GSLIS Newsletter

Spring 2008

Volume 1, Number 2

In This Issue

SLMP receives national recognition by NCATE/AASL

Upcoming Events

Scholarship News: A word of thanks to those generous donors

Books Beyond & RIF team up to help RI inmates and their families

Faculty News: Dr. Eaton lets us in on what’s up

Alumni News!

Get Involved with the Special Libraries Association

Fun Stuff on the Web

The Librarian Song

A loving tribute from one of our patrons

Shelfari

Want to show the world what’s on your shelf? Or how about finding out what your friends are reading?

Good Reads

MySpace…for bibliophiles

Librarians’ Internet Index

Websites you can trust

The Shifted Librarian

Looks at the change from pursuing to receiving information and how it will be affecting libraries

You Don’t Look Like a Librarian

A website about the changing image and perception of librarians

Unusual Librarians

A list of fun and funny online websites and resources for librarians who refuse to be classified!

Savvy Librarian

Stay connected. Stay informed. And be savvy about it!

Librarians & Archivists

Tools and resources for information professionals, brought to you by the Library of Congress!

Librarians Who LibraryThing

Learn what librarians are saying about metadata, tagging, FRBR, library 2.0, social software, cataloging, and, of course, LibraryThing!

The Researching Librarian

Web resources helpful to librarians doing research

Tell Us!

Do you know an amazing student or faculty member GSLIS should know about?

Is there an upcoming event you’d like us to report on?

Let us know!

Contact Us!

Dr. Naomi Caldwell

inpeacencw@aol.com

Christina Wolfskehl, GA

ChristinaWolfskehl@yahoo.com

Letter from the Director

Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Fellow Alumni:

In January, RI Board of Governors for Higher Education approved the proposal for a new URI School of Communication. The new School will be housed in the College of Arts and Sciences and will include five existing academic units: the Department of Communication Studies, the Department of Journalism, the Film Studies Program, the College Writing Program – and GSLIS. A number of you have asked me what this will mean for us.

First, we will still be the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, headed by a Director, and we will still report to the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences – through the Director of the School of Communication, instead of through an associate dean. We will keep our name, our endowment funds, and our administrative access.

In the long run, the plan is to move all five units into one renovated building on campus. This will bring obvious benefits to GSLIS. We’ll enjoy state-of-the-art facilities. Proximity with creative colleagues in related disciplines will spur interdisciplinary research and partnerships at all levels. As Dean Brownell puts it, the project “promises an exciting future” for the students and faculty of all five programs. 

How fast will we see changes? Campus constructions and building renovations may be slow in the current economic climate, but interdepartmental communications are already opening. We look forward to these developments with interest.

Yours,

E. Gale Eaton, Director

Recently GSLIS had the honor of presenting our School Library Media Program and the students in it to visiting teams from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE). NCATE and RIDE were on campus to evaluate the SLMP in March. The results? We passed, with honors! The program will now be listed as nationally recognized on websites and/or other publications of the State Partnership Applications, NCATE and the American Association of School Librarians (AASL).

Dr. Cheryl McCarthy, the coordinator of the School Library Media Program, states that it’s “important for all SLM candidates to receive certification in their states and [this recognition] will help promote and market the nationally accredited and recognized SLMP.”

And what exactly did NCATE and AASL find so impressive about our SLMP? According to the report:

ü     The program is meeting the needs of the New England Region by offering the program at various sites and via the web.

ü     The program report is excellent.

ü     The program has an excellent relationship with both the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies and the School of Education.

ü     The program coordinator is actively involved with the university's Council of Teacher Education.

ü     There are clinical experiences at both the beginning and the conclusion of the program of studies.

ü     The program is integrated with various Rhode Island Department of Education teacher preparation, themes, frameworks, evaluations, etc.

ü     The program uses a variety of assessment tools to integrate with ALA/AASL standards. These assessments are clear and tailored to demonstrate compliance with these standards.

ü     There is an adequate and diverse faculty which is active in the professional community.

ü     Assessment rubrics are well designed and clear.

ü     The program has a very well planned practicum.

Bravo to Dr. McCarthy and everyone involved with the SLMP for the amazing work!

Showcase

April 17, 2008.

Topic: Students will be sharing what they have learned working in the field in libraries, school media centers, and archives, as well as their research and development of library programs, collections and services for a variety of populations. 

University Library: Galanti Lounge on the third floor any time between 6:30 and 8 p.m. 

Light refreshments will be served.  

The Annual Gathering

Speaker: Dr. Camila Alire

Topic: Leadership For the New Millennium:
Demographics, Technology and Service

Alum of the Year: Donna Good (1989)

The University Club
Upper College Road
Kingston, RI

Friday April 18, 2008

5:00 P.M. Reception and Beta Phi Mu Initiation

6:00 P.M. Dinner

$30.00 for students $40.00 for alumni, faculty, and friends

Library Experience in China, by Karen Tercho and Brandi Kenyon
Co-Sponsored by the Confucius Institute and GSLIS

Thursday April 24, 2008

The Confucius Institute

University Library (First Floor)

12:00 Noon

GSLIS is always grateful to the many friends and alumni who support our program. Hundreds of you have donated to the Annual Fund for GSLIS. In addition to practical support, your gifts provide important evidence of your moral support. We sincerely appreciate even the smallest donations.

As this spring’s Annual Gathering approaches, we’re also reminded of our gratitude toward those who support our students with larger gifts and endowments. Some highlights:

Herman Rose is building an endowment to augment awards given annually by the Rhode Island Coalition of Library Advocates to GSLIS students whose academic and professional achievements promise careers that will enrich Rhode Island’s library services. The endowment is not yet mature, but until we can use the interest, Mr. Rose has been matching the amount given by COLA. This year, the William Bergeron Award for a student heading for public library service went to Ed Garcia, and the Linda Aldrich Award for school library media services was shared between Ellen Basso and Jennifer Swartz. These awards were announced at COLA’s Annual Meeting at the State House in February.

Two new endowment funds – the GSLIS Prism Scholarship and the Mattoon-Kline Scholarship – are aimed at increasing diversity in our field. The Mattoon-Kline fund will reach maturity on May 1, 2008, and we look forward to having donor Nancy Mattoon Kline on hand to witness the announcement of the very first award from this fund, at the Annual Gathering on April 18.

Last year, thanks to the generosity of many friends and colleagues, GSLIS awarded the first Iacono Scholarship in honor of our late friend, OLIS librarian, and distinguished alumnus, Frank Iacono. Donations received by the General GSLIS Scholarship for this purpose will fund a small Iacono Scholarship for years to come. But this year, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Iacono, have made a generous one-time gift, enabling us to award larger scholarships to two students.

As many of you know, announcing these and other awards is a highlight of the Annual Gathering each year. We are proud of our talented students, whose professional commitment and outreach activities match their academic achievements. And we are deeply grateful to the all friends and alumni whose generosity helps us defray the costs of a University of Rhode Island education.

by Jennifer Duperon

It is another rainy, February evening in Rhode Island, as I make my way off the highway and turn into the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institution (ACI). At the Men’s Medium Security Moran Facility, I sign in, pass through a metal detector and have my bag searched. After being buzzed through several doors, I finally reach Moran’s visiting room. There, corrections officers give me a small room adjacent to the cafeteria-like visiting area and I wait for my “client.” Soon, an inmate will join me here to create a unique and special gift for his children—a story, read just by him.

Books Beyond is a volunteer program administered through the Rhode Island Department of Corrections and coordinated by Mary Lhowe, the program’s most dedicated volunteer. The Books Beyond program began in 2004 when Ken Findlay, professional services coordinator at the ACI, secured a grant from the Reading is Fundamental (RIF) Program, with matching funds from the State of Rhode Island, to purchase new children’s books. RIF is a federally funded non-profit organization that promotes reading and literacy for children, especially among underserved populations. Using the RIF funds, Lhowe purchased a collection of children’s books and Findlay secured a donation of audio cassette recorders.

Since January 2005, under Lhowe’s leadership, Books Beyond and its small but dedicated cadre of volunteers has served both men and women inmates in four of the six buildings at the ACI. With approximately 20 volunteers, including about 10 who are currently active, Books Beyond has provided the opportunity for over 100 inmates to select and record on audio cassettes three books for each of their children. Once books are recorded, children receive both the books and the audiocassettes.

Three quarters of women and nearly half of all men at the ACI have children. Most of these inmates will be released from prison one day into communities and families that have changed in their absence. Books Beyond provides a link between inmates and children, allowing both parties to share in the normal experience of sharing a story. For all children, but especially for those who are too young to enjoy meaningful phone conservations or who do not visit the ACI often, the books and cassettes can foster an important bond.

Every inmate who I have assisted through the program has expressed gratitude for the work of the Books Beyond volunteers, but we get something from the experience as well. In Lhowe’s words, the inmates “have futures in and outside of prison, and offering them some assistance and hope is making all of us stronger and better people.”

To learn more about this program, including how to become a volunteer, visit the Books Beyond listing on the Volunteer Center of Rhode Island website at http://www.volunteersolutions.org

Dr. Gale Eaton (MLS 1974) was promoted to full professor as of July 1, 2006. At the same time, she was appointed to a three-year term Director of GSLIS; she is the first graduate of the School to serve in this role. Her book, Well Dressed Role Models: The Portrayal of Women in Biographies for Children, was published by Scarecrow Press in 2006.

She has now contracted with Scarecrow for a book on Alice M. Jordan, pioneer of children’s services at the Boston Public Library, and the first 40 years of Miss Jordan’s brain child, the Round Table of Children’s Librarians (now affectionately known as NERTCL). The URI Center for the Humanities awarded Dr. Eaton a James Duffy Research Grant for preliminary work on this project, and she has been awarded a sabbatical (July – December, 2008) to complete the research and first draft.

In April, 2007, she represented the University of Rhode Island at the Haifa meeting of the Global Universities 8 Consortium. She also represents GSLIS on the Karla Harry Legislative Commission, the RI Coalition of Library Advocates, the URI Graduate Council, and the Provost’s Committee on Online Learning, the Workforce Issues in Library and Information Science (WILIS) Advisory Committee, and various other committees.

Alli Decker (2005) is writing and editing at Ypulse.com, a site that covers news and trends in the young adult and 'tween books industry. She welcomes her GSLIS classmates to submit book reviews.

David Eifler (2005) was recently appointed Reference and Instruction Librarian in the College of Environment Design Library at the University of California Berkeley.

Rebecca Farwick (2007) accepted a position at the Newport Public Library and went into labor the same day; mother and baby are doing well.

Kirk Morrison (2006) relocated to Virginia for his post-GSLIS position as a Reference Librarian with the Suffolk, Va. Public Library System, and is now head of References Services at the Morgan Memorial Library (the titular head of the system). He is excited about the variety on the job with reference, collection development, ILL, and readers' advisory, and has been active in public outreach.

Student Marilyn Hines was awarded a 2007-2008 Career Development Grant by the American Association of University Women. An aspiring school library media specialist, she is looking at interventions that successfully minimize the observed gender gap in technology.

GSLIS student Liisa Laine has won a Special Libraries Association scholarship. The award will be announced at the SLA conference in Seattle, June 15-18, 2008. Ms. Laine has been instrumental in starting our Student SLA Chapter, new in 2007-2008 (see below for a greeting from SLA).

Greetings from SLA! As one of the many library science schools around the globe, your university plays an important role in the educational achievement of future information professionals. As the largest global association for librarians and information professionals, SLA is the door to resources for students to achieve their goals. The association strives to provide students with resources such as the SLA Certificate Programs, Career Center and Information Portals.  Membership means access to the latest news pertaining to information professionals.  

Students can take advantage of a variety of SLA member features, such as

Ø       Networking opportunities through SLA ’s student groups

Ø       Online discussion lists (by geographic location and specialty areas)

Ø       Discounted conference registration fee of US$100

Ø       Access to hundreds of dream jobs on SLA ’s Career Center

Ø       Opportunities to earn up to US$6,000 in scholarships. 

A full list of SLA features can be viewed at on the SLA Web site. 

SLA offers student membership for a nominal fee of US$35. The association encourages students to invest in their future by investing in a membership to SLA. Encourage your students to join today! Brochures and applications are ready to be mailed to you today! Please send your questions or comments to Tenikka Greene at tgreene@sla.org. 

On April 2nd GSLIS students MaryEllen Scott and Jason Bloom participated in Higher Education Day at the Rhode Island State House. Ms. Scott and Mr. Bloom have been performing research on the use of Manga, a form of Japanese comic, for educational purposes and library collection.