OLISSA Book club

Stacy Zemke is working on getting a book club going.  Currently they are reading

Linked by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi.  ISBN 0482284392

They will meet  on Thursday, July 12th at 7:00 pm at The Library Bar, and will discuss the first 107 pages (through Link 8).

If you are interested contact Stacy

Volunteers needed for the OLA conference

Would you like to receive free registration for the OLA Annual Conference?

Volunteers are needed for the 2007 Oklahoma Library Association Annual Conference, April 3rd and 4th in Oklahoma City.  A student volunteer willing to work four hours at the conference will receive a complimentary one-day conference registration.

This is a great way to get to know the organization and meet future colleagues (and maybe a future employer!) in the state’s professional library and information studies community.

Volunteers are needed as greeters, to work in the OLA Store and Bookstore, and to work at Registration.  If you are available and interested in volunteering, or if you have questions about this volunteer opportunity, contact Dr. Danny P. Wallace (dwallace@ou.edu).

Further information about the OLA Annual Conference can be found at http://www.oklibs.org/OLA2007/

Scholarships for 2007-2008

Scholarship applications for spring 2007-2008 are due March 1st.  More information as well as the application form can be found at http://www.ou.edu/cas/slis/NewSite/Students/scholarships.html

New President

Hello everyone,

I have taken the helm of OLISSA now and we are starting to get geared up for the semester.  If anyone has any questions or would like to get in touch with me feel free to e-mail or call me at dclafleur@ou.edu or 405-325-1181 during the day.

I look forward to a great semester,

David LaFleur

Would you like to go to ALA 2007 in Washington, D.C.?

The School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Oklahoma, as an official ALA Student Chapter, is eligible to designate one student to the roster of the ALA Student-Staff Project during the 2007 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. To qualify for this project, the student must be a personal member of ALA. Students who have already participated in the program are not eligible.

ALA will provide housing and a per diem in exchange for a total of 20 hours of work (typically four hours per day) during the conference. The student should be available to work on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, June 22-26, 2007. Students will receive a short questionnaire to help match them with appropriate ALA staff. Please keep in mind that students can be expected to perform a range of duties, from the merely clerical, to sales, to use of computers.

If you would like to be considered as the student-staff designee from the O.U. SLIS, please write a short (1-2 page) essay stating why you are interested in participating in this program, what you expect to gain, and why you should be the student from O.U. designated for this project. Please return your essay (as an e-mail attachment) to Maggie Ryan at the SLIS office in Norman by Friday, January 19, 2007 at 5:00 p.m.

Essays will be read by SLIS faculty, whose vote will determine the ALA student-staff designee. The essays will be judged on the overall quality of the essay, the logic of the reasons given for your interest in participating in the program, the provision of realistic and reasonable expectations about what you expect to gain from participating in the program, and the merit of the rationale given as to why you should be the student from O.U. SLIS designated for the project.

Please note that to qualify for this award, you must be enrolled in the program in the summer of 2007. Students completing in Fall 2006 or in May 2007 are not eligible. Students planning to complete the program in the summer of 2007 and who will be enrolled in the summer may apply.

BE ADVISED THAT THE COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION IS SCHEDULED FOR FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 2007.

The School will pay the awardee’s airfare, provided the awardee searches for a reasonable rate. Jenifer Fryar in the SLIS office can assist the awardee in finding a flight with an acceptable fare.

Canadian Association for Information Science call for papers

With focus on innovative research and on information science as an evolving field, the conference will provide information scientists with a forum for presentation on four areas that form the conference program theme.

1) Context, Environment and Profession Information needs, libraries and archives, information services, information communities, I-schools, government initiatives, economic and political factors, cost analysis.

2) Human-Information Interaction (HII) Information retrieval, interface design, information architecture, user studies, information behaviour, information literacy.

3) Technology and Tools
Systems design, system effectiveness and efficiency, information visualization, Web applications, Web2.0.

4) Management, Analysis and Organization of Information
Informetrics, metadata, knowledge organization, cataloguing and classification, competitive intelligence, strategic management of information, knowledge management, records management, information science theory.

Conference proposal submission. Proposals for CAIS/ACSI 2007 should include a title, be no more than 750 words long, and specify how they relate to one of the areas within the conference program theme. Proposals with clearly articulated theoretical grounding and methodology, and those that report on completed or ongoing research will be given preference. Diverse perspectives and methodologies are welcome. Proposals may be submitted in English or French. Doctoral candidates are especially invited to submit proposals for the conference. Highest ranked papers will, with permission of the authors, be published in the Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science with their abstracts appearing in the proceedings.

Deadline for proposals is January 12, 2007. Proposals, including the name(s)
of the author(s), complete mailing and e-mail addresses, telephone and fax numbers, should be sent electronically (Word or RTF) or in print to:

Dr. Kimiz Dalkir or Prof. Clément Arsenault cais2007@cais-acsi.ca
CAIS/ACSI 2007 Conference Co-chair
Graduate School of Library and Information Studies
McGill University
3459 McTavish Street
Montreal (Qc), Canada H3A 1Y1
(Phone: +1-514-398-3368 Fax: +1-514-398-7193)

Conference proposals will be refereed by the Programme Committee. Authors will be notified of the Committee’s decision no later than February 16, 2007. All presenters must register for the conference. Papers to appear as full-text in the electronic proceedings must be submitted no later than April 10, 2007. With permission of the authors, abstracts of all papers presented at the conference will also be published in the Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science.

The Journal of Web Librarianship publication opportunity

The Journal of Web Librarianship is seeking high-quality manuscripts featuring original scholarship and practical communications in the area of web librarianship. JWL will publish material related to all aspects of librarianship as practiced on the World Wide Web, including both existing and emerging roles and activities of information professionals in the Web environment. This is a new peer-reviewed journal to be published for the first time in early 2007. New authors are encouraged to submit mansucripts for consideration.

For more information, please visit the journal’s website, http://www.lib.jmu.edu/org/jwl/.

Jody Fagan
Editor, Journal of Web Librarianship

NASIG grants & scholarships for library students

The North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) is pleased to announce the beginning of its application cycle for NASIG’s 2007 grants, awards, and scholarships. Every year, NASIG awards student travel grants, awards for promising serialists, scholarships for library school students, and an international award to aid in serials research. Since 1988, NASIG has granted over 130 student grant awards- including 6 grants for Mexican students, 5 Marcia Tuttle Awards for international serials research, 9 Fritz Schwartz educational scholarships, 22 Horizon Awards to recognize up-and-coming members of the profession, and, in 2006, the first ever Serials Specialist award to an outstanding serials paraprofessional.

For more awards information, please visit the NASIG Awards Web page at http://www.nasig.org/awards/. All awards will be presented at the 22nd Annual Conference in Louisville, KY.

NASIG Student Grant Award: This award is open to qualified students in any NASIG member country (defined for this purpose as the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Greenland). Students who are currently enrolled at the graduate level at an ALA-accredited library school now and/or at the time of enrollment, who do not already have an ALA-accredited degree, and who have expressed an interest in some aspect of serials work, are eligible. Through the granting of these awards, NASIG desires to encourage participation in the serials information chain by students who are interested in pursuing some aspect of serials work upon completion of their professional degrees. Expenses for travel within North America, registration, and three nights lodging will be paid by NASIG. Conference registration includes most meals, and a stipend of $75 is intended to offset the cost of meals not included and transportation between the airport and the conference hotel. Each recipient will also receive a year’s free membership in NASIG.

NASIG Horizon Award: The purpose of the NASIG Horizon Award is to advance the profession by providing promising new information professionals with the opportunity to accelerate their knowledge and understanding of serials by networking and interacting with a wide range of dedicated professionals working in all segments of the serials information chain, including vendors, publishers, and all non-traditional serialists. The award provides the recipient with a firsthand introduction to NASIG by sponsoring attendance at the NASIG annual conference. NASIG will pay for all conference registration, three nights lodging, and travel costs within North America. Conference registration includes most meals, and a stipend of $75 is intended to offset the cost of meals not included and transportation between the airport and the conference hotel. In addition, to encourage active participation in NASIG, the recipient will receive a year’s free membership in NASIG and will be invited to serve on a NASIG committee the year following the award. At least one award will be given in 2007.

NASIG Serials Specialist Award: The purpose of the NASIG Serials Specialist Award is to provide a promising paraprofessional with the opportunity to advance his/her knowledge and understanding of serials by networking and interacting with a wide range of dedicated professionals working in all segments of the serials information chain. The award provides the recipient with a firsthand introduction to NASIG by sponsoring attendance at the NASIG annual conference. NASIG will pay for conference registration, three nights housing, and travel costs within North America. Conference registration includes most meals, and a stipend of $75 is intended to offset the cost of meals not included and transportation between the airport and the conference hotel. In addition, to encourage active participation in NASIG, the recipient will receive a year’s free membership.

NASIG Marcia Tuttle International Grant: The grant will provide funding for an individual working in any area of the serials information chain to foster international communication and education through activities involving some aspect of serials such as, but not limited to: research, collaborative projects, job exchanges, and presentation of papers at conferences. Applicants may be either serialists practicing in North American countries seeking funding for appropriate activities involving some aspect of serials taking place outside North American countries, or serialists practicing outside North American countries seeking funding for appropriate activities involving some aspect of serials in North American countries. The grant is named in honor of Marcia Tuttle.

NASIG Fritz Schwartz Scholarship Grant: NASIG awards a $3,000 scholarship to a library/information science graduate student who demonstrates excellence in scholarship and the potential for accomplishment in a serials career. The purpose of the scholarship is to advance the serials profession by providing an aspiring library student who has prior serials experience with enhanced educational opportunities. In addition to the scholarship, the recipient will receive a NASIG Conference Student Grant Award to attend the NASIG conference for the year in which the scholarship is given. Expenses for travel within North America, registration, and three nights lodging will be paid by NASIG. Conference registration includes most meals, and a stipend of $75 is intended to offset the cost of meals not included and transportation between the airport and the conference hotel. The 2007 Annual Conference will be held at the Galt House Hotel and Suites in Louisville, Kentucky, May 31-June 3, 2007. The recipient will also receive a year’s free membership in NASIG.

ALA Wiki

ALA has created a professional tips wiki that would be a useful tool for those preparing for comps as well as those wanting to to become more familiar with the field of librarianship.

New OLISSA President-elect

Congratulations to David LaFleur on becoming the new OLISSA President-elect! I have confidence that David will do well in this position and be a valuable resource to the SLIS student body and the faculty.