Dr. Haycock, What Do You Think About….? Final in a Three Part Series With Dr. Ken Haycock
By Sarah Krygier

1) What are your thoughts on SLIS students who step directly into alternative careers? Do you feel librarians educated by public institutions should first work in a library?

There is a misconception that we are educating people to work in libraries. We are not. We are educating professional librarians, many of whom will find employment in public institutions--schools, public libraries, colleges and universities--and many of whom will find work in the so-called nontraditional settings--law firms, hospitals, newspapers, banks, government, etc. I personally favor our graduates finding a wider range of opportunities for their work as librarians, whether the job title is knowledge manager, historical researcher, freedom of information officer or librarian.

2) What advice do you have for students entering SLIS after having careers in other fields?

Many lawyers, social workers, nurses, and others, will find satisfaction in returning to their original environment as a librarian while others will be looking for newer opportunities. Explore the options as a librarian without being wedded to an environment or workplace. Enjoy the possibilities in spite of the view you had on entry to the program. This is a different profession but with opportunities to practice in almost every work environment.

3) With SLIS offering a variety of classes helping students expand the use of their MLIS, do you foresee the school offering more classes (including, perhaps, extended education courses) in alternative uses of the MLIS?

We are opening the door to a much broader curriculum and offerings by introducing one and two credit courses as well as the typical three credit course. This means that we can offer our students more options. We also hope to introduce a full-time on-campus option which will give us the basis for more speakers and panels for all students. The wonderful opportunity presented by an MLIS degree is that professional librarians work in many fields with many different job titles. We need to build confidence and competence so graduates will be able to create their own jobs as well as respond to advertisements.



Letters Home: Libraries and Veterans
By John D. Berry, MLIS, MA

It’s been almost 6 months since my dad, Brownie Berry, traveled on. It is hard to think there will be no more visits to see him in the VA Hospital in Claremore, OK. It’s hard to go close down a house, as I did in January of this year. People accumulate stuff, and among that stuff were letters home.

Letters home, from my father, from World War II in Britain, France, Germany, and Austria. Letters home, with the careful language of veterans who have seen what no one should see. Things they cannot write about, things which would alarm their loved ones at home. Letters home, which reflect their own seeking to remember a sane and normal world and life, and reveal their longing to return to that world. Citizen soldiers who dealt with what they found, and came home to go on with their lives.

So, the question for you, if you are reading this is, do you have letters home? If you do, what are you going to do with them? If someone else brings them to you, will you be able to help? Well, any University Library in the State of origin of your Veteran would (should) love to have them. But, to me, these are not just a personal treasure, but a National one. So, you just might want to present them to the Library of Congress. If you go here: http://www.loc.gov/vets/, you will find out how to share them with our Nation.

Perhaps even better, maybe it will inspire you to talk to the Veterans in your family, and get what they have to say down on tape while you still can. I wish I had. I think there was a lot I could have learned from listening, a lot we all could have learned.

I guess the best we can do for our WWII Veterans, all our Veterans actually, is to support them, however we can, as honorable sons and daughters, or at this point in time as granddaughters and grandsons. Perhaps to do better to learn from them and remember them. To do that, you'll have to talk to them and find those letters home - go looking - don't put it off.

So, what does this have to do with the Library? Well, libraries are about community and helping people. People walk in and say, "Say, you know, I found these letters, these notes, these poems, these photos, what do I do with them? Can you help me? I want to know where he was, where she served, can you help me?"

I found this website - http://www.wwiimemorial.com/ This link, takes you to the World War II memorial, but more than that, it allows you, or your customers, to enter information on family members who served. In this way, it is not just a memorial, but a library and an archive, preserving memory as well and sharing it with any who care to look for it.

Dad's record is there, saved in this library and archive for future generations, a brief shared memory, if you care to search for him by name or see his face. The letters themselves are for another time.



Joy Enjoys Her Colleagues...Not!
By Joy Humphrey

I thought working in a library would be a stress-free environment, one in which librarians quietly organized the world’s information and worked seamlessly together in understanding and respect. I have not found this to be true, however, and many are the days when I come home from my cataloging job worked up over misunderstandings, incompetence and other similar atrocities. No matter where you work, it boils down to the people, and some of them are going to freak you out. For me, one of those people is a reference librarian (we’ll call him Horace).

When Horace found out I was taking a cataloging course, he took me aside and offered to answer any questions I might have about cataloging. In fact, he even thought he still had his cataloging textbook back from when he was in library school. I looked at him incredulously and thought, “Dude! Hello! I’m the cataloger! I’ve been the cataloger for, like, two years! What do you think I do all day?” But in reality I said, “Well, thank you, I’ll take you up on that if I come across any heinous problems.” Then I spent the rest of the day furiously directing rhetorical questions at my cubicle wall: “Does he not know I’m the cataloger? What does he think I do all day?”

So I thought it was best to try a little self-promotion. In an upcoming meet-and-greet session for a candidate applying for one of our librarian positions, I knew we would be called on to introduce ourselves and our titles. This would be my chance to clear up any misunderstanding. So when it was my turn to introduce myself, I pointedly said, looking at Horace, “I’m Joy, and I’m THE cataloger.” Which was fine, until the copy cataloger (we’ll call her Iris) had her turn and then she pointedly said, looking at me, “I’m Iris, and I am ALSO the cataloger.” Well, now, technically she’s not, but she is in her own mind. However, in order to have pleasant relations, I made a note to label myself as a cataloger in the future.

Despite Iris’s blatant grab for power, I thought my public declaration about my job title would be enough to set Horace straight. But we catalogers naively think that everyone has the same attention to hair-splitting detail as we do.

Soon after this, I was in the stacks trying to unravel a serials set that had been processed in a myriad of creative ways. Horace saw me frowning at these volumes and said, “You know who you should ask about that set? Iris, because she’s the cataloger.” I looked at him dumb-founded and thought, “What! It’s because of her endless ability to misunderstand bibliographic records that I’m standing here in the first place!” But in reality, I said, “Gosh, thanks for that interesting advice,” and then I went back to my desk to sputter insanely at my computer screen.

Like I said, some people are just going to freak you out.



What about the “I” in MLIS? Career Options for Information Professionals Beyond Libraries
By Paige Fujisue

Considering that information permeates every aspect of my life, I am a bit confounded as to why most information professionals remain within the walls of libraries. I find information in experiences, ideas, conversations, relationships, etc. It is vital to agriculture, communities, diplomacy, parenting, politics, and home repair. Though a multitude of information careers rest within libraries, I believe significant opportunities are emerging outside these institutions. The following is meant to be a starting point to explore these alternatives.

Practitioner. Combine your interest in information science with another field and you may be suitable to work as an information science practitioner. All industries need information and research to keep abreast of developments, help employees reach their potential, develop and support innovative ideas. Some positions may require a master’s degree in the subject of specialty, and all may require you to research and uncover pertinent job titles. Some examples are Information Specialist (Werts, 2004), Intelligence Analyst (Hohhof and Chitwood, 2000), Search Master (Fichter, 2000), Information Architect (Travis, 2000), and Patent Searcher (Ward, 2005).

Professor. While we are all familiar with the title of “professor,” let me highlight how innovative this role may be. As technology re-establishes the field of information, professors can set the future course of budding professionals. Professors can (and are) equipping students for the growing interdisciplinary and global nature of information. Consider the Universities of Palma (Italy) and Northumbria (United Kingdom) which have discussed the development of an inter-university master’s degree in information science (Dixon and Tammaro, 2003).

Policy Shaper. Issues such as access to information, copyright, privacy, censorship, etc. require research into the circumstances and ramifications of information policy in the United States and abroad. Studies have been conducted in the fields of engineering, law, agriculture, health, emergency response, and international relations. Employers are often think tanks that support their agendas through research. For more information about working for a think tank, read “How to Work for a Think Tank” and “Research Opportunities at Think Tanks.” Be forewarned, a doctoral degree is usually a requirement. For those considering a PhD, the May newsletter will contain an article to help you with this decision process.

Not only is the field of information changing, it is also flourishing at an impressive rate. Employing creativity, tenacity, and innovation, we have an exciting advantage to influence the development of our field and its relationship with other fields. We must be prepared to notice and seize opportunities that can be properly enhanced by information. I believe, in fact, that as modern information professionals, we must think like entrepreneurs in our roles as ambassadors of information.

References

Dixon, P. & Tammaro, A. M. (2003, September). Strengths and Issues in Implementing a Collaborative Inter-University Course: The International Masters in Information Studies by Distance. Education for Information, 21, 85-96. Retrieved February 12, 2006, from Wilson Web.

Fichter, D. (2000, March/April). Search Master: A New Role for Information Professionals. Online, 24, 76-78. Retrieved February 12, 2006, from Wilson Web.

Hohhof, B., & Chitwood, L. (2000, February). At a Crossroads: Information Professional to Intelligence Analyst. Information Outlook, 4, 22-25. Retrieved February 12, 2006, from Wilson Web.

Travis, I. L. (2000, August/September). Information Architecture Practice: An Introduction. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science, 26, 6-21. Retrieved February 12, 2006, from Wilson Web.

Ward, R. K. (2005, June). From Scientist/Engineer to Patent Searcher: Why, What, and How? Searcher, 13, 28-31. Retrieved February 12, 2006, from Wilson Web.

Werts, C. E. (2004, October). An Information Specialist? How Boring is That? Information Outlook, 8, 32-33. Retrieved February 12, 2006, from Wilson Web.



A Nontraditional Library: My Practicum at San Diego State’s Slide Library
By Felicia Palsson

My First Day

Today I met Lilla Sweatt, slide curator at SDSU. The Slide Library is part of the Art Department, not the main library. Actually, Ms. Sweatt’s title is “Visual Resources Curator” now because she’s responsible for digital images too. Ms. Sweatt explained what my duties are: I’ll be scanning slides and using Photoshop to curate the quality of images and make them web-compatible. The students use web-based study guides.

I learned that grades have significantly improved since digitization. I was fascinated by this concrete example of what we often hear about “new technologies making an impact.” In a traditional slide lecture, students did not remember many of the images afterward. An “A” student went to the library to see images again in art books, but those who didn’t had difficulty remembering and received lower grades. Now all students have 24/7 access to images. Ms. Sweatt jokes that this is really “a crutch.”

We talked about Slide Library procedures. Slides do not circulate, per se. However, students may take slides to class for presentations. Most students use PowerPoint, but some teachers still require slides. The students come in, view slides and make selections. Faculty members request slides and digital images for classes and research.

Ms. Sweatt also graduated from our SLIS program. We discussed the role of librarians. Some students really do believe everything’s on the web, including art. She told me the kinds of questions she gets sometimes. One student said, “I looked for images of death and I couldn’t find any. Do you have any images of death?” Needless to say, a reference interview ensued.

For my first assignment, I’ll be reading a book called Mayan Art and Architecture. I will digitize several images for a class. I’ll also create an Excel spreadsheet for the class web page. Ms. Sweatt encouraged me to read the book to learn more about the images. You bet I will!

The Internship Progresses

I created spreadsheets: architecture, 20th century American photography, and Ancient Roman sculpture among them. These include the cataloging information: artist, title, date of creation, medium, dimensions, location and/or collection, era/period, etc. I scanned hundreds of slides for these projects and used Photoshop to correct color, erase dust, and improve the overall quality of the images. I read a lot in art books to learn the cataloging information and to help me work with image quality.

CSU curators are also implementing a new kind of cataloging. Photoshop allows you to save metadata within each individual image file. This greatly assists in recall because you add keywords and other pertinent information. I learned how to catalog this way also.

I talked with students about assignments. I also met faculty members and processed special requests. The slide collection at any university is going to be highly idiosyncratic, since images are tailored to the way a teacher designs his/her class. Cataloging is also idiosyncratic, since you have metadata for unique groups of images; it’s like having several special collections within the collection. For example, a professor of Latin American art may want a spreadsheet about 20th century Mexico, and these cataloging requirements are different than they are for Ancient Rome.

Overall, this internship was more than I hoped for. Initially drawn to learning techniques of digitization, I’ve learned about art, too! I’ve gotten a glimpse of several worlds: the art world, the special library, cataloging using metadata, and digital projects. It was different from a practicum in a traditional library, but certainly offered a wide variety of learning.

Felicia Palsson holds a BA in Philosophy from UC Berkeley and will obtain her MLIS from San Jose State University in May 2006.



Coretta Scott King, Her Life, Her Award
By Darcel Jones

Coretta Scott King’s life was filled with great accomplishments; she is not a mere notation to her husband’s biography. She was a classically trained musician, soloist, college graduate, public speaker, author, syndicated columnist, political activist, and champion fighter for civil rights and world peace.

As a companion to Dr. King, Mrs. King booked her own speaking engagements while being scheduled to perform musical scores at many of her husband’s functions. Mrs. King raised money for the Civil Rights Movement by organizing a series of “Freedom Concerts” which consisted of music, poetry, and literature readings.

Mrs. King’s political activities did not end when her husband died. She continued to speak internationally against social inequality. Four days after Dr. King’s murder, Mrs. King lead a demonstration in Memphis Tennessee and gave a speech comprised of her husband’s notes. In June of 1968 she participated in the “Poor-Man’s Campaign” a 50,000 person demonstration in Washington D.C., and was the keynote speaker at the Lincoln Memorial.

It was here she announced her intention to start the Martin Luther King Center. The King Center’s original location was the family home basement. Today it comprises a library with approximately one million holdings, a cultural center, auditorium, and the Ebenezer Baptist Church where Dr. King ministered. Mrs. King started the movement to make Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday. In 1986 forty-nine states recognized the third Monday in January as Martin Luther King Observance Day for the first time.

In 1985 she was arrested at Washington D.C.’s South African embassy for participating in a protest against apartheid. Mrs. King was one of the primary leaders who encouraged the United Nations to impose sanctions on South America until the apartheid ended. In March of 2004, during a speech at Richard Stockton College in New Jersey, Mrs. King spoke out in favor of same-sex marriage, calling it a civil rights issue. In 1970 it was Mrs. King’s legacy, not her husband’s, that was honored with the creation of a new literature award.

It all began during an ALA conference in 1969. Two African-American school librarians, Glyndon Greer and Mabel McKissack, were discussing the lack of recognition for talented African-American children’s writers and illustrators. Overhearing the discussion, John Carroll, a publisher and vendor challenged them to do something about it.

In May of 1970, at the New Jersey Library Association Conference, Lillie Patterson was the first Coretta Scott King award honoree for her children’s book, Martin Luther King Jr. Man of Peace. This small gathering consisted of 35 Librarians, and with these humble beginnings a new prestigious award was born. Soon thereafter, four new librarians joined the unofficial CSK award task force and began the pilgrimage to make the CSK award an official part of ALA. In 1972, the first CSK award breakfast was held at an ALA conference, but was not officially recognized as an association award. Guided by Dr. E. J. Josey, prominent African-American Librarian in the 1970’s & 80’s, the CSK award became apart of the Social Responsibilities Roundtable at ALA. Prior to this, founders and supporters met during ALA conferences, but purely in an unofficial capacity. In 1982, twelve years after its inception, the CSK became an official ALA award. Expanding to include an Illustrator award in 1974 and the New Talent Award in 1995; over the past 36 years the CSK award has progressed represent the best in African-American children’s literature.

Today librarians and educators regard the CSK as highly as the Newbery and Caldecott. With this prestige and exposure, African-American works are now common place in most American libraries, regardless of whether they carry the prestigious golden seal.

Don’t take for granted that on the same day the Newberry and Caldecott winners are announced, the literary world will discover new talented African-American writers and illustrators. Some take for granted titles like Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters or The People Could Fly can easily be found in almost any library, and authors such as Virginia Hamilton are referenced as easily as Louis Sachar. Forty years ago this was not the case. A few librarians were devoted to this cause, so that all can experience the diversity of literature we enjoy today.

With the recent passing of Mrs. King, let us not forget those who have followed her example. The less predominant faces and names, who are not immediately associated with great movements, yet contributed just as much. Two librarians and one publisher did not deliver grand orations, nor did they receive the great accolades they deserved. But by following the spirit of Mrs. King, they worked tirelessly to create equal exposure in the world of children’s literature. In memory of Mrs. Coretta Scott King, we should thank them.

Darcel Jones is earning her MLIS at San Jose State University emphasizing in children’s services. Hopefully she will be finished May 2006. Learn more about the Coretta Scoot King award at http://www.ala.org/ala/emiert/corettascottkingbookawards/corettascott.htm.



The Emerging Importance of Teamwork
By Dawn Pavao

Many people groan when they hear the words "group project." They may feel they can barely keep the schedule which they set for themselves let alone possess the ability to coordinate their time with four other people. More importantly, they may be at a loss concerning how to elicit a level of work from their team members which will ensure their receiving the coveted 'A'.

The concept of "working together" has been ingrained into many of us since joining the workforce. Now that we're graduate students in the SLIS program it has become an ever present mantra. Though many of us may dread the idea of working in a team it is important to realize why the ability to function well in a team environment is such a vital skill to possess. It is common knowledge that the problems faced by corporations and institutions are becoming more complex. What may not be readily apparent is the fact that the solutions to these problems are often only produced through the fusion of differing and, often, opposing viewpoints. This fact necessitates the existence of an instrument capable of allowing each viewpoint the luxury of a forum through which its merit can be derived. This instrument is the team; however, the team is only as strong as its members. So, how can we (as prospective team members) align our behaviors in such a way as to allow the team to function most optimally?

What follows is a list of five valuable tips which can help even the most ardent individualist survive their next group project:

• Designate someone to head the project.

• Keep communication lines open and respectful.

• If your group is working on a major project divide it up and give each group member a part for which they are responsible.

• Inform team members in advance if you are not able to complete your part.

• Finish your work in a timely manner.

We all have to face the fact that group projects are here to stay. Committees, committees, and more committees. The days are fast approaching when we'll be selected for a sub-committee sent forth with the important mission of renaming the sub-committee. I hope this modest list can serve as a starting point from which you and your team can begin to experience the wealth of knowledge which can be gleaned from even the most mundane problem when that problem is approached by a group of people willing to respectfully share their ideas and opinions with each other, willing to become a team.


The Portable MLIS and the Scarlet L
By John D. Berry, MLIS, MA

Well, it’s all the buzz. Your MLIS is portable. They used to say that about luggable personal computers too. You had to apply some muscle, but they were portable.

If we weren’t in a practically invisible profession, it would be easier to have a portable degree. So, to really make it portable, YOU have to make yourself visible. Visibility through service, visibility via your personal skill sets, visibility through excellence will be what actually makes your degree portable. If you make ID 10 T errors, your degree won’t help you.

When I was an Academic Librarian in the mid-west, well maybe it’s really the south, or perhaps the southwest, or even the west (there is a lot of disagreement about exactly where Oklahoma is), I served on committees. You get to do that, you know, if you want to, even if you are a Public Librarian.

One of the committees I served on was with my institution’s Graduate College. They always needed faculty to go on recruitment trips, or to serve at graduations. Anyway, I must have done well, as the Dean of the Graduate College, and the Director, too, asked me to leave the library and come over to the Graduate College as the Assistant Director.

It turns out that a campus-wide automation system was going in. Graduate applications are handled in different ways on different campuses. Our campus received all applications, transcripts and fees. Then we distributed copies to the Departments, keeping the originals. When a Department admitted someone, they told us, and the Graduate College sent out the admission letters and even student visas—think 30,000+ applications a year, about 20% of which were International applications, think Federal paperwork. Plus, I had the joy and woe of supervising a staff of 5 and about 10 student workers. My other hats continued to be recruiting and being the technology wizard, such as it was.

Now, what is it librarians really know how to do? Organize collections, access collections, automate collections, educate people about how to use systems and find information. All of those things were things that I was able to do well. After four years and successful implementation of the campuswide automated system installation, I decided to take my portable degree and go back to libraries.

Yes indeed, I had successful administrative experience and good references and thought I’d easily find a niche somewhere nationally as a mid-level librarian. I really didn’t care if it was a tier one institution, any campus would have done just fine. Indeed, I had a number of interviews. Guess what the number one question asked by my peers was in every single interview? “Why did you leave libraries?” The number two question was, “Why do you want to come back?”

In every case, telling my peers that library skills were portable didn’t suffice. Neither did explaining that I had taken the opportunity to get management experience and work in a different environment. Neither did elaborating on skill sets and applications in the new environment and/or their portability back into our traditional professional home. I am not usually at a loss for words, but, what in the world was going on? Finally it came to me. You see, I really had betrayed the faith of the true believers; I had left “libraries.” The scarlet L was upon my countenance, and yea I was shunned in many temples of learning.

Now, indeed, things work out the way that they should, and the perfect position found me instead, here at my library at UC Berkeley, which IS a tier one school. Happily, I was recruited yet one more time, back into libraries.



Joy Justifies a White Lie
By Joy Humphrey

Technically, we’re not librarians until we get our degrees. Sounds simple. But what do you do when you have to fill out a form, and you’re faced with that tiny box that asks for your occupation? There’s no room for explanations, caveats, or musings. As an MLIS student three-quarters of the way through the program, I’m confused as to what to call myself.

Recently, when my husband and I joined a church, we had to fill out a form that asked for our occupations. I pondered the dilemma. I could write down “Student,” but I wouldn’t always be a student. Although, if I wrote “Student,” we probably wouldn’t be expected to make any large financial contributions. But fudging on a church form is the first step on the road to hell. On the other hand, I only had one chance to label myself, and saying I was a librarian would eventually be true. Plus, I reasoned, no one reads these forms anyway.

Once over that ethical hurdle, I thought I was safe. But then we leased a car. If I wrote down “Student” on the form that asked for my occupation, we might not get the special edition CRV with the seat warmers. Since I would be a librarian eventually, I wrote it down hoping this wouldn’t be like the time I tried to buy a house and wrote down “Librarian” only to have the mortgage broker question me endlessly: “You mean a professional librarian? You mean you have a degree?” Turns out, his wife was a librarian. At any rate, this particular white lie went off without a hitch, and I now drive a car with seat warmers (which I never use because I live in Southern California).

After that, I blithely wrote down “Librarian” on every little occupational box that came my way. Then last month, I went in for a physical. As the male nurse was taking my blood pressure, he looked at me and said, “You’re a librarian, right? Because I know a librarian. Do you know so-and-so? She works at the Thousand Oaks Library.” I panicked, until I realized I did not know so-and-so. I could just imagine what so-and-so would have said to her male nurse friend had I known her: “She is so not a librarian! She doesn’t even have a degree!” A narrow escape. And my blood pressure was surprisingly healthy. I guess I was getting used to a life of perdition.

But there really is no rest for the wicked, even if they go to church. Last Sunday after the service, my husband and I stopped to chat with the vicar. In an effort to get over to the donut table before all the old-fashioneds were gone, I said I had a lot of schoolwork to do, so I’d better be moving along.

“What?” the vicar said, “You’re in school? How come I didn’t know you were a student?”

Because the box is too small.



In Tempo with Ray Heigemeir at Stanford
By Julian D. Woodruff

Ray Heigemeier is both the book cataloger and a reference librarian at Stanford University Music Library.

How did you come to librarianship, to Stanford, and into your current position?

My first music library job was solely to clean LPs (the precursor to CDs). After college I worked in a large law library circulation department. That’s where I really got the feel of participating in a busy, productive environment. I stuck to it, got promoted a few times, and went to library school part-time. Finally I decided to return to school full-time to get a subject master’s (knowing the competition for music jobs was fairly intense). After that I free-lanced and applied for jobs, including this one. Originally it was full-time cataloging, but later it became half-time cataloging, half-time public services.

Describe the moment when you decided, “This is for me!” What was the turning point for you?

There wasn’t a single moment, but rather a building up of small accomplishments. In the law library there was much to be cleaned up, modernized, etc. I got great satisfaction when my solution to problems really made a difference in our efficiency and service to patrons. It was less important to be a library genius and more important to be able to identify problems, work at them, and see the process through. It was really confidence-building.

Your job at SUML is a bit of a juggling act. How do you keep the balls in the air? Which aspects of the job are most challenging?

I love my split position—I have folders for each topic I work on (renovations, reference desk, web page work, etc.), and also I am a big believer in lists. I keep a big list of all the things on my plate, and also make a short “to do” list at the end of each day, of things to work on the next day. I commit discrete chunks of time to different things (“Today I will spend 45 minutes organizing X”). The biggest challenge is working in synch with others who may have different priorities or time restrictions on any given day.

As SUML’s book cataloger you see a lot of intriguing material: how about that aspect of your work? Marcia Bates (UCLA) has written that soon after committing to becoming a librarian you switch focus: instead of fixing on the object—say a score, a database—your attention turns to how material or information is made available by the library and how it is accessed by the user. Does this statement fit you?

Yes. Because there is so much to do and so few staff to do it, you often have to decide how much time to spend on any given activity. Hopefully your decisions consider what is most essential to patrons and what is extraneous, maybe the product of tradition. Cataloging is one of those areas. How much time should you lavish on one title when there are a hundred more waiting for attention? And on the flipside, what bits of information are absolutely necessary to make a catalog record useful? What enhancements are worth the extra time? Also, in my experience, once I became a “professional” librarian I began to look at the bigger picture of the library and how well it serves (or doesn’t serve) its primary users. That view generates ideas for improvements. It’s about looking beyond your job description, and caring about the library’s success.

Julian D. Woodruff is cataloging the Women’s Philharmonic Collection at Stanford while pursuing the MLIS at SJSU.



Have MLIS, Will Travel
By Sarah Krygier

When I visited the Library of Congress in November of 2003, way back before I was a student at SLIS, I could not quite fully appreciate its majesty. While I once referred to it as “Mecca for English Majors,” my boss, a library director, refers to it as “the Mothership.” If the Library of Congress, in all its architectural glory, is the Mothership, then I suppose the libraries I visited on vacation qualify as satellites.

Who knew that an MLIS (or all but 6 units of one) would make me a better traveler? Now, that’s a unique use for the degree!

As I planned a family vacation to England, I researched the libraries in the area and decided that two would fit into the schedule.

A mere forty-five minute train ride from London, the city of Oxford offers a wealth of educational opportunities and literary experiences, the Bodleian Library and the famous Radcliffe Camera, offer a truly magical experience for an aspiring librarian.

A red sign asks for “Silence Please,” as visitors enter the library square. Intricate wooden doors lead to specific departments, and every sign is in Latin. Those not affiliated with the university cannot enter the hallowed halls of books, nor touch any of the 600,000 books available in the library’s reading room (Radcliffe Camera), but they can visit the gift shop, The Divinity School and the Bodleian's exhibition room. Visit I did! I marveled at the displays of book binding examples from the 16th century. I gawked at the carvings in the Divinity School’s ceiling. I stood in front of Radcliffe Camera and imagined that I was a character in Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian, reading up on myth and lore in a corner in the roof.

Back in London, I took the tube to to the British Library. Built in 1997, this national library is much less imposing than the several centuries old Bodleian Library and more, shall I say, personable. After staring for a while at the three story tower of books in the center of the main entrance, I managed to pull myself away and find a seat in the café (the library also has a full-service restaurant), where I ate my baguette sandwich and salt and vinegar chips and tried to write down all of the quotes on the wall, including my favorite, “Waves, waves! Everything comes in waves!” (Erwin Schrodinger)

Encouraged by the Library of Congress Reader’s Card in my wallet, I found the Reader’s Services Desk in the British Library, and asked about getting access to the collection. In just a few moments, I had the best souvenir in England – my very own reader’s card. Armed with a map of the library, I set about my quest to look up a book in the computer catalog and find the book on the shelf.

With library school on the brain, I searched books on youth services, found a call number, and off I went. Though I made a couple of wrong turns, I eventually found the library and information science section and its thorough collection of professional books. I even located the book by Patrick Jones that I searched for in the catalog. After I examined the large pink book, I looked around for a book truck or something else to place it on. After all, every good library patron knows that one must never reshelve the books.

But I found no book truck. Instead, I found a sign asking me to please return books to their proper places. I looked around and saw that other library patrons were removing and replacing books.

What trust!

While the gift shop at the British Library did not tempt me in the way the Bodleian’s did, I did leave with many helpful souvenirs, including book lists, research tips and the thing I brag about most, my reader’s card.



Tips for New Students
By Veteran SLIS Students

1) Realize that you may very well learn more in an online class. I have completed most of my coursework at SLIS in online-only or combination classes, and I have retained more knowledge than I did in the classes that required my presence only in the classroom (as an undergrad).

2) Equipment needed - Please, for the sake of your classmates working with you on group projects, have your own computer. It was incredibly frustrating having to complete a group project with someone who had limited access to a computer. PC's are simpler, but Macs are not impossible, so purchase/use the computer you are comfortable owning and using - this is about you, so don't buy something you don't want to own.

3) Time Commitment - Realize that what you've heard is true: online courses actually do require more work/time than in-person classes. In an in-person class, you need to participate only when you're on campus. In online courses, participation is constant. I check blackboard several times a week and spend about 8 hours a week per class JUST on discussion boards (this doesn't count reading and completing assignments). It is more convenient for many students to take online classes, but it doesn't make it any less work.

4) Completing and submitting assignments - Blackboard does go down, so when possible, be prepared to submit your assignments well in advance of the deadline. Remember that most professors make assignments due at midnight on the last day of the school week...so that means Blackboard will be slow as several hundred students submit their assignments at the same time. If you can, submit a day, or even two days, before the deadline. This will save you much frustration!

5) Communication with the instructor and other students - E-mail communication varies by instructor, but the same will be true for a face to face class - teachers simply have different styles. The busier teachers (those with significant commitments outside of teaching) tend may take longer to respond. This means that you need to think ahead - when possible, look at assignment descriptions well in advance and ask your questions (usually via a discussion board) as soon as possible. Talking with other students and completing group tasks via blackboard can be a challenge, but it's certainly easier than getting students from all over the state together in one physical location.

6) What I would do differently - In a perfect world, I would have purchased a laptop before starting this program. I survived half of this program with a desktop, but my life has been much easier with a laptop computer. I can get out of the house and take my schoolwork with me! 7) Actually, after 3 years in the program, I do have some wisdom for the incoming class: Stay flexible in your course selections, learn from everyone and everything, and nurture your sense of
humor.



Ken Haycock’s Professional Opinions
By Daria DeCooman

The second in a three part series on the views and opinions of our (not so new now) director, Ken Haycock.

Why did you want to become the director of SJSU's SLIS?

Dr. Haycock: San José is the largest library program in the world. The school is innovative and cutting-edge. SLIS is like a sleeping giant. I look forward to unleashing the potential and helping us to become a player on the national and international stage.

During your higher education or career, have you had mentors?

Dr. Haycock: I have had many wonderful mentors. Blanche Woolls has been one such mentor, having introduced me to the international arena of library education.

Can you speak about trends SLIS students should keep our eyes on?

Dr. Haycock: First and foremost is the need to recognize that funding of the public good through schools and libraries has been replaced by finding of public value. Whether we like it or not we need to demonstrate return on investment by focusing on our effect on outcomes (e.g., literacy) rather than outputs (e.g., circulation) and inputs (per capita support). We need to do less, better, becoming more focused. We need to reposition ourselves in the world of Google by adding value. We need to recognize our clients may not be our customers, e.g., developing programs for family literacy may mean more attention to training other service providers (day care supervisors, preschool workers, and primary teachers). We need to respect our customers and communities by undertaking more sophisticated market research and re-orienting our services and programs to meet needs. We help others make informed decisions; we need to do this ourselves. And we need to recognize we are not in the information business, we are in the community development business.


First Conference Chaos
By John Berry

Acronym soup descends upon you. It’s conference time all of a sudden. Should you attend (CLA), it’s local or (ALA), since it’s the ‘big time?’

Parsing cost of conference, pre and post workshops, travel, meals and sundry benefits of attendance? Get roommates for cost sharing, or blessed solitude? Working the conference to defray costs, thereby missing large chunks of sessions, or damaging the personal deficit with the plastic – priceless, you know.

So, you take the plunge and go big time – it’s ALA – Whoo-Hoo! You get on the plane, behind the screeching 1 year old. Your row mates, are the size of Raiders linemen, you are in the middle. The flight your budget allows is a red-eye. It has only 2 stops, with 2 hours in between each re-boarding.

Finally you arrive, it’s 5am and the terminal looks like something from “Resident Evil,” because of your plane’s 200+ passengers. Then you realize, half of them are librarians headed the same approximate place you are. You make new friends and realize you needed business cards, or more business cards. Finally, you reach your hotel, after adventures with baggage, public transit, or taxi drivers, who take you on the scenic tour of the city core, in route. You can’t check in until 1pm, so you stash your bags and head out to the conference site. It’s only 4 long blocks to a conference hotel, where you find the conference bus – courtesy of THE BIG Corporation that wants your business.

You didn’t pre-register; there is the amazingly long line. You had decisions to make before arrival about the schedule, which might as well be written and organized in Cuneiform, but then you didn’t really look at it on-line anyway.

Maybe attend the grand opening with the illustrious guest and the elected elite, maybe the first session by ALSC, the first ACRL session? Hmmm, maybe the first ALISE session, immediately followed by a LISAN session. While sitting in the ALISE session, which was moved since the schedule was printed, you realize the LISAN session is 2 bus routes away.

Then it hits you, only 21/2 more days, 20,000+ new colleagues to meet, vendors to visit, another dozen+ acronyms to decipher, night events, oh yeah, you do have to get home and back to classes the next AM.


A Top Ten List for the First ALA Conference
By John Berry

10. You thought it was going to be a vacation – but it has workshops.

9. The sudden realization at checkout that the goodies in the mini-fridge weren’t free.

8. The disgust on the face of the waitperson realizing it’s a table of conference goers, who all need separate checks and receipts for re-imbursement.

7. The horror, that thousands of librarians really don’t have any fashion sense.

6. The realization, the free plastic bag will never hold all the vendor giveaways; of pencils, pens, posters, sticky notes, business cards, catalogs, books and note cards.

5. The pipedream, you can get one of the good canvas bags later than the first hour of the first day of the conference.

4. The thrill of a cutting edge workshop, where the speaker has massive technology failure and no handouts for the core of the session.

3. The conflict, coordinating a single bathroom in a broom closet hotel room, with three other roommates, who all brought more than one suitcase, who are departing on different days.

2. The joy of reward, by your section, session or vendors; with invitations, offering free food and drink. They forgot to tell you, only for the first 100 attendees at the AM session. ... And the #1 reason for attending an ALA National conference is:

1. The pride of having survived your first professional conference and finding your way home.



Joy Joins the Professionals
By Joy Humphrey

When I began library school, one of the first things I did was enroll in a professional organization. Since I already worked in a law library as a cataloger, I really needed something to mark the beginning of my transition from worker bee to professional.

From my 200 class, I knew that the American Library Association (ALA) was the oldest and biggest organization around, and I could join it as a student for a mere $25. I could also join a Division of the ALA for an additional $15, so I chose the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), and its free Sections that were pertinent to my work: the Cataloging and Classification Section (CCS), and the Serials Section (SS).

The librarians I worked with all belonged to the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), so I joined that organization. Through discussions with my co-workers about AALL, I learned to my delight that there were other organizations I could join as well, like the Special Libraries Association (SLA) and the Southern California Association of Law Libraries (SCALL). When the circulation supervisor mentioned to me that I might think about joining the Catholic Library Association (CLA), I figured it might just help to clarify my spiritual life, so I joined that, too.

Then I joined some more organizations.

When I took Drs. Hansen and Main’s course on The History of Books and Libraries, I got very interested in old manuscripts, which is how I discovered that ALA had a Division called the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) which had a Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS). How cool was that? So I joined, along with the ALA’s Round Table on Library History (LHRT). I also couldn’t help noticing that there was a Literature in English Section (LES) and since I was a former English major and prided myself on my literary savvy, why wouldn’t I join that section?

The reason I joined the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) was because of my trips to London with my husband for business. Over pints of beer I thought dreamily how I really needed to join something foreign, and IFLA’s exotic-looking paperwork fit the bill perfectly. But the reason I joined ACRL’s Arts Section (ARTS) had less to do with alcohol and more to do with having applied for an internship at the Getty. Even though I didn’t get that internship, I still thought the membership was a good idea, mostly because I had already paid for it.

So, just to recap, I’m a member of AALL, SCALL, SLA, CLA, IFLA, ALA and its Divisions ACRL and ALCTS, with their Sections ARTS, LES, RBMS, CCS, and SS, along with the Round Table LHRT. I get a lot more stuff in the mail, I spend $300 a year on dues, I don’t go to any meetings or conferences, and I don’t have time to read the publications. I’m finally on my way to being a professional.



Jessamyn West on the Digital Divide
By Mana Tominaga

ALASC hosted blogger of librarian.net and advocate of sensible uses of technology, Jessamyn West, for the annual Luminary Lecture on Wednesday, October 26, 2005. The event was held from 7 to 8:30PM in Room 225B of King Library. About 45 people attended the event, including some members from the general public.

Ms. West's talk was entitled "The Information Poor and the Information Don't Care: Small Libraries and the Digital Divide". In short, libraries in rural and lower-population areas work with a public that isn't merely information-poor, but also lack any desire or interest in learning about new computers and technology. Some librarians and library management also fall into this mindset, as well. Ms. West works in Vermont, where 34.1 % of those without broadband said that they did not feel a need to subscribe to a faster Internet access service, and among the truly disconnected, 1.9 % have not even heard of the Internet. In fact, only 15% of Vermonters (10,000 people) have cable Internet or DSL. Such statistics are quite striking to those of us in California who take broadband connectivity and interest in it for granted.

In a small community of truly disconnected people, computing decisions for the library are the decisions made for their overall computer use, and ultimately their computer understanding. In such settings, Ms. West says, ´You need to advocate for people without access or knowledge as their representative, not the vendors' representative, and not as a visitor from the brave new techno-shiny world. This means not just education, not just experience, but also patience and a lot of empathy.

For a more detailed summary of her talk, view the slides from her presentation, which are online at http://www.librarian.net/talks/sjsu/. Students and faculty may access the archived video stream at http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/courses/restricted/jessamynwest.htm.



Intellectual Property in the Digital Age: Symposium at Stanford’s Green Library
By Katie Melville

The invitation came via the San Jose State, School of Library and Information’s listserv; an opportunity to hear Lawrence Lessig speak as a panelist at Stanford’s Green Library. I arranged my schedule, took a vacation day from work and made the trek to Stanford on the afternoon of April 27, 2005. But alas, Mr. Lessig had a conflicting engagement, so Glen Otis Brown stepped in his place, as the representative from Creative Commons. Joining Mr. Brown on the panel, were Pamela Davis Kivelson, Artist in Residence at the Stanford Humanities Lab and Lauren K. Schoenthaler, Senior University Counsel for Stanford University.

Glenn Otis Brown is currently a product advisor for Google, Inc. but he was on site to talk about Creative Commons and he did just that. Glen is very qualified to represent Creative Commons, as he was the former director for about 2 years. He showed a short film strip introducing the audience of the work of Creative Commons; more details are available at: http://creativecommons.org New concepts and features at Creative Commons include; a Creative Commons search on Yahoo!, where one doesn’t have to pay royalties. Copyright doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing concept. Most people want a more reasonable and moderate form of copyright control Creative Commons is developing more flexible forms of copyright protection, based on the creator’s preferences.

Pamela Davis Kivelson is a collaborative artist working with scientists and on a variety of projects. Her web site http://www.neur-on.com shows a few of her projects and her representations of her work. She views the internet as a wonderful tool for artists to collaborate from all over the world. Her work includes; the Poster Project, to encourage girls and women in math and science, “Flies eye view of the world”, perception according to flies, wave representations in various mediums and numerous other instillations. Computers and the Internet offer new and unexplored ways of art-making. Science – Art is a new synthesis of research science. Ms. Kivelson is a proponent of experimentation, and inventing new media.

Lauren Schoenthaler, Stanford Counsel discussed a new issue that is rearing its head in the copyright realm for a number of universities, including Stanford. This relates to the Electronic course-packs used by many professors for class content. Allegations of copyright infringement have been currently leveled against Stanford and UCSD, among others. Publishers are concerned and unhappy that the use of these electronic course-packs is cutting into their profits by providing information which a student should be paying for. A student can log into the course web site and retrieve full text documents, the type of information which may have been purchased in a previous generation. Ms. Schoenthaler described the measures that the university is taking to combat the possible problem of copyright infringement, an expensive change if a claim is successful.

This symposium was open to the public and was videotaped. Past events have archives available at http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/green/ssrc/events. The symposium was an informative and interesting experience, despite the absence of Lawrence Lessig. However, Prof. Lessig’s influence was felt through the (very active) presence of Creative Commons and the copyright options offered through a less constricting notion of copyright and ownership. Creative Commons is instrumental in disseminating these radical and flexible copyright options all over the world.



Interview with Katherine Kott, Director of the DLF Aquifer
By Regina Roberts

The Digital Library Federation (DLF) is a consortium of research libraries with the goal of providing an international network of digital collections. One current DLF initiative is known as the DLF Aquifer. The Aquifer will provide DLF members with a set of online tools and services to improve access to digital library content. What follows in an interview with Katherine Kott, the current director of the DLF Aquifer.

First of all, can you tell us a little bit about your background in library work?

I began my career in technical services at the Duke University School of Law Library. During that time, I became involved with the Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) and have been interested in library consortia ever since. I have worked in various other academic libraries and for Innovative Interfaces, a vendor of library database products such as INNOPAC. Before becoming the director of Aquifer, I was the head of cataloging and metadata services at Stanford University. When I read the Aquifer director job description, I thought it was the job for me. It takes advantage of my technical background, my project management skill as well as my interest in facilitating collaboration. I came on board with the DLF in January of 2005.

What kinds of tools will the DLF Aquifer provide scholars and how can libraries benefit from participating in the project?

Although the full array of tools that will be available to scholars is still being defined, some examples of tools in evaluation are visualization tools, annotation tools and tools that would allow scholars to enrich metadata by adding tags or descriptive information. Machine-to-machine tools for mapping and data analysis may also provide benefit to the scholar through metadata augmentation or data cleanup. Although these are not direct end-user services, they do improve the scholar’s access to digital content.

Libraries can benefit from the project through the collaborative process, by getting more tools than they could create on their own. Libraries also benefit from the creative synergy of working with colleagues on prototype services that make progress towards defining what a library can be in the digital world.

What skill sets should students develop in order to understand access to digital content, and how might students in MLIS programs prepare themselves to participate in projects such as the DLF Aquifer?

Because this is such a rapidly changing area, the most useful skill sets for students to have are those that allow for constant learning, thinking and re-tooling. Becoming familiar with standards development in metadata harvesting (OAI-PMH), metasearch (NISO standards development) and with projects that provide access to digital collections would all be helpful. There is an excellent text called Digital Libraries: Principles And Practice In A Global Environment by Lucy A. Tedd and Andrew Large that gives a good overview of the issues.

In addition, students who are interested in this area would benefit from internships that provide an opportunity to learn specific technical skills such as metadata standards, data mapping, XML and web technologies.

Being able to think about services to users (what should be collected, what do users want to be able to do with the content) and to develop the facility to understand the basics of systems that provide access (data structure, what goes into getting access, e.g., metadata) are important skills.

Do you have any additional comments or advice that you would like to disseminate to students in MLIS programs?

This is a very exciting time to be a librarian--for people who are invigorated by change, who are fearless about technology and who are interested in looking creatively at partnerships with scholars, other librarians and beyond. The business of librarianship is being challenged by shifts in the way people get access to information. It is important to develop clear thinking about the value librarians and libraries bring to the information access environment in a positive way.

For more information about the DLF Aquifer visit: http://www.diglib.org/aquifer/aquifer-new.htm



Movies to Watch, Music to Hear (Consider it Professional Development)
By Sarah Krygier

In addition to being able to pinpoint bestselling books, Librarians have to know about the best movies and music, right? If that’s the motivation you need to get out and explore the best of what pop culture has to offer, then by all means, take it (I know I do). Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and not far beyond that, several weeks off from school in a ROW! While we’ll all have to spend time reintroducing ourselves to family, friends and that strangely familiar dog in the backyard, it seems a good idea to take some time for entertainment. Granted, I suggest the following with a great deal of personal bias (after all, I wouldn’t want to recommend something I didn’t like myself), but give them a try, you just might find something new to love.

DVDs

Bride and Prejudice: The Bollywood Musical—2004, Miramax Films— Small-town beauty Lalita Bakshi loathed American visitor William Darcy the first time he opened his mouth, but following Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, she soon realizes that Darcy might actually have something to offer. Directed by Gurinder Chada of Bend It Like Beckham (2002, Fox Searchlight Pictures) fame, this modern and Indian version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice includes a rockin’ performance by Ashanti, loads of great dance music and loads of laughs (check out Maya Bakshi’s “Cobra Dance”!).

Connie and Carla—2004, Universal Studios—Starring Nia Vardolos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and Toni Colette (In Her Shoes) as two lounge singers who witness a Chicago mafia hit and high-tail it to Los Angeles in search of safety and stardom, this makes for a great Girls’ Night In movie.

CDs

Michael Bublé It’s Time—2005, Reprise Records—Compared to Harry Connick Jr., this young crooner creates a beautiful sound with his covers of The Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love” and Cole Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and the play-it-over-and-over-again song, “Home.” It’s Time makes for a relaxing listen—just the thing to recover from the semester!

Coldplay X & Y—2005, Capitol Records—While I’ve been a Coldplay fan since discovering 2000’s “Parachutes” in a music store in London, it’s with X & Y that I finally “get” Coldplay...I guess it took 5 years for the sound to sink in. The haunting lyrics of “Fix You” do provide a feeling of hope, while “What If?” asks questions that we have all likely asked at some point in a relationship.



Ken Haycock’s Big Ideas
By Sarah Krygier, with additional reporting by Daria DeCooman

Here we include the first in a three part series on Dr. Haycock’s experience, plans and vision. In a most unexpected turn of events, SLIS’s new director, Dr. Ken Haycock suggests that in order to counter the negative effects of the Internet, “Instead of lecturing others, teacher-librarians need to collaborate with faculty to design assignments that require critical and creative thinking, and the use of high quality resources, working with faculty to add value to their assignments and to student success.” With six degrees, Dr. Haycock has a unique perspective on how to address the issues in the library world and those specific to SLIS.

Any students who spend a few minutes in the same room with each other know that we each experience the core classes in a different way. We leave such encounters wondering if the school will ever any standard to mandatory courses. Dr. Haycock has a handle on the issue and says, “We are looking to assign course and specialization coordinators so that there will be a lead person for each course or cluster of courses who can work to establish common guidelines and expectations.”

For those of us beyond the introductory courses and soon to head into careers in a field increasingly called obsolete and irrelevant, Dr. Haycock offers a reassuring opinion, “In an information rich and ‘amazoogle’ environment, libraries have never been used more: they are valued as important public spaces, as providing access to a wide range of resources for all, and expert assistance. Librarianship as a profession is more important than ever…”

SLIS has prepared many of us to step into our roles as archivists, records managers, policy analysts, researchers, database engineers, activity planners, and Dr. Haycock sees the school playing an even greater role in the development of specialists, “I would like to see us develop a professional master's degree in archives and records administration and an academic master's degree in children's literature. I would also like to see attention to specializations like health informatics. I think that we need a suite of courses in management.”

These steps all lead towards what Dr. Haycock eloquently terms, “unleashing the potential and helping us to become a player on the national and international stage.” Or in other words, world domination.

If you have questions, comments, concerns or compliments, please do send them on to Dr. Haycock at khaycock@slis.sjsu.edu.



Once Upon a Time
By John Berry

How else should story time start? Welcome to the beginning of the Semester with its resulting insanity. Suddenly you are confronted with class schedule life schedule reconciliation. Conflicts will abound, what to lose? Sleep is the most likely, closely followed perhaps by when you expect to graduate. All I can say here is don’t obsess and keep expectations real. “It’s about time, it’s about space, it’s all about the human race...” – name that show, just for all of you historic TV junkies. Unplugging that particular idiot box, will help your time management by the way.

At the risk of telling grandfather stories about trudging through the snow to get to school, well I went to Library School in Missouri, so actually I did trudge through the snow. Thankfully, I only lived 5 blocks from campus. See, it could always be worse.

I can only look back at this juncture and recall the 7am, MWF class I was insane enough to sign up for, because I couldn’t get into it any other time. That was immediately followed by an 8am, MWF class 5 buildings away, followed by 2 hrs. of TA duty, on the Main Library reference desk requiring still another jog across campus. Somewhere in there was yet another class that day, interspersed with 3 hrs. of being a student instructor.

They forgot to mention the hours of grading quizzes, exams and managing our own grade books. Oh yeah, my Library School faculty pretty much told us going in that they “expected” 3-5 hours of homework per course, per night. All made immensely more fun when campus was covered with ice. Always count your blessings.

All I can remember at this point is a blur of reference materials, computer programming, bibliographic instruction, grading and enough coffee to have started my own espresso café. Social life came in a poor second and sleep was a distinct third place runner up.

I know it is probably old fashioned at this point, but a day runner doesn’t have batteries to fail, so I commend it to your attention. Naturally, it doesn’t matter what you use if you fail to put your schedule and deadlines into it or fail to look at it everyday and often.

Tempus fugit (give translation and name that source!). Please keep your tray tables and seats in the upright position, which would be best, as you are your own pilot.

For those of you who have spouse, kids and job to reckon with as well, all I can say is, you are heroes (the mythic kind, not the sandwich), and it can be done. But, you might want to take it easy on how many courses you do each semester.

So, get your motors running, and load the following one in the ipod as well, if you can figure out which one it is and find it.

“Time has come today
Young hearts can go their way
Can't put it off another day
I don't care what others say
They say we don't listen anyway
Time has come today”



Joy Juggles Life
By Joy Humphrey

When I began my MLIS program a year and a half ago, I was determined not to let school run my life. With a part-time library job, a husband but no kids, and a reasonable schedule of two classes per semester, I figured I’d be able to conduct my life in a balanced manner - two days a week for school, three days a week for work, nights and weekends for home.

“What a cute schedule!” my co-worker, Jane, said. “You might also want to add in time to take your magic carpet to the cleaners and feed your unicorn.”

I ran into difficulty on my first day of implementing my schedule. I was at home reading and realized I could do a load of whites. As I stood admiring the last rays of sunlight as they danced across my husband’s bleached and folded t-shirts, I suddenly thought, “Uh-oh.” I had read only 18 pages of the 85 I was supposed to, but students don’t do housework. They live in squalor and bring their laundry home to their mothers on the weekend. That day, I decided to focus only on my school work, even if it seemed more practical to do two things at once. By week three, I had run out of underwear.

I started focusing more on my studies at work, so that I forgot I had been hired to catalog books. Sometimes I would get so overwhelmed and confused about what I was supposed to be doing, that I would shove everything aside and stuff myself with leftover donuts from the break room while reading back issues of Technical Services Librarian.

As far as balancing my home life is concerned, I have to say that security has been breached and full infiltration of school work has occurred. My bathroom sink has become the home of tiny bugs that occasionally fly out of the drain. My husband has stopped asking me where his magazines are around the house, because of my tendency to conduct reference interviews on him. My friends have stopped calling me and my recreational reading centers on MARC 21 format manuals.

My friend Jane was right. My compartmentalizing schedule did have a bit of Fantasy Land about it. Life really can’t be so easily organized.

But what can be easily organized is my home library, which is now LC classified and AACR2R compliant. Also, I’m working on a pathfinder for my husband on how to locate magazine articles from each of our bathrooms. I’d really rather do that than clean them.



4th Annual ISI Samuel Lazerow Lecture 2005; Speaker: Dr. Robert Martin
by Supriya Wronkiewicz

The fourth annual Samuel Lazerow Lecture, sponsored by the ISI took place at the San Jose Fairmont Hotel on April 22, 2005. This year's speaker was Dr. Robert Martin, presently the Director for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Dr. Martin began by discussing the history of IMLS. It is an independent grant-making agency "dedicated to the creating and sustaining a nation of learners by strengthening the capacity of libraries and museums to serve their communities." IMLS is also responsible for the funding many SJSU SLIS students receive for tuition remissions from their public libraries. IMLS was established in 1996 through the Museum and Library Services Act and was reauthorized in 2003 and administers the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and the Museum Services Act (MSA) for library programs and museum programs respectively.

One of the projects IMLS is currently involved in is digitization within the USA. There is currently "no single digital library plan for the United States." Current funding sources for digitalization projects include the IMLS statutory requirement requiring IMLS to play a role regarding digitization, formula grants for state libraries, works of other federal agencies, and the Library of Congress. Dr. Martin outlined five major functions IMLS plays regarding furthering digitization.

The first step, funding creation of digital and cultural content, is established through the LSTA and IMLS National Leadership Grants (NLG), which is the primary mode of funding digital content. Specific guidelines exist for this grant and a section is included for specifications for projects involving digitization of content. Dr. Martin offered several examples of innovative projects awarded this grant, including the Colorado Digitization Project, a project regarding the Civil Rights Movement from the University of Southern Mississippi, Historymakers project from Carnegie Mellon University, the Ephemeral Cities project from the University of Florida, museums such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Art using online projects for educational purposes, and the North Carolina Zoological Society.

The next function of IMLS is to encourage interoperability and promote standards. An example of this is through the Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections, a system used by IMLS. This was designed for people who want to create digital content and also for those interested in funding the promotion of creating digital content. These guidelines are used for NLG as well.

The third function is sponsoring research and demonstration. Dr. Martin stated how IMLS offers grants to various institutions such as universities, state agencies, archives and other professional organizations to conduct research on a variety of topics including literacy, user behaviors, and seamless access to museum and library resources. Two examples given of projects receiving such aid are the National Study of Users and Potential Users of Online Information at the Sara Fine Institute at the University of Pittsburgh and the Digital Collections and Content project at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

The next purpose of the IMLS is bringing people together to create opportunities to encourage collaboration and to exchange ideas. This is accomplished through sponsoring events such as the 2001 Digital Library Forum, the 2003 Workshop for Applied Research on the Creation, Management, Preservation, and Use of Digital Content, and the annual WebWise Conference.

The final step IMLS takes regarding furthering digitization is to support the education of library and museum professionals. According to Dr. Martin, American libraries will need many new librarians over the next decade due to many currently in the workforce potentially retiring. Congress has sponsored a program regarding educating librarians, recruiting new librarians, and expanding the knowledge of those already in the work force. IMLS is committed to providing educational tools for all and have dedicated a portion of their website to information regarding digital cultural content for future generations to access and use.
To answer the question why creating, maintaining, and preserving digital content should be done and is necessary, Dr. Martin responds that because our society is currently in an information age, it is necessary to make the transition from an information society to a knowledge society. Digital content allows for going beyond collaboration into convergence and helps create a seamless learning environment. It is important to note that how we as a society learn is changing. Dr. Martin asserts that today's society demands learning and the ability to adapt to change, and fostering an environment of lifelong learning can enable people to do so. This is important regarding libraries and museums as their boundaries blur significantly in the digital environment, where libraries act more like museums and museums can act more like libraries. While digital content does not replace the actual items, they can serve as pointers and stimuli to the real objects. It is also important to note that users accessing the data from museums and libraries online digitally do not care about the distinctions between the two; their own only concern is receiving access to the document surrogate they are interested in.

A new trend coming forward is the concept of "seamless-ness". In today's society the boundaries are blurring between work, play, and study; making multitasking a way of life. Users do not care whether or not they are accessing content from a library or museum; they just want to be able to access the information they need to continue their personal learning process. Therefore, Dr. Martin states that if we are to support this, more digital content is necessary. Digital content helps create a seamless learning infrastructure, one that stimulates learning and support for all ages and circumstances. In order to offer encouragement in a knowledge economy where learning and adaptability are becoming necessary survival skills, creating and preserving cultural content to enable that learning is vital. More information about the IMLS can be found at: http://www.imls.gov. Dr. Martin advises visiting the new Digital Corner and subscribing to the IMLS newsletter, Primary Source. The complete lecture and the PowerPoint slides used during Dr. Martin's presentation can be found on the SJSU SLIS website at: http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/slis/events/lazerow05.htm.



My CE Drama
By Cathy Cormier

January 22, 2005. Like many other students attempting the Culminating Experience (CE), this was the big day when the questions would be posted. I was both nervous and exhilarated. Having watched the online archive of Dr. Woolls' CE orientation, I knew what to do, and what not to do. So, I looked at the 12 topics, and my first thought was that there were three I could possibly answer. I immediately eliminated all topics I knew little about, wary that most were unknown territory. I ultimately chose questions that seemed to have concrete answers (see http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/289/cesp05.htm#TOPICS for this semester's topics).

After a week, I had narrowed my choices down to topics #2 and #3, and began research in earnest. I researched both questions at the same time, a frenzied search for information in the WilsonWeb OmniFile, Infotrac, Wiley Interscience and Project Muse databases, among others. I discovered journals I had never used previously (including Library Trends, Marketing Library Services, Libraries and Culture, Public Library Quarterly), and the great ILLIAD interlibrary loan service that faxed or e-mailed links to articles not immediately available.

What would seem to be smooth sailing at this point turned into a quagmire of molasses. Even though I knew that I would not find the answers to either of my questions through searching alone, I was compelled to keep searching for better, more authoritative information. So, I now will share with you lessons I learned the hard way.

Give yourself a short period of time to pick your topics. However, don't be afraid to abandon a question if it is not working for you even if you have already started working on it. You may think you know something about a topic because you are interested in it, however, if you have not taken a course in the subject, you are at a huge disadvantage as you will have to learn all about the subject before you can sufficiently answer the question.

To prepare for the CE, read widely about the profession. Even if you are aspiring youth services librarian, you need to know about issues and trends in all areas of librarianship. Read American Libraries and other journals. All the articles in essential library publications (Library Journal, Library Trends, Public Libraries, Information Outlook, Journal of Library Administration, to name a few) can be accessed for free as a SJSU SLIS student thorough the King Library databases.

*Really* know APA. Unfortunately, none of my instructors were strict enforcers of APA. Although many of the library literature articles are written using APA formatting (e.g. citing in text), the style of these articles are often not in keeping with the recommended style in the APA manual. As a result, I became very confused, and found myself eliminating all poetic license and what I thought were appropriate metaphors from my papers. Although I did not hire an editor, I had a friend who successfully passed in a previous semester read my papers, and she continually emphasized that the writing should be straightforward, and jargon-free.

Keep it simple, and remember this is an exercise. It is pass/fail, and your task is not to reinvent the wheel.

Take Blackboard comments with a grain of salt. Use the sources you find there if helpful, but ignore commentary that discusses how many references you need to pass and the like. Basically, ignore everything that is irrational. Had I been more rational about the whole process I would not have left stupid mistakes until the end, where they were lost in an emotional and fatigued fugue.

Make it like a class, where you devote certain hours to it each day, or week, and outline specific tasks you will work on. This was my undoing, that I had not scheduled my time effectively. Had I taken the time at the beginning to devote, say, a 1/2 hour each week to making sure my work conformed to APA would have been a better approach than leaving it all for the end, which is what I did.

Now that I have shared my lessons learned, I would like to pass along a recommendation to faculty that will hopefully help some of you: create an in-person class option that meets every other week for students who are interested. This class would be facilitated by a faculty member who could help keep students on track and focused. Such an option would have been an immense help to me, a person who has learned far more from classes with an in-person component.

Postscript: I wrote this before I found out if I passed, and I can thankfully report that I received a letter in the mail stating that I passed both questions!



Student Conference Report
By Melissa Beuoy

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of ALA, provides academic librarians with various tools and resources to advance learning and scholarship in the field. California Academic and Research Libraries (CARL), the California chapter of ACRL, offers workshops, discussion groups, and networking opportunities for academic librarians throughout the state.

Every other year, ACRL has a conference to help keep academic librarians up-to-date about current research and trends in academic librarianship. CARL offers its student members (and other types of members) the opportunity to win a $1000 scholarship to attend ACRL. ACRL also offers library school students scholarship money to attend its conference.

This past April was the 12th National ACRL conference in Minneapolis. As I was going to be culminating this semester, and since I am hoping to get into academic librarianship, I thought this conference might be a great opportunity to see what the profession is like, as well as network, and maybe make some future job contacts. And the conference took place just days after culminating papers were due, so I could go free of that worry. But living on student loans does not permit one to jet off to conferences. So I applied for the CARL scholarship. I was lucky enough to win the $1000 scholarship, which covered flight, hotel, conference registration (student price), and most of my food.

The conference itself was an amazing experience. It was attended by 4,000+ librarians and vendors - one of the largest turnouts yet. I had not yet been to any big conferences, just local CARL workshops. While ALA sounds like a lot of fun, I have always been kind of intimidated by how big it is. ACRL is a great first conference because the crowd is not overwhelmingly huge, and all the topics are relevant to one specific field of librarianship, so there is less chance for distraction (if you are going for career development purposes of course).

The conference offered workshops such as statistics for librarians, panel sessions on library instruction and reference, contributed papers (including one by Mary Somerville, professor extraordinaire of LIBR 210 and 287), poster sessions, a huge exhibit hall full with great exhibits, and three great keynote sessions. The opening keynote speaker, William Mitchell, a professor of architecture and media arts and sciences at MIT, discussed how technology and digital networks can transform classrooms and libraries as a physical space. I attended panel sessions such as "Menage a Trois: The Essential Computing, Library and Instructional Technology Partnership to Advance New Media Learning," and "Rethinking Information Literacy Instruction to First Year Students," and a few other sessions on Information Literacy assessment, academic freedom, and a discussion on the new generation of professionals that may not have a MLIS, but are getting hired as librarians because of their in-depth knowledge of different subjects.

In addition to all the great speakers, ACRL offered a Job Placement Center and a Resume Review service. The job placement center offered a database in which academic libraries could post positions and job seekers could post their resume. The Resume Review service had experienced librarians critique resumes on both format and content. And of course, the conference offered many opportunities to network. The exhibit hall, luncheons, and a huge reception held at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts were all good places to meet academic librarians from across the country.

But I must say, my favorite part of the conference was the dinner the CARL Executive Board and the Conference Scholarship Committee held in my honor. It was great to talk to librarians with great achievements under their belts and learn how these people got where they are.

For any of you interested in academic librarianship, I would definitely recommend getting involved in both ACRL and CARL and attending its local workshops (CARL offers activities to both its north and south members). And while ACRL will not happen again until 2007, CARL will host a conference in April 2006 and it offers scholarships of $500 for library school students to attend.



March Salon on MLIS Hiring Issues
By Supriya Wronkiewicz

On Monday, March 21st, ALASC sponsored a salon featuring Christine Doxtad, a collection development manager at Sunnyvale Public Library, and Ben Lundholm, a school librarian at Mountain View High School.

Questions asked included:

General Questions:
What advice would you give a current MLIS student with little prior library experience?

Ben talked about pursuing volunteer opportunities at local libraries. Both he and Christine had no prior library experience prior to receiving their MLIS, so they recommended playing up any possible customer service experience, especially in a public setting. Christine recommended self-education through journals just as American Libraries or Library Journal (both of which are available through King Library). Both had teaching credentials, which Ben used to his benefit to get his first position as a school librarian. Both also encouraged showing enthusiasm and a willingness to learn since many employers look for a positive attitude towards being taught skills.

What is the outlook hold for public and school library jobs?

According to Christine, the outlook for public library jobs is good in light of the fact that many current librarians are close to retirement. Libraries are also always looking for fresh perspectives. According to Ben, there are school library jobs available. A great place to start would be www.calopps.org, which lists jobs for public libraries as well. For school libraries, employers also look for energy and enthusiasm, but some may only hire part time. But, it is also necessary to realize that due to budget cuts, it may be necessary to leave the area to find a job.

Are technology skills very important in seeking jobs in librarianship? If so, how much and what kind of technology skills should we have to be able to compete in today's tough job market as a librarian?

Both agreed technology skills are very important. Ben replied that in school libraries, librarians are expected to be very "tech-savvy" as the students tend to go towards electronic resources first. Christine added that in public libraries it is necessary to know (and training will be provided) which webpages to push, to use databases, e-books, and downloadable audio books. It is necessary for librarians to know how people are accessing information and adapt accordingly. People will still need a librarian's help in finding information.

Are professional organizations like ALA and CLA critical while we're in library school as opposed to when we do have a professional library job?

According to Ben, they are critical as a great way to meet librarians and know what is going on the field and that they help prevent librarians from feeling isolated. Christine felt that while joining was not fully necessary, it is a good idea to attend conferences when they take place nearby. The publications are invaluable, but they are also available at public libraries, such as King Library and Sunnyvale Public Library. It is possible to get by without joining such organizations, but joining is a good idea.

Should we put all recent work experience on our resume, or just experience relevant to library work?

Christine reiterated highlighting customer service skills and putting any related information down and any relevant volunteer work. Ben mentioned that his prior teaching experience helped show how he had done similar tasks before and also backed up Christine's point regarding pushing any past customer service experience.

Public Library Questions:

If we are interested in seeking careers as reference librarians in public libraries (not as children's librarians), what classes should we take? Our school has recommended classes for the library track but they do not seem feasible?

Christine recommended taking a reference class to get basic knowledge, and if you plan to work in a small library, maybe a children's resources class. It also helps to have some reader's dvisory (recommending which books to read) background. Taking a cataloging course will help in understanding the OPAC. In today's society, taking a database class will help, and if possible, a class on project management. For public libraries, it is also necessary to learn how to work within the political system, how to be a library advocate, and how to communicate the importance of all library materials. She also recommends taking a class on interpersonal skills with patrons and other staff members to deal with difficult people and situations as they arise.

As a library student, what kind of public library job do you recommend us to look for? Do you recommend we start from any position - page, clerk - whatever we can get, or should we start from something we can learn more to better polish our skills, knowledge and experiences?

According to Christine, it would be nice to start with a professional position, but is not always possible. But, paraprofessional positions offer multiple opportunities to learn and students can build on that.

School Library Questions:

What are the qualifications if you wish to seek a school librarian position - MLIS degree, school library credential, and/or CA teaching credential? Do we need all three, or 2 of these options or is the MLIS degree enough?

Ben replied that to work in a school library both a teaching credential and school library media credential are mandatory. MLIS is not necessary, but recommended, as it could affect where you would fall on the pay scale. Either the MLIS or school library credential will suffice, but a teaching credential is essential.

What are some of the differences between working in elementary, middle, and high school libraries? What are the main duties of school librarians?

According to Ben, difference between ages is personal and circumstances will also vary from school to school. Some jobs will require more time and effort compared to others. Most school librarians work alone, so they do a little bit of everything- reference, circulation, acquisitions, etc. Daily duties are determined by outside forces (students, teachers). It is also important to collaborate with teachers as maintaining good relationships with them are essential.

Other Thoughts:

Christine suggested that students be patient with themselves during the interview process and to relay on paper (resume, cover letter) their vision and enthusiasm. It is also a good idea to visit the organization before the interview so you can talk about it and/or ask questions. Both Christine and Ben recommended visiting local school and public libraries to see how the varying facilities operate. Most librarians are open to students visiting and allowing for student to observe at shifts as long as appointments are made in advance.



Experience to Get Experience
By Sarah Krygier

"Yes, you do have an MLIS, but all of our applicants have that degree. What library experience do you have?"

Luckily, SLIS has taught us all how to solve these seemingly unsolvable problems, and we have at our hands a number of resources for getting library experience (or the equivalent) in a variety of creative ways.

Volunteer at your local public library. With positions ranging from Public Relations Assistant to Storyteller, you can find the position that fits your interests (both personal and professional). Many people enjoy volunteering at libraries, and positions might run few and far between. Just as with our upcoming job searches, you may to look beyond your own library. Search on your favorite library's website for volunteer opportunities. Two of my favorite libraries have links with more information:

Solano County Library
http://solanolibrary.com/solano.cfm?page=aboutus_volunteer
San Francisco Public Library
http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/librarylocations/main/volunteer.htm

Work with the Friends of the Library. Friends offer opportunities such as working in the bookstore,, sponsoring programming events and even fundraising for artwork.

Serve on the board. Serve on the board of a library foundation, commission or advisory council. These opportunities will vary by library but offer a marvelous chance to get involved with things like: fundraising, budgeting, hiring, and policy making.

Apply for a position as a literacy tutor or with Reach Out and Read. The regular time commitment (often two hours a week) and intense training schedule may preclude many library school students from choosing this option, but the rewards will prove endless. For more information visit your local library and ask for the literacy coordinator, or try a couple of my favorites:

Benicia Public Library - Literacy Tutors http://www.ci.benicia.ca.us/literacy/tutor/tutor.html
Reach Out and Read National Site - find a ROR center near you!
http://www.reachoutandread.org/about_find.html

Get involved with an alumni group at an academic library. Getting an entry level job at an academic library might prove difficult, as current students usually take those positions. If you can find out which branch of the alumni association assists the library, though, you might find yourself not only involved with events at the library but also developing a network of professional collections.

Volunteer for a special library or for an archival organization. If your interests lie in law libraries, many law libraries are run by county government, or even by the county library. Public libraries often have archives, such as the McCune collection at John F. Kennedy Library in Vallejo, CA, and would love to use your expertise and have you serve as a docent.

Become a Library Page or Departmental Aide. These often require much less library experience than higher level positions and are often filled directly by branches, as opposed to through the system wide office.

Apply for a position at a bookstore. The duties in sales positions at bookstores are similar to those of entry level library positions, including knowing the inventory, shelving books, planning events (ranging from a Harry Potter Release Party, complete with costumes, to monthly author visits or open mic poetry events), and inputting catalogue information into the computer. Management positions allow the opportunity to develop relationships with vendors.

Complete a practicum. Alumni and professors alike recommend this option. If you have the opportunity, this is a marvelous opportunity to get experience as a librarian. You will work closer with supervisors than you would as a page, and you should have the opportunity to implement change or at least oversee an ongoing project.

Also, did you know that ALA has started advertisting a great opportunity for those who simply want to get out there into the professional library working world?
A career placement center offered at both the mid-winter and annual conferences. Job seekers need not attend the conferences and can sign up for free online. We employment-challenged folk can browse job listings and post our resumes for employers to search. The placement center will open again on April 15. The link to the mid-winter center is:
http://www.ala.org/ala/hrdr/placementservice/currentconference.htm.



Top Ten Ways to Burn Your Bridges in Library Land
By Sarah Krygier (who is hoping to pass through her career without ever doing any of these things)

Note: This is by no means a set of rules that you SHOULD follow, nor does doing the opposite of each item guarantee you career advancement.

10. Send a global e-mail to all library staff complaining about how a senior manager contacted you PRIVATELY after you had left to discuss some lingering personnel issues. Tell everyone in the whole library system EXACTLY how you feel about the manager.

9. Make sure that one of your friends from outside of the library hits "reply all" to your global e-mail and sends out an e-mail referring to all the managers as "fat cows." This will work especially well if this is certain to go to the Director, who is well respected in the library community, at the local, state, and national levels, and will remember your name.

8. If you frequently work with the public, try your best to be as rude as possible. Not only might this get you fired (a sure way to burn a bridge ; see also #10), but you might also offend someone like the mayor, a member of the Board of Supervisors, or the State Librarian, before you even know it!

7. Ask everyone you meet for a business card, and before you tell your boss you plan to resign your position, call everyone of your "contacts" and ask for a position.

6. If you work in an academic library, call all professors by their first names, even when speaking to students. Also, insult the alumni whenever you have the opportunity. Referring to them as "stupid old coots who can't let go" will do wonders for the sinking of your career!

5. When given the opportunity to work with the Friends of the Library (or a similar organization), it is best to ask the volunteers why they don't have anything better to do with their time. If you insult the people who fund a good 60% of children's and YA programming in your public library, you're sure to stir up some anger in your supervisors and in the volunteers - so many bridges burned, all at once!

4. Especially, if you are brand new to a library, you should tell everyone you meet exactly what you think is wrong with the way things are done and start writing up your proposals for how to change them. If you notice a better way for the literacy staff to display their brochures, you should rush into the office and tell them right away. If you notice that the Chancellor mispronounced the name of an author in his last speech to the campus, you should set up a meeting and tell him/her about it.

3. Send scathing e-mails to your SJSU professors about each and every complaint you have. "Too much" reading? Send an e-mail! This is not quite the class you wanted? Send an e-mail! You don't like the color of the logo? Send an e-mail! Professors' schedules are just as hectic as students' schedules, so if you send them as many time-wasting e-mails (or voice mail messages, even better!) as possible, you will certainly kill off a good number of professional contacts.

2. Neglect to return e-mails and phone calls - ontacts hate it when you only get in touch to ask for something! So, avoiding all follow-up conversation really shows that you needed the person only so you could get ahead.

1. Lastly, say what you will about simplicity, but the tried and true methods of coming to work late, leaving early, and taking extended lunch and break times remain one of the best methods for ensuring that you'll never work in this town again!



QuickSLIS 2003: Oh the Memories
By Lydia Collins


The opportunity to participate in QuickSLIS was intriguing to me as I knew that living in the Central Valley this would be an excellent opportunity to familiarize myself with the campus, meet other students, and to build my confidence as a new graduate student. As I had graduated with my bachelors degree the day prior to the beginning of QuickSLIS, and completed my finals only two days before that, I was hesitant to commit to being a participant. In retrospect, it was one of the best decisions that I have made.

The Courses

During the first week of the program the course taken was LIBR 200- Information and Society. Our professor for this course was Dr. Marva DeLoach. As this was the very first course I'd taken in the program I was quite nervous about what was expected of me. However, Professor DeLoach was able to alleviate my apprehension.

The second course LIBR 202-Information Retrieval with Dr. Judy Tessier, proved to quite difficult as the information taught was entirely new to me. There was so much to learn and critical thinking was a must. The reading assignments in this course were rather intense, as was the quiz.

LIBR 204-Information management with Professor Dan Fuller, was taken completely online, but we had the chance to meet Professor Fuller both virtually and in person via video conferencing with our cohort group in Fullerton and a surprise visit. As this was the first class I had ever taken completely online, I learned self-discipline and time management immediately.

The Experience and Memories

However, what stands out most in my mind was the opportunity to interact with peers and faculty of SLIS. This was definitely the most rewarding portion of this program. The instructors took the time to cover new material, answer our queries, and familiarize us with the campus. But the most memorable portion of the program was the living arrangements. I along with the majority of my peers were introduced to SJSU dormitory living. What made this experience less unpleasant was the fact that I was constantly surrounded by my fellow QuickSLIS students, and we all made the best of our situation.

There are memories of long walks to find dining accommodations, grocery stores, and to simply explore. Long nights where every dormitory room light was still on in order to complete intense reading assignments, write essays, and exchange ideas. Late night trips to find the restroom stumbling in the dark while trying not to disturb roommates. QuickSLIS included an excellent learning opportunity, an introduction to SLIS and the SJSU campus, a chance to meet both peers and SLIS faculty, and time to develop life long friendships with fellow students.



Practicum Insights
By Mana Tominaga

Two days a week, I leave my humble abode in downtown San Jose and take CalTrain to San Mateo Public Library, where I am enjoying a challenging and rewarding practicum in the technical services department.

I mainly work on updating pseudoMARC records. Due to an upcoming ILS migration, all pseudoMARC records in the cataloging system need to be converted to proper MARC records. I first search in the existing system and choose the best record, or use OCLC CatME to search for and pass the best record. I also work on Japanese materials cataloging, either with OCLC or doing actual original cataloging. I have been attending meetings at the professional level, such as a consortium-wide cataloging standards meeting, and a system-wide ILS migration taskforce meeting. It's been fun learning how to operate those pesky bookcarts, too!

A practicum can be a wonderful learning experience, allowing you to network with a wide range of professionals and experience work life in various organizations. The administration is concerned that you do professional level work, and will work with you and your potential manager to ensure that your experience is in fact rewarding. I truly appreciated the care that went into approving my practicum, which has been a great learning experience so far.

My SLIS buddy asked me a few questions about the practicum, and I thought I'd share our exchange.

Q. Do I need to contact the supervisor first or fill out the application form first? If several people are interested in the same location, will everyone get it? Can I apply for more than one at a time because I'm not sure which one I can get in?

A. What I did was contact the supervisor first, and prepare the application form once the supervisor and I settled on a specific practicum focus. My case is a bit unique because I started out interviewing for a totally different practicum at the same library, and in the course of the original interview, it was decided that because I had taken a cataloging class and could read/write Japanese, I should just help out with the cataloging migration project that was going on.

Just be sure to read and complete all the forms in full when you submit your application. Of course it depends on the organization and opportunity, but I don't think practicums are cut-throat-competitive, so if you apply to one, I think you should have a good chance to get placed in that organization. Just check the approved practicum list on the SLIS site often, and be sure to read up on the guidelines. I don't think it's a problem to apply to more than one, but I would be careful about annoying any managers who may count on you to continue with the practicum process. Also, make sure it's something you really want to do -- a semester can end up being too long if you aren't having fun.




Academic or Public? The Pros and Cons of Two Library Settings
By Supriya Wronkiewicz

On Saturday, January 29th, the ALASC sponsored a salon featuring Norma Kobzina, an academic librarian at the UC Berkeley Bioscience Library and Thomas Fortin, a reference librarian at the Berkeley Public Library.

Speaker Biographies:
Norma's official title at present is Head of Information Services at the Bioscience Library, a position that she describes as involving "everything short of circulation." While she has worked in an academic life science library since receiving her MLIS degree from UC Berkeley, her background did not include the sciences, but a doctoral degree in Spanish. Outside of the library, she also participates in various library organizations and in committees within those organizations such as the ALA, SLA, and SciTech. Today, she works with the College of Natural Resources as part of their curriculum committee and does reference instructions for student groups ranging from incoming freshman to graduate students.

Thomas has worked in several public libraries since receiving his MLIS from University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1989. Before working at the Berkeley Public Library, Thomas worked in the Winnetka Public Library in Illinois, as a business reference librarian at the Hennepin County Library in Minnesota, the Pratt Library in Baltimore, Maryland, San Jose Public Library, and then as a branch manager at the West Branch of the Berkeley Public Library before taking on his present position as Manager of Adult Services.

Questions Asked Included:

Given budget cuts faced by public libraries and with layoffs and libraries closing, is this a promising career?

Thomas answered that public librarians have a "vibrant future" as they are becoming more vital due to increased usage. Yet, because of budget cuts, public librarians need to do more with less. Norma responded that in the academic setting, positions would also pop up as a result of politics within the institutions. Another issue is that the field is currently top heavy, and a lot of librarians will be retiring soon, and new librarians will be needed to fill those positions.

What role will age play? Will an older MLIS student chances be hurt as a result of the field being top heavy at the moment?

Both replied that previous work experience prior to library studies will come into play and the age will not necessarily work against them as a result.

Did graduate school adequately train you for your job?

Norma felt it did and did not. The classes she took were useful to her and she felt the class she taught at Berkeley was useful, but most of her experience with management she learned on the job. Thomas felt the classes were good for learning the history of the profession and can be especially helpful for learning about resources and services to children and teens. However, he felt he gained a great deal of his practical knowledge on the job.

What do you feel are the values of internships? What are the politics involved in asking for an unpaid internship?

Norma's response was that internships were the most important thing you can do. She has worked with many students as interns or working on field studies. Thomas agreed and also mentioned that another means of getting experience in public libraries would be to volunteer for a project which can be qualify as practicum or course credit. It is best to approach the library with a project already in mind and fairly worked out to show that it can be accomplished with minimal supervision from a supervisor. Also, it is important to note that union rules state that volunteers cannot do anything a staff member can or would do.

What are examples of the kind of courses that would stand out on a resume?

Norma replied anything that teaches technical and computer skills (i.e. online searching), cataloging, collection development, archiving skills and preservation to name a few. Thomas added that it depends on the job. For example, in public libraries coursework in children's services would help with a small-staffed library.

Is becoming a manager necessary for promotion?

Thomas replied in a public library setting, moving through management is necessary for advancement, which will entail less contact with the public and more administrative duties. According to Norma, it will depend on the individual academic library, but in her experience becoming a manager was not necessary because her work in organizations and various committees allowed for multiple other opportunities for advancement.

Will instructional experience help for either library setting and how can you get such experience?

Both replied in the affirmative, especially for academic libraries. Means of getting such experience if not already in your background can include working as an instruction intern (someone who would help teach or moderate a class) or taking supplementary coursework in "instructional design" (courses on how to organize and teach a class).

What Employers Look For and What You Can Do for Your Career:

For finding and applying for jobs in academic libraries, Norma recommended going to organizations such as ALA or SLA Jobline. She says having a well-organized resume, no more than two pages and that the cover letter is more important. Skills that can be helpful include subject expertise for subject-specific librarians, such as a second Master's degree, computer/web development skills, fluency in a foreign language, and any public service experience. Questions likely to come up in interviews include asking if the applicant ever created a project and its outcome; where they fall in terms of attention to detail compared to seeing the big picture; and have they ever had any experience in user education.

For jobs in public libraries, with the possible exception of a second master's degree, Thomas said that employers seek similar skills. He reiterated than a clean organized resume is best and applicants are encouraged to put their skills at the top, followed by work experience. For experiences that would fortify an application, but do not quite fit in the work experience category of a resume, he recommends placing them in the resume, but then highlighting those experiences in the cover letter. They both also mentioned how much getting involved in library organizations helped in terms of networking, skill-building, and opportunities presented which can help in career advancement.



Communicating With a Diverse Workforce in Boston
By Michele Alaniz (Participant in ARL's Initiative to Create a Diverse Workforce)

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to travel to Boston for a leadership symposium put together by the Association of Research Libraries. As a participant in ARL's Initiative to Create a Diverse Workforce class of 2004-2006, I was submerged in an intensive 3-day workshop. This involved a professional writing seminar, the leadership symposium which consisted of lectures from various library professionals, and a meet and greet reception in which we networked with several ARL Directors from libraries all over the United States. This was a fantastic opportunity for me, as a second year student enrolled in the MLIS program at SJSU. Besides the many networking opportunities, I also got to know the 14 other participants in the ARL initiative program, including Claudia Holguin, another MLIS student from San Jose State. Further, I got to see a little bit of what it's like when thousands of librarians take over a city for a week.

The 14 other ARL participants and I were up every day attending conferences from 8:30 to 5:30. The various lecture topics ranged from issues such as personal leadership, deciding whether to become LIS Faculty, and considering a residency or internship after graduation. While I'm still not sold on pursuing a doctorate after completing my MLIS, I realize now that are many more options and potential opportunities available to MLIS students and graduates. This conference also gave me several opportunities to meet guest lecturers, particularly Theresa Neely. I have read several of her articles and publications on diversity within the library profession, and find her work very inspiring.

Though I only made it to one ALA workshop on recruitment issues, it was interesting to see the mix of library professionals from all over the United States throughout the city. Everywhere I looked there were librarians. I talked to them on shuttles between hotels, in between lectures at refreshment tables, and even in restaurants far from conference spots. These experiences made me thrilled about the profession that I will embark upon in about a year's time. One of the high points of the conference was getting to network with the ARL Directors within an informal setting. It gave me an idea of possible job prospects and different kinds of libraries out there that I could possibly work for even if it means leaving California.

I initially found out about this program while doing research for a paper on diversity in libraries last spring, two days before the application was due. I quickly applied and was surprised to find out a few months later that I was accepted into the program. This meant that I would get a generous stipend, be flown to Boston for the ARL Leadership Symposium, and hopefully get assistance in finding a job in a research library after I graduate. I had previously been turned down for several scholarships, but just kept trying because there are many opportunities out there for library students. After all, participating in the symposium was an exhausting way in which to begin this semester, but it was such a valuable experience that can help me later on in my career as a librarian.



Super-Librarian!
By Sarah Krygier

Only on rare occasions does she stay in the office an entire day. Her role in the library never involves answering questions at the reference desk, reading to toddlers or helping a senior citizen use the Internet - but she has done all of those things already. She also knows more about carpet adhesive than she ever wanted to know. Instead of a receipt printer, she has a hardhat on her desk. For the last three years, she has been involved in the remodeling and building of four libraries, with each project taking well over two years from inception to completion. In her "spare time" in the office, she serves as the chair of the Public Art Committee for the county and bears responsibility for getting artists to sign contracts and submit insurance certificates.

Yes, the Director of Library Services is the definition of a super-librarian. She has to keep the knowledge she used "on the floor" in a public library while constantly continuing to expand her breadth of knowledge. While she may deal with few customers, she needs to keep up with trends in customer service so that she can properly train her staff of Librarians. She even attended the CLA conference and gave a presentation on our system's master plan in action. She is friendly and approachable, although her title sometimes scares people away. They seem so hesitant as they approach the office - they lean in and ask, "Is she on the phone? Can I talk to her?"

Sure, she is at the pinnacle of one public library, but visitors have no real reason to fear her. She's wonderfully sarcastic and intelligent, and she handles pressure with grace. When the opening of a new branch was delayed several months due to construction defects, she never yelled or cursed. She simply made the proper calls and notified all the Library Boards of the delay and continued on with her other duties.

In a single afternoon, she may have a conference call with County Counsel to discuss the contracts of the artists designing works for the new County Government Center and a meeting with the construction project manager. Do not be fooled by her outside projects, for the super-librarian is still in touch with what happens locally, at the customer level. On that same day, she'll also have met with the other Administrative Librarians to discuss expanding the African-American collection at a small branch library, based on a customer request, implementing RFID at any library and how to address personnel vacancies as existing employees transfer to positions at the new library.

Yes, she knows what goes on at each branch.
Yes, she checks books out of the collection and reads them.
Yes, she is a real person with friends and family.
No, Kryptonite does not affect her.
Great Library Directors are examples of the best Librarians - they love libraries so much, they are willing to venture outside their protective walls, stacked high with knowledge, and make them even stronger. Super-Librarian is just doing her job.



My Life as a Library Elf
By Sarah Krygier

Before I become influenced by library school jargon, I want to take this opportunity to clear the mystery of what happens "upstairs." Though we have cute shoes, we at headquarters are not really Santa's elves.
8:00 -Riiiiinnnng. An early-bird city official calls for the Director. My boss is checking out the carpet at the new branch library, and I have to inform him that she will return his call as soon as possible. He sighs and hangs up the phone. I take off my coat and start the day.
8:30 -A graphics order arrives on my desk. Yeah! I love graphics orders! I flip through the "Marketing Collateral Standards" and find the template for Young Adults. I open up Publisher and get to work.The Young Adult Librarian has requested a picture of either a round Christmas ornament or a votive holder. I search through my bag of tricks and come up with a Christmas Ornament shaped votive holder. I pass along the flyer for approval by the clerical supervisor and the librarian.

9:37 - I'll start now on the volunteer hours. I've made these stats my pet project. It happens to be the end of a quarter, so I'll not only input the monthly stats into the Access database I created but also will get to create some lovely charts in Excel.

10:13 - The city official from earlier calls, and I transfer him to the Director.

10:45 -An e-mail from the YA Librarian; she loves the flyer and asks if I can get it printed this afternoon?

I come out of an Excel-induced fog and prepare the flyers -they'll be in the branch today, as if by magic. 11:15 -Mail time! I go to the row of mailboxes and sort through the Director's mail, pulling out catalogs and order forms that should go to other departments, although industrious salespeople always address them to "Director." In the Library Foundation mailbox, I find fundraiser response envelopes -six months after the initial mailing!

I return to my desk and begin to process the check in Access -inputting the donation amount, generating a Thank You letter. As the printer whirs, the phone rings, and I am immersed in a conversation with a regular library customer who insists he has been mistreated. I listen to his complaints and let him know that the appropriate librarian will get in touch with him. He accuses me of trying to pawn him off on someone else, and I assure him that he would benefit more from talking to a librarian at his local branch than to me. Strangely, these moments are the ones that most inspire me to become a librarian.

2:15 -Everyone's back from lunch, and the phones are quiet. I've finished a draft of the Quarterly Volunteer Statistics Report and handed it to both the Volunteer and Community Relations Coordinators before sending it to the branches.

3:36 -Emergency! Well, a library emergency. A Supervising Librarian needs a bookmark ASAP -she has a celebration at her branch this weekend. I design the bookmark and route it on for approval.

4:22 -Already? I start working on next month's meeting calendar.

4:46 -The Director pokes her head out of her office -can I put together a contract packet for a county artist? It must go out with Fed-Ex by 9 a.m. I'll finish the calendar tomorrow.

5:01 -My tasks for the day are done, my desk is clean and my computer is ready for sleep. So am I, but instead I'll go home and continue with Lemony Snicket - I'm prepping for my career as a YA Librarian!



Salons, Socials, and Surprises in Spring 2005!
By Angie Miraflor

A warm welcome to our new SLIS students and a welcome back to those who have made it through the program so far! This semester, ALASC is excited to bring you many new events and resources. We know that everyone already has a busy schedule with school, work, and families; but we hope you can still take advantage of what ALASC has to offer. It's a great way to learn new things, network, find support and make friends. Here's to an excellent Spring 2005!

Socials and Salons:
To kick off the semester, ALASC is planning a social where new and old students (and maybe even some faculty) can come together in a comfortable environment and chat, drink, and eat. The social from last November at Gordon Biersch, was a success and we hope to have many more like it. There will be more information coming soon.



On Saturday, January 29th, we will be kicking off our semester of salons around the bay with "Academic or Public?" Norma Kobzina, an academic librarian from UC Berkeley and Thomas Fortin, a reference librarian from Berkeley Public Library will be presenting the pros and cons of working in academic and public libraries. Go to the ALASC website for more information.
Other salons will be featured throughout the semester and in different parts of the Bay Area. Be on the lookout for speaking engagements in Santa Cruz, San Jose and San Francisco.

ALASC Resources:
The first semester of graduate school can be very stressful and lonely. To ease some of your worries, ALASC and LISSTEN (Library and Information Science Students to Encourage Networking) have a buddy program that pairs up new students with those who have been in the program for at least one semester. It's a great way to get some tips on those core classes or just to get to know someone in the program! Look for more information regarding the Buddy Program on our website or through the various department Listservs.

Have a question about classes? When to pay fees? Where to get a good price on a used textbook? Then just ask ALASC! Our questions and answers page will be updated throughout the semester with your questions and concerns. If you have a question, email: alasc.descriptor@yahoo.com. Please note: any of the advice given is purely anecdotal from students and some staff experiences. For any definite information, please consult your advisor or the department.

Do you know what makes the SLIS Descriptor great? YOUR contributions! The Descriptor is always looking for story ideas, pictures, reviews, or anything else library-related (preferably SLIS-related). So if you have something to share with your fellow classmates and faculty, email: alasc.descriptor@yahoo.com with your suggestions.



Entertaining and learning at the CLA conference

Summaries of just a few of the workshops attended at the November 2004 conference.

I attended a session called "Reference Update: Steering Successfully in the Sea of Change" in the Adult/Reference track. The panelists were Jane Light, San Jose Public Library Director; Rita Torres, San Jose Public Library; Amy Tsiang, East Asian Library, University of Los Angeles; Jeanne Goodrich, Jeanne Goodrich Consulting.
The session focused on building multilingual collections. The panel suggested sending selectors to book fairs abroad to make sure your library is able to provide the community the latest and greatest, rather than getting books a year later once they had filtered through the channels. They also said that this allows libraries to choose materials for a particular culture, not just a language. Materials from Spain, for example, would often be grouped together in selection guides with other Spanish materials, but the language alone does not qualify them for an audience which may originate from other Spanish speaking countries, on completely different continents.

The panel also addressed what to do when there is not staff proficiency in all the languages that need to be served by your library. An option they suggested was choosing a vendor that specializes in selection and cataloging work in international languages. One particularly interesting solution for handling cataloging backlogs in international languages is a temporary librarian exchange program that would allow a library to get expert knowledge for a short period of time. As a future librarian with an interest in international collections I found this session to be well worth attending.
-Laurie Briggs

I took the Caltrain to CLA. After the Exhibition hall opened, I went to the Infopeople booth where there were mini-workshops throughout the conference (10 minutes each) that were previews of the continuing education workshops they offer to librarians, library workers, and library students at locations throughout the state and online (check out their website www.infopeople.org to see all they offer). The first one I sat in on was by SLIS Children's Resources instructor Penny Peck, who gave a lively and informative overview of her workshop for public librarians who sometimes have to but do not usually work in children's services. On Sunday I saw a presentation by Young Adult services advocate (and guru) Michael Cart.
On Saturday I attended the What's New in Technology presentation, which was an informative overview of the newest technology available to libraries. The handouts for this presentation are available online at http://www.watsonville.lib.ca.us/cla.html. Among the topics discussed were digital rights management; a strong argument for public libraries to provide free wireless access; a definition of RSS and resources to manage these feeds; and the new standard of open source software.

Then I went to Karen Schneider's presentation about LII (http://lii.org), Librarians Index to the Internet, a state-funded Internet portal. I learned the basics of how to use LII as a reference tool, and also learned how librarians continuously evaluate, classify and weed websites that are listed therein to keep LII current.

I also attended the SLIS-sponsored Storytelling program at the Gala Dessert Reception in memory of Jennifer Makofsky. There were three storytellers, all of whom were outstanding at their craft, although the last one was my favorite with his lively retelling with his banjo of Pete Seeger's folktale Abiyoyo.

Finally, I listened to Master Speaker Chitra Divakaruni, Indian-born author of Mistress of Spices and other novels, in discussion with James Quay, executive director of the California Council for the Humanities. It was a wonderful experience to listen to the influences behind her writing, and her experiences as an immigrant who moved to the United States at age 19.

Overall, CLA was a worthwhile experience, however a bit expensive ($95.00, not including extras such as the dessert reception). I think more students would attend future conferences if the pricing were similar to pricing for ALA midwinter (advance registration $45.00 and on-site registration $68.00).
-Cathy Cormier

I attended the CLA conference on Saturday and was able to go to two workshops. The first workshop was about using basic marketing skills in a library organization. Since I studied some marketing and PR in my undergrad years, a lot of it ended up being review, but it was interesting to see how much marketing plays a role in a library. It is crucial for a library to have a good communications plan because of two main reasons: there are many more different kinds of competition for a library (Internet, video games, book stores, etc.), and especially in the Bay Area, the populations are always changing so collections and resources need to reflect community needs.

Aside from that, ways to budget in marketing were discussed. Some options were having a committee with library employees and community leaders and using the friends groups as a marketing tool. One of the ways I felt was important within a marketing strategy that wasn't discussed, was employee relations. The cheapest, but sometimes hardest ways to market the library is to have employees (from librarians to pages) that know what's going in the organization so they can become good representatives of the library.

The other workshop I attended was the recommended reads for young adults. Richie Partington was my favorite speaker during this session because he actually read us a few pages from one of his top 2004 book collection. His talk also focused on how to get the "boy readers" into the library. At my current employment, we're always thinking about how to get reluctant readers to check out books and Richie went beyond the comic book/graphic novel approach and had some good suggestions of young adult literature.

Aside from the workshops, CLA was a great opportunity to talk with some SLIS students outside of the classroom. I was also able to talk to some of the librarians at my job at the public library. It was rather enjoyable because at the public library, there is a definitely defined roles of "circulation clerk" (me) and "librarian" (them), but at CLA I felt more like their peer rather than someone in another department.

-Angie Miraflor



Beyond the textbook...


When you do get a few free minutes from reading for homework, check out these book suggestions from students and staff!
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
A historical, mystery novel of the first order. Takes place in 1327, in a Benedictine monastery in northern Italy. Main actors are an English (and Holmesian) Franciscian monk, his novice (serving as his Watson), several mysterious murders, the Devil, the Book of Revelations, a blind monk, a hunchback, a lost book of Aristotle, a labyrinth of a library, and its librarians.
There is a companion text: The Key to 'The Name of the Rose' by Adele J. Haft It contains translations of some of the non-English passages and historical background for some references made in the novel.
-Bob Sutton, Adjunct Teacher

Sammy & Juliana in Hollywood by Benjamin Alire Saenz
In 1968, during the summer preceding his senior year at Las Cruces High School in southern New Mexico, seventeen-year-old Sammy Santos hooks up with Juliana Rios. The powerful and achingly tragic story Sammy recounts of Juliana and that summer is but a mere preface in this stunning ode to growing up in the barrio--a neighborhood that some joker has named Hollywood. I alternately laughed, cheered, and cried as Sammy and his Hollywood friends encounter the prejudices, the Church, the hormones, the War, the drugs, the violence, the music, the aspirations, and the dress code, while making their way through that year both inside and outside of the barrio.
-Richie Partington

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
This book is basically a love story with a science fiction theme. I normally do not like love stories but this one has a lot of depth to it. The main characters transcend time and staggering age differences, yet fall and remain in love. Major difficulties arise from the time traveling, but the couple prevails. I cried a lot reading this book and felt warm and wonderful afterwards.
-Susy Moorhead
It's a great, engrossing page-turner. The main character is a time traveling librarian, Henry, who is also into punk music. He can't control his time traveling, either. If that's not enough reason to read it, the story switches narrator from the librarian to his wife and tells the story from different years, until you finally piece together his life. It's a sweet story but also somewhat of a puzzle as you travel with him back and forth in time.
-Erica Smith

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Big scale, quirky and magically comic, this traces the careers and affairs of Sam Clay and Joe Kavalier, creators of "The Escapist" comic book character. Set just before WWII, I found it a big scale romp, endearing characters.
Let Your Life Speak by J. Parker Palmer
His short book is insightful about vocation as "voice". It is as clear as cool water. -Catherine Sjostedt

War is a Force that Gives us Meaning by Chris Hedges
An excellent survey of the truly horrifying impacts of war. Hedges draws on his personal experiences as a war correspondent and on the literature of warfare and conflict ranging from Homer, Shakespeare, and Canetti to articulate the strong allure and true force of war. The cold realism in his tone when covering a vast range of different war-torn regions such as the Balkans and South America is harrowing, but this survey of war concludes with a strong mandate for "recogniz[ing] love in the lives of others" -- even those with whom we are in conflict -- love that is like our own".
-Mana Tominaga



Planning a practicum abroad
By Laurie Briggs, ALASC Co-chair

This past Spring, I did a practicum at the American Library in Paris (ALP). This was an amazing experience and I encourage interested students to pursue a practicum abroad if they can.

There are several benefits to going international. You get to learn about library service from another country's point of view, immerse yourself in another culture for a while, and serve as a positive representative of the United States. Another added benefit of seeking out an international location for a practicum is that you may find that libraries outside the U.S. don't have a steady stream of practicum students coming through which means you're more likely to be able to create a practicum tailored to your particular interests.

Here are a few tips if you're thinking about finding a practicum abroad.
Plan way in advance. Things move slower in other countries, and as much as you might want to be the priority of the librarian you're contacting, they may not get around to contacting you as quick as you like. You also never know when the person you need to talk to might be on one of extended vacations some countries allow. Also, don't depend on email as your only contact. A phone conversation does wonders for introducing yourself to the prospective library. I spoke to both the Director and the Assistant Director of the ALP in order to plan out my practicum. Through these conversations, we were able to identify what work was available, what I was interested in, and where I would learn the most.

Expect a lot of work. When considering my practicum, I thought it might be possible to do an online course at the same time. I ended up not going that route, which was a wise decision for two reasons. In a foreign country, no matter how good your language skills, things get less dependable. Until I arrived, I had no idea what kind of internet connection I would have or how reliable it would be. Also, when abroad, in addition to learning about that culture's library environment, part of the experience is spending time enjoying the locale you've chosen. I arranged with my practicum advisor to take a week off in the middle of the practicum to go to the South of France. Had I had the commitment of an online class this would have been nearly impossible and most likely very stressful, and getting on the train to find your seat has been double-ticketed is stressful enough!

Make sure you're qualified for the country you choose. SLIS guidelines specify that you must be fluent in the language of the country that you want to go to. Keep in mind, there's a difference between ordering food in another language and answering reference questions about the second draft of Virginia's state constitution. Although I was fluent in French already, functioning in a language you're not used to can be very draining. Particularly after days where I had several reference questions by phone, I was grateful for the years of French I had taken, but I was always writing down new words. If your language skills are rusty, you might want to do a review language course before you go, or make time for a language intensive upon your arrival to review.

Don't plan on getting paid. Do plan on added expenses. It is unlikely that you will get paid for an international practicum. Depending on the labor laws of the country you go to and your citizenship status, you'll probably find that getting paid is not on the list of benefits for the practicum. At ALP, the best they could do for me was to give me lunch tickets for each day I worked which I could use at local restaurants and even at some of the local groceries. I also found that I had added expenses I wouldn't have had at home: a metro pass, museum entry fees, and of course I had to eat out at some of the fabulous restaurants!

Make connections before you go. Before I left, I told friends and coworkers about my plans and through them got contact information for people they knew in France in case I needed anything. Also, on a whim I contacted a woman who lived in Paris who I had met on a librarian listserv. All of these connections came in handy and allowed me to build a social network much quicker than if I was starting from scratch.

When all signs point to taking off for an exciting destination, it's hard to resist the allure. Wherever your international practicum takes you, remember to plan ahead, enjoy your time there, and learn as much as you can about the library you find yourself in, as well as the people and culture in your temporary home.



What's gov got to do with it? : How Attending a Government Documents Conference Brought Enlightenment and Reassurance
By Stephanie Braunstein

As I began writing what was intended to be a simple report from the Fall Federal Depository Library Program conference in Washington, DC, I realized that without some background and context for this particular conference, readers who are future librarians would not necessarily benefit from the information in the report. After all, my real goal was to promote a particular specialty in the library field--government documents librarianship; and to accomplish that goal, I would need to provide details as to the purpose and focus of the conference. What follows, then, is part pedagogy, part polemic, and part reporting. Each section is clearly marked; so if all you are interested in knowing about is which tours were offered to attendees, skip right to the section marked "The Reporting."

The Pedagogy

Inquiring minds want to know--just what is government documents librarianship? In order to answer that question, one must first identify what government documents themselves are: governmental bodies produce--i.e., document(verb)--information about both their internal procedures and their external policies. These governmental bodies vary in scope from those with powers that can affect the entire planet, such as the United Nations, to those with powers that affect only a limited geographical area, such as your local school board. As free citizens of the world and of our country, states, counties, and metropolitan areas, we have the right to know what these policies are and how they influence our daily existence.
Thus, the world of the Documents Librarian is a layered one: information, often vital to the interests of an informed citizenry, can arrive from any of a number of sources. While the majority of the sources are public agencies or public printing facilities, some are private publishers with whom the governments have contracts to produce and disseminate an "official" version of particular materials. One example of this kind of agreement is the contract that the State of California has with the Thomson-West Publishing Company to publish the California Code of Regulations. This sort of agreement is becoming more common as governments, both federal and local, look for new ways to cut costs of publishing; and privatization appears to be one answer.

While not all libraries in the US collect materials from such diverse sources as the UN and the European Community, most American libraries serving patrons interested in government information will at least collect the basic publications of the federal government (and usually their state governments). Examples of these publications include codes, regulations, and legal precedents.

A program, formally established and codified in 1895, exists to provide citizens with free access to federal government information. This program, now called the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), is funded from taxpayer dollars and implemented by specific publicly and privately held libraries who are willing to assist anyone needing barrier-free access to government information (Note the use of the term "barrier-free": the only exceptions to this tenet of a free society would be documents classified as sensitive to national security--the fluid definition of "sensitive" being one that is currently, in our post 9-11 era, under scrutiny from a number of interested parties, the American Library Association being one of the more prominent [think "Patriot Act" and all of its ramifications]).

In spite of this current dramatic and theoretical debate over threats to transparency of government, the more prosaic and concrete issue facing the FDLP is the inevitable movement toward electronic information. In the last few years, the number of print publications has shrunk while the number of electronic publications--with online delivery--has grown. This growth is reflected in the latest statistics indicating that in the last year, 65% percent of all new titles added to the depository program were in online formats, contributing to the overall collection's percentage of electronic titles at 86% with the goal of increasing that latter number to 95% by 2005. It can truly be claimed that a library could be a selective depository without having a single tangible item.

The Polemic

In this contemporary online environment, then, what is the point of having discrete collections held at specific institutions and managed by specialized librarians and staffs? Some of the answers offered at the October FDLP meeting may surprise you.

The main points of these answers concerned expanding on the idea of what constitutes a depository library now that any institution with access to the Internet can provide clients with up-to-the-minute issues of the Congressional Record or the latest agricultural statistics pertaining to feed-price ratios for dairy farmers. The plan is to embrace this new world of online access and to envision any library that has that access as a de facto depository library. Instead of being protective about the "how, where, and who" of federal documents retrieval, the documents community should be graciously opening the gates to let all information institutions serve the population's research needs.

So, if we throw open the gates and let everyone participate, is documents librarianship worth pursuing as a professional niche? This question has an eerily similar ring to all of those disturbing questions about the future of librarianship post-Internet; and the answer is also similar to most of the answers information professionals put forth when arguing this topic. Essentially, the answer goes like this: just because the average person can use a computer to find basic information on a variety of topics does not mean that assistance from an intermediary trained to make the best use of computerized searches (in general or in specific fields or disciplines) will not enhance the final information product, rendering it more relevant and more precise. In other words, do not fret~Wpeople needing government information will also need librarians who are experts in their fields to assist in formulating the most efficient searches and in obtaining the specific information being requested.

The Reporting

It is a testimonial to the future of this professional niche that attendance at this fall's conference was the highest ever. Over seven hundred participants from depository libraries all over the country met at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill in Washington, DC to get a view of the future of the FDLP. An extensive program was offered and included New Attendees Orientations; plenary meetings; specialized break-out meetings by library type; programs on specific topics of interest to documents librarians and staff; and tours of the Government Printing Office, the American History and Natural History Museum Libraries, and the National Geographic Society Library.

Because this was a national conference, drawing to one place a potential market for private companies' products, vendors like Readex and Lexis/Nexis gave presentations of their newest products--providing breakfasts or lunches and prizes as incentives to come hear their pitches. Attendees like myself were contacted weeks before the conference and were invited to attend these presentations or to participate in focus groups to provide feedback on products still in development. As a SLIS student, I felt particularly grateful for my recent coursework in 202 that enabled me to understand the vocabulary and basic concepts of databases.

My final word in this reporting section is actually more persuasive in that I want to stress to library school students how important it is to attend conferences and meetings in the areas that interest them. While I had an "inside track" to this conference because I currently work with government documents as a para-professional, other students curious about this--or any other--specialized field might want to "test it out" by attending conferences or smaller events that pertain to that field. Also, if, like me, students are already working in those specialized areas of librarianship, the opportunities for networking at conferences and meetings are unparalleled. A connection made at a conference may provide the ticket to a professional job after graduation, and that kind of extra help is always worth the effort.

For more information about the FDLP and related programs, see the following links:
- http://www.arl.org/newsltr/229/fdlp.html
- http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fdlp.html
-http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/
- http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/



Top Dog
By Mana Tominaga, ALASC Webmaster

When I attended college in Berkeley, my favorite late-night eatery when inebriated was Top Dog, a mini chain open late that served hot dogs and a little more, including potato salad and lush, chocolaty brownies. The walls of the tiny establishment also featured clippings and comics from various Libertarian papers, offering an engaging (but sometimes infuriating) read as you waited for your frilled-to-perfection hot dog. Now, since the San Jose chain opened last December, I am able to enjoy the same grilled goodness and flavor (sans the propaganda on the walls ~V well so far) and share it with my SLIS classmates.
Top Dog is conveniently located just a few minutes away from our charming SLIS temporary buildings, making it one of the closest eateries in case you're starving during a lecture. It's located near 7-11. Also, Top Dog is open until 10PM unlike other on-campus options and outdoor seating is available.

Top Dog features a wide variety of sausages, including Kielbasa, Bockwurst, Calabrese, Bird Dog (made from turkey), Lemon Chicken, Smoked Chicken Apple, and the basic Frankfurter. Another important note is that Top Dog offers a vegetarian option, called the Wienie, which is quite tasty and was a perennial favorite in the chain I visited often in Berkeley. All sausages are cooked to order, and you can dress it up with a selection of traditional toppings, like onions, various mustards, and sauerkraut. I also highly recommend the potato salad; it's creamy but light, and almost refreshing because it's not at all oily. Sodas are available on tap.

Next time you're hungry for a quick bite, don't linger at 7-11. Try a tasty sausage instead. You'll be happy with the wide selection and the tasty goodness that is achieved only through grilling.

Top Dog Address: 284B S. 11th St. (cross street: San Carlos) ; 408-298-3647

Hours: 11AM-10PM, 7 days a week



The SLIS gives thanks!

"I am thankful for the contribution that free public libraries and the talented librarians in them make to keeping our society open and democratic, unlike any other in the world."
--Jim Schmidt
Professor, Admissions and Graduate Advisor


"I am grateful to Drs. Ken Dowlin, Dan Duran, and Dan Fuller for mentoring me as I am a new SLIS SJSU adjunct faculty member. It's been an enjoyableexperience so far and thank you for asking!"
--Connie E. Costantino, Ed.D.
Adjunct Faculty

"My past administrative background has been in the corporate, highly competitive business world. It's refreshing to work in the academic environment where the 'product' is human and compassion obvious. It's hard for me to believe that I have worked 3 years for SLIS, it's gone by so quickly. It feels that way I think because even though 'business' slows down, faculty and staff are always on the move, working on new ideas, program improvements and the next semester. Lately, I have been asked to attend staff and faculty meetings and have been humbled and encouraged by the depth of concern and thoughtful intelligence of faculty and staff for the students' needs and department's future.

Thank you for all your hard work and inspiration!"
--Susan Berg
SJSU/SLIS
Travel Coordinator/Staff Assistant


As an instructor I am thankful SLIS has given me so many new tools to make teaching more exciting and more fun than ever and I am thankful for students who demonstrate every semester that an online community can be a collegial and productive way to help us all learn more."
--Adele Fasick
Adjunct Faculty



Never a Dull Moment
By Jennifer Harbster, Digital Research Specialist, Library of Congress

It is easy to feel like a small fish in a big pond working at the Library of Congress. One can lose oneself among the many directorates, divisions, offices, sections and 4,000 plus staff. There are many different functions of the Library such as copyright, cataloging, preservation, public services and technical services that it is hard to get a grasp, let alone convey, the enormous amount of work that goes on at the Library every day. It is even harder to describe where I fit within this large organization.


I currently work in the Science Reference Section in the Science, Technology, and Business division of Special Collections and Services, Collection Services branch of Library Services, which falls under the Public Services and Collections Directorate. Boy that is a mouthful! Basically what this means is I am part of the Library that works with the public- a liaison between the library's collection and the researcher. My official title is digital research specialist. This sounds like I fix computers or work in the cyber world? It gets more esoteric when I try to describe some of what I do, which is digital reference and live chat. Sometimes, it's easier to say I am a science reference librarian. This more accurately describes who I am at the Library of Congress.

So what does a digital research specialist/ science reference librarian working in the Science Reference Section do at the Library of Congress?

One of my main duties is a co-administrator of the Question Point Ask a Librarian service and chat point person for the Science Reference section. This means I administrate the email and chat accounts for my section. I also answer a predominant number of reference questions we received through this service. I would say on average I answer 100 email and chat questions a month through the Question Point service.

I not only work in the digital world answering questions, I also work at the reference desk in the Science Reading Room. At least 2 hours a day you can find me at the reference desk practicing face to face and telephone reference. Working at the reference desk is very rewarding. I meet a lot of interesting folk and help them find their way through the Library's vast amount of resources.

My immediate boss, the head of the science reference section, also encourages us to create bibliographic and Internet subject guides. One of the more popular guides produced is the Library of Congress Science Tracer Bullets series (http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/tracer-bullets/tbs.html). Tracer Bullets have been published since 1972 and are distributed to federal depository libraries and other interested institutions. The aim of these guides, as the name implies, is to help get the researcher "on target". Creating these guides is no simple feat. The first, and so far only Tracer Bullet, I have created was a 20-page guide about Sustainable Agriculture, which took me a year to complete. Currently I am working on a Genetically Modified Foods Tracer Bullet.

I am also the recommending officer for Computer Science, Mathematics, Geology, and Internet/World Wide Web publications. As a recommending officer it is my duty to make sure titles are deposited with the Library on copyright. It is a time consuming process checking publisher catalogs against our online catalog. If we have not received a title from a publisher, I need to make a claim for it. Also, I am authorized to recommend specific publications in my area, which include electronic resources.

And if that isn't enough work for one librarian I also the creator of the Everyday Mysteries Web site, which the Library hosts. The Everyday Mysteries Web site (http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/) is dedicated to providing questions and answers about everyday phenomena; scientific information provided through a Frequently-Asked-Reference-Question type format. The Web site is organized by subject; questions include a short answer, images to illustrate the topic, related links, sources for further reading, and a link to the Ask-a-Librarian service at Library of Congress. All questions come from patrons of all ages using the Library of Congress' science reference services.

Another interesting project I have proposed is to purchase RSS software so I can create a "blog" for the Science Reference Section. This blog will syndicate our new guides and books, events, and science news. I am very excited about getting this project started and it looks like I will get the money for it. So stay tuned for the first "blog" from the Library of Congress.

I am also involved in various committees at the Library that range from testing out new electronic services to promoting the Library's digital services. I help with lectures and volunteer my time for Library events such as the National Book Festival. It just boggles my mind how much work I do here at the Library.

There is never a dull moment.



A Great Opportunity for SLIS Students
By Angie Miraflor

Don't hide from me. You know you want to see me, attend me, and network within me. Just because you are a first semester student or never had a job in a library does not mean I don't mean anything to you. It is important you go to me early; I may help you launch your future career in librarianship. Who am I?
The California Library Association 106th Annual Conference and Exhibition! (of course)

During the second weekend in November, CLA will be holding its annual conference in the heart of downtown San Jose, just a few minutes from San Jose State. The conference includes: workshops, an exhibition hall, and full day institutes. Some of the guest speakers this year are: Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler), author of A series of unfortunate events and Jonathan Rosenberg, Google VP.

But aside from the numerous events going on during the conference, this is the time for us future librarians to talk to and network with those in the profession. It is the time to visit with vendors to see what kinds of materials and technologies will be in our library futures. It is also time to gather with our peers and get to know each other, aside from those 15-minute breaks in class!

The benefits of attending professional organization conferences are limitless. What you learn at these events go beyond your textbooks and the classroom.

See you there!



Mi Pueblo Taqueria
By Mana Tominaga, ALASC Webmaster

When you think of Mexican food in the Bay Area, the best-known destination is the Mission district in San Francisco. However, San Jose boasts much more authentic, tastier, and cheaper Mexican cuisine. One example is the Mi Pueblo Taqueria supermarket, home to the best tacos al pastor I have ever tasted. Mi Pueblo Taqueria also features most of the regular fare, including breakfast items, burritos, quesadillas, tortas, and various seafood items.

If you do one thing in San Jose other than attend another engaging lecture at SLIS, it should be to eat one, if not more, of the lovely tacos al pastor at Mi Pueblo Taqueria. When you enter the line for the taqueria, you will notice the pork, which has been sliced and marinated in a secret sauce, roasting on a spit just like for gyros, along with a peeled pineapple on top. (In fact, tacos al pastor are a Mexican adaptation of Middle-Eastern spit-grilled meat, popularized in Puebla, an area with a large Lebanese population.)

The tacos are prepared to order by shaving off pieces of the pork and, if you're lucky, pineapple, tossing in chopped onions and cilantro along with a topping of deep-red, chipotle-based hot sauce. You must squeeze a bit of lime on top yourself to complete the taco; this quick squeeze of lime juice is crucial for balancing out the flavors. The pork is grilled to perfection every time, and the combination of the succulent marinated meat with the zesty, sweet pineapple and lime juice is an amazing culinary experience.

Mi Pueblo Taqueria is housed inside Mi Pueblo, a full-featured Mexican grocery store, which my partner won't let me shop at because the management has proven to be quite hostile to unionization and employee benefits such as paychecks for new workers. But because taquerias, as opposed to supermarkets, are almost never union shops, we still visit the taqueria with a fairly clean conscience and end up eating about three tacos each!

Address:
235 E Julian St. (in between 4th and 5th streets)
San Jose, CA 95112

Hours:
9AM to about 9PM.



Explore your passions at the SLIS
By Cathy Cormier

Greetings and welcome to new and returning students!
Like some of you, I am a part-time student, older student, part-time worker, and full time parent. I have been a student since Fall 2002, and hope to culminate next spring. Before parenthood, I worked on the trading floor of the Pacific Stock Exchange.

My love of reading and singing silly songs to my children and those at their cooperative nursery school (check out http://www.sfbeerfest.com for the "only in San Francisco" fundraiser this preschool produces...) combined with obsessive information-seeking nd a passion for social responsibility have merged in my pursuit to become a children's or young adult librarian in a public library. I believe in the power of librarians to help change the world for the better, one person at a time. I just started working part-time as a librarian at my children's elementary school (http://clairelilienthal.org), and one of my goals there is to create library resources for the school website. thank my husband for reminding me to breathe and practice yoga, and my two children for being such good sports when they ask me to read them a book and I say "just a minute" as I sneak off to check e-mail, write down one more thought for an assignment, or read another page of an article for a class.
The stress of returning to school combined with other responsibilities can be intense, and it is important to balance your studies with plenty of playtime. Please remember it is okay to take time for yourself, to relax and chill - information overload can happen to aspiring information professionals! With that in mind, check the ALASC website regularly for announcements about informal social events in your area where you can unwind with fellow students and friends.
We at the ALASC are here to help you navigate SJSU SLIS, provide resources to help you learn about the different avenues of librarianship, and have a little fun in the process. A huge thank-you goes to the ALASC officers for being such an enthusiastic and hard-working group. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns at alasc@slis.sjsu.edu.



The Journey to a Doctorate
By Daniel D. Stuhlman

Thirty years and three months is how long it has been since I earned my masters in library service. In 1974 after graduation Columbia University, after six years attending a double program I wanted a break from the classes. Yet a week after graduation I attended a course at Teachers College. During the fall semester of 1974, I traveled once a week for graduate level courses. In 1975 I moved to Cincinnati to be a Judaica librarian. Since academic librarians needed a subject masters for advancement I entered a masters program, but moved to Chicago before finishing.

For a while I couldn't decide what kind of advanced degree to pursue. In 1992 I was looking for something intellectual to do during my summer vacation. I found a Jewish University's summer program. During the school year I went to once-a-week classes. In 1995 I completed enough courses to earn a masters degree in Hebrew literature with a Bible major. I still had the dream to get a doctorate in Bible and was accepted as a candidate.

Research is the process of evaluating data and information from many sources and making sense of it. Analysis combines the knowledge of many academic disciplines. My final undergraduate research paper combined disciplines of Bible and psychology for an analysis of the personality of the Prophet Jeremiah. I wanted a topic that combined the fields of Bible and psychology. In 1996 along with a committee of concerned parents I authored a study and plan for action for our son's school. The first part of the study was a review and analysis of the academic literature on gifted children.

That first part of the study became the first 12 pages of the first dissertation idea on the gifted personality in the Bible. I was planning to do a study of giftedness and relate that information to finding the gifted characters in the Bible. There are at least 6 kinds of giftedness among them: musical, artistic, kinesthetic (athletic ability), leadership and academic. A person may have multiple talents. A person with a high I.Q. may have difficulties with kinesthetic or body awareness and "street smarts". A person with leadership or athletic gifts may perform poorly in academic subjects. Because of other obligations that topic sat idle for six years. For six years I did not even open the computer file or write one word.

In January 2003 I started teaching for San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science. I was able to help the students on their journey to become librarians. Since a doctorate is usually required qualified for a permanent full time university position, I revived my dream to complete my doctorate. I tried to return to my first topic on the gifted personality. I started to study about giftedness, personality, and assessment techniques. The research went no where. There was no scientific or convincing way to prove my speculations. I started asking everyone I knew for ideas. I wanted something more connected to libraries.
I always loved cataloging, I have been gathering names for genealogical purposes, and I already wrote several articles on name authority. On January 17 when we read, the opening lines of the book of Exodus in the synagogue it was like a light bulb lit inside my head. This was the idea for my topic. I could combine knowledge of the Bible, Hebrew names and library science. Later I found that I needed to learn about linguistics, the history of writing, the development of the English language, and even something about the history of printing in 17th century Amsterdam.

Once I selected a topic, I then had to check if I even could resume my candidacy for the doctoral degree. The school where I earned my MHL degree was largely dormant. I talked to the dean and he said that I had completed enough class work for the degree. All I had to do was to write the dissertation. He suggested a faculty member, who agreed to be my advisor even though he knew very little about library cataloging or the history of Hebrew names. I started to work on an outline and concrete ideas before I could even meet with my advisor. My advisor approved the outline and plan for study. I had almost thirty years of library experience and six years of monthly columns to draw upon. Some of the material in the dissertation was revised from my earlier writings. As the writing progressed, some of the material was published in my monthly column and some was published in the Newsletter of the Chicago Rabbinical Council.

The chapter on the reasons behind spelling Jacob, Joseph and other Biblical names starting with a "J" has wide ranging implications and interest to librarians, linguists, and anyone who knows someone with such a name. The story involves understanding the history of the alphabet. The Hebrew for many names are spelled with an initial "yod". The "yod" has both a consonantal and a vowel sound. In Latin the "I" and in Greek the "I" (iota) also have the consonantal and vowel sound that match the Hebrew. Neither Greek nor Latin has a "J" or the phoneme we use to pronounce "J" in English. In English and Latin the "I" was used for both sounds. In some medieval manuscripts the scribes added a tail to the "I" when it had a consonant sound. Eventually that letter became a "J". The early English Bibles used "I" for the Hebrew names starting with a "yod". In 1630 a Dutch printer started using "J" for the consonantal sound because in Dutch as in German the"J" had the sound /y/. The sound we use for "J" dzh/ comes from the French. For the whole story go this web page: http://home.earthlink.net/~ddstuhlman/crc71.htm. A version of this chapter was accepted for publication in The Jewish Bible Quarterly.

I combined the knowledge from the academic disciplines that I love, Bible, Hebrew, library cataloging, and history to produce a document that sheds light on many actions we take for granted today. No work is complete without thanks to all those who helped me. I am blessed with friends who acted as cheer leaders and sounding boards for my ideas. From all of them I learned that everyone is truly my teacher.

It is the role of teachers to show students the road to a lifetime of learning. Librarians have the task to organize, store and distribute knowledge in all its manifestations, print, visual, audio, and electronic. The words of Judah ibn Tibbon written in the 12th century are still applicable today:
"My son! Make your books, your friends; let their cases and shelves be your pleasure grounds and gardens. Bask in their paradise, gather their fruit, pluck their roses, take their spices and their myrrh. If your soul is satiated and weary, change from garden to garden, from furrow to furrow, and from prospect to prospect. Then your desire will renew itself and your soul will be filled with delight."
Daniel D. Stuhlman is an adjunct instructor for San Jose State University, School of Library and Information Science. He lives in Chicago, IL.



Yum! Fun and Food around San Jose
By Mana Tominaga

Although you wouldn't know it from simply attending classes at SJSU, there's more to downtown San Jose than LIBR lectures. Trust me, I live here! I will highlight some of the interesting highlights of downtown life in San Jose in this review series, such as museums, restaurants, and bars. I welcome your feedback; please email me with ideas, suggestions, and questions, at XXX.com.

Looking for a fun place to throw back a few beers with fellow SLIS students? Gordon Biersch Brewery and Restaurant, a casual brew pub at 33 E San Fernando St., in between 1st and 2nd streets is a great choice that's close enough to campus to saunter around drunk.Gordon Biersch offers a variety of German beer styles on tap, including the popular amber Marzen, a dark (but light-bodied) Dunkles, Pilsner, and a Dortmund-style Golden Export, along with additional seasonal styles.Although the brew is the main draw here, a full bar is also available, with a variety of colorful sweet original cocktails; try the Raspberry Iced Tea, which adds a lovely fruity touch on the traditional alcohol-laden drink.
What's unique about this brew pub is the eclectic American food, with Asian influences. The appetizer skewers plates ($6.95 and up) include small rice balls and ginger and make for a great light snack. For more traditional fare, the garlic fries ($4.95), made popular at the San Francisco Giants home ballpark, are a perpetual favorite. The service is fast, friendly, and a fun, trendy place to people-watch. Although a bit pricey (a pint will cost you $4.25 or $4.50 for the seasonal brew) the casual atmosphere and occasional live entertainment make Gordon Biersch worth the buck.

Address:
33 East San Fernando Street
San Jose, CA 95113
Phone: 408-294-6785

Hours:
Sun-Wed: 11:30 AM - 11:00 PM
Thurs: 11:30 AM - midnight
Fri-Sat: 11:30 AM - 1:00 AM