Thursday, September 29, 2011

Creating Your Own Student Networking Card

You're a student. You want to build connections with other librarians. You want a job! One thing you can do is create your own personal networking card. It looks like a business card but conveys who you are and your contact info. Thanks to ALASC member Joan, we have some tips for creating and printing your card. Your card may include:
  • At a minimum, your name, email address, and that you're a library student at St. Kate's. Use your school email address.
  • Brief information on the type of librarianship that interests you.
  • An easy-to-read font.
  • White space in the design, for notes and a professional appearance.
  • If you have them: blog address, efolio address, and/or LinkedIn address (you may want to pick just one, so your info is clean and not overwhelming).
Some sites Joan found that have free printing offers include:
If you have your own tips & tricks, please feel free to include them in the comments. We recommend you make some before our panel on Monday, 11/14, to network and enter a drawing.

Monday, September 26, 2011

New! Meeting Agendas Page on the Wiki

Our wiki now has a page of agendas for upcoming meetings. Please visit it to see what's up and offer your feedback. ALASC members can edit the wiki, and anyone can provide feedback in the comments.

Pre-Holidays Children's Book Drive: Your Suggestions Needed!

The St. Kate's ALA Student Chapter, Progressive Librarians Guild student group, and Special Libraries Association student group are joining forces to collect children's books during the first two weeks of December, and we need your input! We know we would like to focus on children's books for an underserved group (kids in poverty, in foster care, from immigrant families, those who have been adopted, anything else you can think of) but need to pick a group or groups to donate to ASAP in order to define our audience. That's where you come in! If you know of a deserving group with a structure in place to receive book donations, please email your suggestion to ala-students@stkate.edu. Suggestions from any and all students, staff, and faculty members are welcome. Thank you!

Friday, September 23, 2011

Weekly News Roundup

Internet Ruffles Pricey Scholarly Journals
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/world/europe/19iht-educLede19.html

Peace Corps volunteer from Dedham building a library in Togo
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/dedham/2011/09/peace_corp_volunteer_from_dedh.html

Here are a few articles about borrowing Kindle books through the library:

Kindle Books Now Available at over 11,000 Local Libraries
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1608874&highlight=

Amazon Lifts Edge of Curtain on Kindle Library Lending; Beta Testing Under Way
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/892109-264/amazon_lifts_edge_of_curtain.html.csp

OverDrive and Amazon launch Kindle® compatibility with Library eBooks
http://www.overdrive.com/News/OverDrive-and-Amazon-launch-Kindle-compatibility-with-Library-eBooks

And in further e-Book news:
One in 6 Americans Own an eReader
http://www.mediabistro.com/ebooknewser/one-in-6-americans-own-ereader_b15839

As always, please email me at naeierman@stkate.edu with any stories you would like included in next week's roundup!

Friday, September 16, 2011

The Snacktacular Snackluck is almost upon us!

New and returning members, please join us for our first official meeting of the semester:

Snacktackular Snackluck Snackstravaganza!
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
5:00-5:45pm
CDC 361

Papre plates, etc., will be provided, so bring a snack to share if you can, or just bring yourself. We will do some introductions and then get down to business.

Weekly News Roundup

Is Amazon about to move into the book rental business?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/sep/12/amazon-book-rental-ebook

YouTube Founders Revamping a Site for Link Sharing
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/technology/youtube-founders-aim-to-revamp-delicious.html?_r=4&hpw

A video interview with:
ALA President-Elect Maureen Sullivan

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Weekly News Roundup

The Weekly News Roundup is back for the new school year. Welcome back everyone!

Michael S. Hart, the founder of Project Gutenberg, died Tuesday. His obituary can be found below.
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Michael_S._Hart

Unavoidable Disasters and Unfathomable Disconnects
http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/inside-scoop/unavoidable-disasters-and-unfathomable-disconnects

Early Journal Content on JSTOR, Free to Anyone in World
http://about.jstor.org/participate-jstor/individuals/early-journal-content

28% of U.S. Adults Use Mobile and Social Location-Based Services
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2096/mobile-social-location-based-services-geosocial-social-media-location-tagging

Librarian in Black has been doing a gadget showcase; below is the link to her most recent post about reading gadgets.
http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/2011/09/readinggadgets.html

Ask.com Launches Human-Powered Q&A to All 63 Million Users
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/askcom-launches-human-powered-qa-to-all-63-million-users-128897798.html

And finally, here's a cute library story from my home
Little Free Libraries spread joy of reading, meeting others town
http://www.leadertelegram.com/blogs/julian_emerson/article_75811a30-d8e0-11e0-b9f1-001cc4c002e0.html

As always, please email me with any stories you'd like included in next week's post! My email is naeierman@stkate.edu

Monday, September 5, 2011

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Legislative Action Item

From ALA:
Librarians are on the front lines, helping the American people find the government information they need to find jobs, work effectively, and participate in our democracy. The programs of the Government Printing Office (GPO) are integral in keeping the American people informed.  Unfortunately, funding for the GPO is under attack.

The GPO is the only agency with the mission of ensuring that the American public has access to Congressional, Judicial and Executive branch information in all formats – physical and digital. An unintended consequence of severe cuts to GPO’s budget may be the demise of its access programs.

Please contact your Congressional representatives and ask them to fund the GPO at the President’s Fiscal Year 2012 recommendation. For background information, talking points and contact information for your Congressional representatives please visit: http://capwiz.com/ala/home/