DUSLA/SCALA Holiday Party!

DUSLA/SCALA Holiday Party  — with (in no particular order) Katie M. Lewis, Sarah Parnell, Erin DeFord, Ned Wells, Sio Bhan, Alexandria Capone, Maeryn Obley, Joseph Neptune Keslar, Kate Masterton, Joe Schaffner,Shawn Woodson, Marrette Pearsall, Evan Peugh, Allison De Weerd 

2012 Holiday Party

Chrystelle's SLA Chicago Experience

I know it's a bit late to share my experiences of SLA's 2012 annual conference, but I figured I would post it here anyway. I want to reinforce the importance of participating in association activities. Not only do they help you create and grow your career, it propels the field of information services forward.   Consider becoming more active in your local SLA (or library) association. You won't regret it.

I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to attend SLA Chicago. Not only did I meet a lot of great people, ranging in expertise, experience and career choice, it broadened my own career aspirations. It was a great supplement for the lack of discussion concerning special libraries in the classroom. Traditional (and current) library curriculum focuses on public and academic librarianship with little discourse offered beyond these career paths.

This is one reason I value my membership with the SLA – it has offered knowledge of the myriad of options I have with my pending degree. For example, I could become a librarian for nationally known non-profit or a client services manager for a well renowned publisher or work as an analyst for the military. While I was somewhat aware of these types of positions, these possibilities became more within reach the more I spoke with fellow attendees. Previous to the conference, I would have not had considered any of these possibilities due to lack of awareness. Moreover, it was important to learn about different titles other than “librarian”.

Allison and I

SLA Chicago conference instilled a confidence in my career path (and subsequently myself) I had not experienced prior to attending. Part of this newly found assurance was due to the exposure of possible career opportunities; however, most of it was due to the acceptance of this vast library community.  Everyone I met was interested, and seemed vested, in my success as an information professional. At every networking event someone offered to look over my resume, gave me valuable advice or wanted to establish a long lasting professional relationship. I would have never understood the value in professional community had I not attended this marvelous event. 

On a boat tour of Chicago. 

After coming back, I am determined to participate and serve within the SLA community. I now truly understand the value of this association. It propels the library & information profession forward. After graduating, I am especially interested in helping future library students find their footing and to pay forward the generosity that has been bestowed upon me.

It is important to thank the Philadelphia Chapter for busting their bums year after year to ensure students have this great opportunity. The last bit of wisdom I have in regards to my SLA experience, is that you must always take offered professional opportunities and to do otherwise would be foolish. 

Thanks for taking the time to read.

--Chrystelle Browman
President of DUSLA
chrystellebrowman.com

Fed Reserve

Fed Reserve of Philadelphia Library Tour, Oct 25, 2012. In no particular order, with: Joseph Keslar, Chris Le, Linda Cowell-Smith, Marrette Pearsall, Steven Duckworth, Maeryn Obley, Evan Peugh, James Gross, Gina Gariffo, Kristen Gaydos, Rachel Korman, Allison De Weerd, and Cristine McCollum. Photographer: Chrystelle Browman

November First Friday Happy Hour

Three Great Upcoming Events!

October's First Friday Happy Hour

Last night was a smashing success! So many attendees and so many new students. Thanks to everyone who came out last night! 

Welcome Back BBQ Fall 2012

New students, iSchool faculty, MLA-PHL, SLA-PHL, SCALA & DUSLA members. 

Maeryn BBQing like a boss

October First Friday Happy Hour

Aug & Sept. First Friday Happy Hour

Last August's Happy Hour at West City Tap Room. 

Featuring the beautiful faces of Kate Masterson, Marrette Parsell, Brian di Marchi, Jazmin Idakaar, Maeryn Olbey, Allison De Weerd, Jessica Synder, Ranjit Subramaniam and F. Scott DeMaris.

Join us for September's First Friday Happy Hour on Sept. 7th. 

Volunteering Vs. Shadowing: Getting Library Experience

While at the DUSLA First Friday Downtowner the topic of searching for internships come up in discussion.  It can be difficult to look for internships and entry level positions in libraries for those without Master's in library science, yet we need the experience before we graduate. 

Volunteering and shadowing a librarian could be a good alternative.  While volunteering you can build useful connections and learn new skills over a short period of time. Though, some have express difficulty in finding institutions accepting new volunteers at the moment.  It is a commitment for both the volunteer and the library, and sometimes there isn't enough work to hand over to volunteers.  If you find yourself in this situation, shadowing may be an option.  Following a professional around for a full day or a few hours may be easier and more enticing for both parties.  Here you will get to see the day-to-day responsibilities instead of being placed on 1 long term project.

Call or email a library or institution of interest and ask about shadowing a professional.  It is best to have a short list of skills your are interested in learning, so check job postings and make note of desired or required skills and responsibilities you may be lacking and seek out professionals willing to teach them.

Here are a few places in the Philadelphia area Jazmin Idaakar recommended:

1. I Need a Library Job (http://inalj.com/)- Contact Naomi about volunteering for the website.  She needs people to sift through job postings and check for duplicates. 

2. West Philadelphia Alliance for Children- (http://www.wepac.org/home/volunteer)- If you are interested in working with school aged students, this program promotes school libraries and includes training sessions.

3.Books through bars- (http://booksthroughbars.org/get-involved/)- Help support literacy and education in the prison system

4.Philly Fight- (http://fight.org/join-the-fight/internsvolunteers/)-Philadelphia FIGHT (FIGHT) is a comprehensive AIDS service organization providing primary care, consumer education, advocacy and research on potential treatments and potential vaccines.

5.Last Word- (http://lastwordbookshop.com/Last_Word_Bookshop.html)- volunteer for a book shop

Archivists Being Awesome - July Meeting Round-Up

Earlier this week I attended the Archivists Being Awesome presentations at the Academy of Natural Sciences. First of all, what a beautiful library. So many portraits and books and seems like a great place to do some research. There were four presenters, the Maureens: Maureen Skorupa, Maureen Cech, Maureen Callahan and Samip Mallick. All four had great presentations and discussed what they do at their institutions.

Samip discussed his online archives called the South Asian American Digital Archives - nickname SAADA. This archives is digital only. They do not have a repository and it is completely open access. This archives has more than 600 items processed, the team will go to wherever the material is to process it and then it normally remains there until SAADA can find a permanent home for the materials when the owner is ready to part with it. This archives is unique in many different ways, the archives is:

• post-custodial
• digital only - whether the material is born digital or not
• focuses on access
• processes to the item-level
• keen on engaging community members to contribute to South Asian culture

If you want to learn more, you can visit at www.saadigitalarchives.org

 Maureen Skorupa is in the middle of moving her archives from Pennsylvania to North Carolina and gave a great presentation on all the work that goes into moving such specialized items! She went step by step through her process and said that while she is constantly learning from the experience, it is a good one though she is sad to part with her collections.  The advice she reiterated was to plan ahead and to make sure the timeline established stays on schedule. Maureen received a lot of help from the SAA Listserv and also through publications.

Maureen Cech discussed the literary manuscripts she works with at the University of Delaware. She gave an overview of some of the awesome collections they have at the University, and also emphasized that literary manuscript archives do not only have the manuscripts but it may contain the final works, any edits made by various editors or authors, the business side of book publishing, for example - how well the books do on the shelves and how many copies are sold.

Maureen Callahan discussed using Google applications for data manipulation. She works at Princeton University as the processing archivist. Maureen's presentation really shed light on the value of data manipulation tools which as as simple to use as GoogleDocs! She has a 7 step processing sequence and she really emphasizes the data collection and manipulation. Maureen will use GoogleDocs to do series spreadsheets and to work with her student workers to delegate tasks and check on what they are doing since multiple users can be on the same document at a time. She also discussed how Google uses script galleries to pull similar words together for you. One last tool she uses is Google Refine which is great for analyzing legacy data. It is a FREE program where a flat file format is needed (excel spreadsheet) and this tool will cluster similar subjects together to help the archivist name or rename subjects - which is especially helpful if someone needs to change 10 similar subject headings to one that the LOC has recently assigned!

You can read about these presenters at archivistsbeingawesome.wordpress.com!

"The More I Practice, The Luckier I Get" : LLAMA Hiring Webinar

I attended the LLAMA webinar "How to succeed in an entry-level librarian interview: Research and experience-based tips". Here are some of the points they made in the presentation that I thought were particularly interesting and useful:

• They recommend practicing for the interview, and to put as much time into practicing as you might for writing your resume and cover letter. Preparation can include things like 'getting to know the organization/library' ahead of time.
• Personality, fit-with-organization, attitude, enthusiasm, flexibility were named as key by many libraries and organizations, moreso than skills.
• Important competencies for most organizations and libraries are overwhelmingly communication and customer service. Familiarity with any given technology is typically more important than expertise with any given technology.
• They also named important character traits as rated by various libraries and organizations. Intelligence, enthusiasm and cooperativeness were ranked the most important for entry-level hires.

 They also spent some time discussing things applicants did that made them stand out. Being passionate was one, and asking a lot of questions about the library, such as 'what is the culture like' was another.

I enjoyed this webinar myself, and thought it was very useful for anyone seeking to enter into the library field and anyone else seeking to master their interview skills.

If you would like to view the webinar yourself, a recording is available at: http://www.ala.org/llama/7-25-12-llama-webinar

August 3rd Happy Hour

Webinar: "How to succeed in an entry-level librarian interview: Research and experience-based tips”

Here is a link to the recording of the webinar "How to succeed in an entry-level librarian interview: Research and experience-based tips” and an evaluation form to fill out after viewing.

http://www.ala.org/llama/7-25-12-llama-webinar

Archived webinars

Here is a list of archived webinars from the Delaware Library Association.

http://webjunctionworks.org/ct/blog/index.php/2012/05/03/archived-april-2012-library-webinars/

SLA 2012

SLA's conference was in Chicago this year

Hi folks, this is Allison.

    Chrystelle and I attended the SLA conference in Chicago last week and it was an amazing experience. I strongly encourage anyone who has the opportunity to participate in a conference for library professionals, whether it's SLA, ALA, or PLA to do so. The week left me with optimism and renewed vigor for my chosen career path.
    A few of the sessions I attended were quite interesting and informative, but I think the most valuable thing I gained from attending was the opportunity to network. Being surrounded by more seasoned professionals who are passionate about their careers was inspiring and educational. Many are eager to provide students with insight into their careers and the paths they followed to get there.
    The most important take away I got from this trip is that as a new professional it is important to not have too narrow a scope on where you would like to work. Librarians are needed in diverse settings; law firms, zoos, chemical manufacturing companies, museums etc. As a new information professional, being aware of and open to pursuing work opportunities in a range of environments is certainly advantageous.

The "Bean" in Millennium Park 

    Your prior educational or professional experience may be a factor in choosing what kind of library job you would like to pursue, but it shouldn't place a limitation on exploring career opportunities outside of your comfort zone.

Omeka Workshop

Date: July 20, 2012

Instructor: Rebecca Goldman, MLS

Supporting Instructor: Jazmin L. Idakaar, MLIS

I attended a two hour workshop on Omeka at the Van Pelt Library at University of Penn yesterday.  Omeka is an open source web publishing service.  Here is the definition of the service from the website:

Omeka.net is web-publishing platform that allows anyone with an account to create or collaborate on a website to display collections and build digital exhibitions. No technical skills or special server requirements are necessary. Sign up, and start sharing. Instructions for using Omeka.net are in the right column.

• Share Collections
• Gather Stories
• Build Exhibits
• Map Photos
• Create Simple Web Pages
• Customize Web Design Templates
• Share data through feeds
• Collaborate

We used the free plan, which limits some of the tools you can use, but what is available seems very useful.  For those who would like to set up a website to display collections and do not know a lot about designing a website this service is great.  There are templates with room for control of the design, so you can make it more complex as you become familiar with the tools and/or learn HTML or CSS.

It was a little tricky when I first started designing the practice site, but I can see that if I spent a few hours here and there I would get the hang of it.  I really liked the LOC autosuggest feature that allows you to check the authorities and vocabulary while describing items.  A paid version has a GIS plugin to connect geographic information to your descriptions.

I would definitely like to take another workshop and learn more about Omeka.
If you missed it yesterday, here are some slides to get you started! Many thanks to Rebecca Goldman for sharing them! 

Upcoming Omeka Workshop!

Library of Congress Visit

DUSLA had a fabulous trip to the Library of Congress this past June. We had the opportunity to tour the main Jefferson building, talk with the law librarians at the Law Library of Congress and had a fantastic behind the scenes lecture on rare books and special collections.

We'd like to especially thank the Philadelphia Chapter of the Special Library Association and the Student Chapter of the American Library Association at Drexel for helping us with funding.

Here are some photos of the trip. If you have any photos, you'd like to add, please email them to duslaonline@gmail.com!

Part of the fountain in front of the LOC

The ceiling of the LOC

Entrance Hall

From left to right: Shawn Woodson, Linda Smith-Cowell, Alexandria Capone, Allison De Weerd, Dev Singer, Maeryn Olbey, Melinda Roberts, Caitlin Gerrity, Sharon Reilly.   

The fountain in front of the LOC

June's Happy Hour

This photo was taken during our June's Happy Hour at the Boilermaker in Center City, Philadelphia. We had numerous folks from the SLA-PHL, GPLLA, MLA-Phil and Phillybrarians.
This is a great opportunity for Philadelphia based library students to connect and reconnect with professionals in the area. We would like to invite all students to our upcoming August Happy Hour, details TBA.

(featuring: Jazmin Idakaar, Scott De Maris, Nicole Ernst Boris, Karen Krasznavolgyi, Robert Guerrero, Joseph Keslar, Allison De Weerd, and Shiobhan Cerny). 

Why You Need to Network

Tomorrow is the Philadelphia SLA monthly happy hour, a great opportunity for networking with both seasoned professionals and the up-and-coming next generation of librarians. Here are a few brief articles reminding us all why face-to-face networking is so important:

From Forbes: Networking is Still the Best Way to Find a Job, Survey Says
Briefly presents a survey conducted by Right Management that shows networking to be almost twice as effective as any other mode of job seeking and discusses trends for the future of networking.

From the New York Times: You May Not Like It, But Learn to Network
Some good basic information about networking and why it doesn't have to be painful.

From the Washington Post: Business Advice: The Four Pillars of Effective Networking
A very short piece that breaks down into four simple steps how to make a professional connection mutually beneficial.

From the Harvard Business Review: How to Build Your Network
"Networks deliver three unique advantages: private information, access to diverse skill sets, and power" (pg. 2). This 10-pg PDF looks at networking with a broader scope and also outlines how to diagnose your network, ways to forge better connections, and how to fix a "networking slump."

These resources will inspire you to start building your connections right away - tomorrow, we hope - at the Philadelphia SLA monthly happy hour!

Take a study break, come to happy hour!

SLA Legal Division Student Membership Offer

Do legal concerns and court rulings intrigue you? Are you interested in law librarianship? Then the SLA Legal Division might be the right place for you.

Focusing on law librarianship, the SLA Legal Division offers workshops, networking opportunities, mentors and even offers a grants to allow people to attend their annual conference. The membership link is at: http://www.sla.org/content/membership/joinsla/index.cfm

Currently, they are offering 10 SLA student memberships to interested students. All that you need to do is write a short paragraph about your interest in the field of law information sciences, and send it to:

SLA Student Relations Group Chair Grace Rosales at tokila66@gmail.com, by no later than Friday June 22, 2012.

They will need a receipt of payment for your student membership so they can reimburse you appropriately. They will also pay for your next renewal if you are already a member. Please contact Grace if you have any questions.

Hi All!

Siobhan here,

I went to the Archivists Being Awesome event tonight started by DVAG, the Delaware Valley Archivists Group (http://dvarchivists.org/) and let me tell you, it was less than an hour and my mind is blown. I am still in my early stages of being an MLIS student, at the end of this quarter I will have 7 classes under my belt. (So I guess that really means I'm three weeks away from being midway?!) A lot of our classes discuss Web 2.0 applications and how archives, libraries and museums will keep up and adjust to the technology changes we see all the time. These three archivists really gave three great presentations about projects they are implementing, or have already implemented, in their archives.

The link below is the archive video version of the presentation.

http://goodwincollege.adobeconnect.com/p6lvx1da7ng/

And a brief overview if you don't have an hour to sit and listen, or want to know before you commit!

The first presenter, Megan, is the only archivist at her institution and she uses her iPhone to assist her in completing a lot of tasks ranging from acquisition to sending PDFs off to researchers. She even has an app that guides you in case there is an emergency at your archives. All of the apps that she describes are free on your smartphone!

The second presenter, Richard, talks about a free(!), open-source, preservation-minded digital repository called Islandora. There is a lot of technical jargon that goes with his presentation, so instead of me butchering it, please just listen. Islandora was created at University of Prince Edward Island and will give you, and whoever you choose, access to your digital repository. 

The third presenter, Scott, talks about Email Capture which is a free (again, hooray!) application that will preserve emails to reformat them to XML and get them to wherever you want them. There is a powerpoint presentation that you can see, I know we lost the sound. (I was in charge of the video/sound - my apologies everyone!)

If you found this interesting and want to learn more/stay in the loop/be notified of future events, this link is for the blog for Archivists Being Awesome in case you are interested and want to learn more.

http://archivistsbeingawesome.wordpress.com/

Please enjoy and let us know what you think!

Archivists Being Awesome Tonight

The Deleware Valley Archivists Group is hosting their first Archivists Being Awesome event tonight (May 17th) at 6PM in Hagerty Library, room L33. The event will feature four different speakers giving short presentations on archival projects they are currently working on. More information on this event can be found on the Archivists Being Awesome website.

If you can't make it in person tonight, you can check out a simulcast at http://bit.ly/DUSLAtalk and a recording of the event will be posted here at a later date.

First Friday Happy Hour

This picture was taken in at our last Philly SLA/ Drexel Student Happy Hour, which is every first Friday of the month. Join us for this small scale, no pressure network opportunity to speak with SLA professionals from the Philadelphia Greater Area.

(last row: Robert Guerrero, Joe Schaffner, Maeryn Olbey, Tim Siftar, Kate Masterson, Chrystelle Browman
front row: Karen Krasznavolgyi, Marie Jaquish Linda Broussard)

Meet Mary Ellen Davis at Hagerty

There will be an informal meeting with Mary Ellen Davis, Executive Director of the Association of College and
Research Libraries, at Hagerty Library tomorrow, May 10th, from 3-4 PM. All iSchool students are invited to meet and speak with her.

Thursday May 10, 2012
3-4 p.m.
Stern Room
3rd floor, W. W. Hagerty Library

Want to attend a library conference this year? Visit the Library Conference Planner for a list national & international listings.

LOC Tour Annoucement

Downtowners Happy Hour Tomorrow

Come meet up with fellow students and professionals for the monthly First Friday Happy Hour.

The happy hour will take place at Nodding Head Brewery & Restaurant Friday, May 4th from 5 to 7:30 PM.

Nodding Head is located at 1516 Sansom St. on the second floor.

Free Tour of the Wagner Institute of Science

Rsvp. with  duslaonline@gmail.com

Check Out Philly Tech Week

Philly Tech Week, happening April 23-28 is a city-wide "celebration of technology and innovation." There will be a variety of free and paid events including talks, educational sessions, and entertainment. This is a great opportunity for any students interested in gaining new skills and knowledge about current technological trends.
  
   Events that may be of interest to information professionals include:
       Intellectual Property and Social Media -Tuesday, 12-1:30 PM
       Blogging About Philadelphia's Creative Spaces -Tuesday, 6-8PM
       WordPress for Beginners and Intermediates -Wednesday, 7-9PM ($10)
       Database Options 2012 -Thursday, 6-9PM

Look how happy we all are! This picture was taken at our last Happy Hour Downtowners meet- up which happens on First Fridays of every month. Come to our next network event with SLA professionals in the Philadelphia Greater Area and fellow Drexel students.

(from left: Jeff Lambert, Chrystelle Browman, Joseph Keslar, . . ., Allison De Weerd, Nicole Ernst Boris, Erin McLean, Maeryn Olbey)

SCALA & DUSLA Back to School Spring Social

Come to the Spring Social this Friday at the City Tap House!