for professional development and an outlet for socializing and networking which works well with their mission to bring diverse streams of knowledge together to develop novel solutions to common problems. Of particular importance to the organization is how advances in information technology impact the lives of people. Various special interest groups that cover topics such as the arts and humanities and human computer interaction are offered to help emphasize this impact. For meeting information and more visit the ASIS&T website at: http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/g/asistsc/
Association for Computing Machinery: Those participating in the ACM come from and will eventually go into various fields. A diverse group, the ACM emphasizes advancement of skills necessary to professionals in information technology. A wealth of resources are available to ACM members and membership helps students better understand not only their field, but what they can contribute to their field. Part of this understanding comes from numerous special interest groups within the chapter which allow members to focus on specific topics whether it be artificial intelligence or software engineering. For more information including upcoming meetings and events visit http://www.acm.indiana.edu/
Progressive Librarians Guild: The mission of the PLG is to promote socially responsible librarianship and provide a forum for the exchange of ideas. So far this year the group has worked to partner with the non-profit Midwest Pages to Prisoners organization to help them get the volunteers needed to fulfill the hundreds of book requests they get from prisoners. Also among the PLG's top priorities is to help put an end to the outsourcing being done at IU; a resolution was drafted and sent to the IU board of trustees to express the disapproval students feel towards this move and members strive toward educating IU students on how they can help. A key to this will be supporting non-IU bookstores since they have now been outsourced and to do this members are working to create information on where students can buy their books while keeping the money local. The PLG will also be working on voter education and election action in hopes to increase educated voter turn-out in the 2008 election. Overall, the PLG strives to be an organization that embraces all viewpoints and encourages discourse between them. The PLG meets the first Wednesday of every month at 4 pm in LI 036. More information can be found at http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/g/plg/
Society of American Archivists: The goals of SAA are to provide a forum for addressing archival issues, to facilitate a meeting place for students with similar interests in Archives, Special Collections, Manuscripts and Personal Papers, and to raise awareness about these topics while demonstrating their importance to the university and surrounding community. According to SAA president, Lisa Hooper, the group's main priority for the 2007-2008 year is outreach. "Our outreach takes place on three fronts," she says: "The larger community (high schools and seniors programs), the professional community across disciplines (through our annual panel events), and to the student archival community (with our graduate student conference)." SAA believes that this emphasis on outreach is key to developing the real-life experiences graduates need. SAA also has a history of presenting keynote speakers from the various archives on the IUB campus and this year is no different as they have presenters lined up for the entire year as well as workshops, conferences and a visit to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The SAA meets during the first week of every month. Meeting times and discussion topics are posted monthly to the website at: http://www.indiana.edu/~saarchiv/
Special Libraries Association: The SLA is perhaps most well-known for sponsoring its annual Round Robin Resume Review where they coordinate a review of students' resumes by professional librarians. For the March 2007 event they had 10 professional librarians on hand to review resumes and give feedback. The current SLIS SLA president is Virginia Luehrsen. This student group has strong ties to the state-level SLA which allows for mentoring and shadowing opportunities. To learn more, or to find out about future meetings, go to: http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/g/speclib/
Posted December 20, 2007