March 2015

Round-Up: March 20 – 27

TGIF!

And especially so, because tonight, Friday March 27th is our Gender, Race and Sexuality in LIS panel! Starting promptly at 5pm, in Room 609, we will have some fantastic speakers to discuss intersectional issues in the LIS field. And also snacks!

Copy of Posters — *Please note that this panel will be recorded (audio only). If you have any concerns, please feel free to email us, or speak to a SILSSA officer in person.

Everyone is welcome. If you’re not a current Pratt student, it’s especially important that you RSVP, so that there’s no problems letting you into the building (144 W14th St).

And, following the panel, we will be hosting a Student Happy Hour! (Location TBD, keep an eye on Twitter for more info) You do not need to have attended the panel to join us for a drink!

That’s just what’s happening tonight, but we’ve got a lot of other cool stuff coming up, too!

Zine-Making Workshop: Saturday, April 11, from 1:00pm – 5:00pm. Led by Emma Eriksson, this crafty afternoon will be divided into a “History of Zines” portion, and a “Let’s Make Some Zines” portion. You are welcome to come to either or all parts!
Perspectives in Public Librarianship: Tuesday, April 14, from 5:30pm – 6:30pm. Librarians from several public library systems will speak on a panel about their unique and rewarding positions within the public library. This panel does span between classes; we understand and it’s cool if you need to leave early or drop in late.
Librarians @ Pratt, Part 2: Wikipedia Edit-a-thon: Saturday, April 18, from 1:00pm – 6:00pm (drop in), Room 609. Come learn how to edit Wikipedia, and put your skills to use expanding and creating pages about the rich history of Pratt Libraries and Librarianship. All are welcome! You do not need to have attended Part 1, or edited Wikipedia before!

Phew, with all that out of the way, there’s a few more things we should mention:

SILSSA Officer Elections! We will have positions open for 3 new officers for the 2015-16 school year. Nominations will be opened on April 6th, and we will send out an email with the requirements and details then. Voting will be the first week of May. If you’re considering running, take a look at the Officer Roles, and feel free to talk to any of the current officers about their position.
Our March General Meeting was on Wednesday, and the minutes are available to view now, in case you couldn’t make it! Thank you to everyone who attended, and our next meeting will be Monday, April 20th, at 6pm.
InfoShow is coming! This is the event formerly known as Showcase, and a great opportunity for you to share your best work with the Pratt SILS community, as well as the larger NYC LIS crowd. More information about nominations and other ways to contribute will be coming soon, but it’s never too early to start thinking about it!

That’s all we’ve got for you this week! If you’ve got any questions or comments, feel free to email or tweet at us, and we hope to see you at one of these events soon!

Welcome Back from Spring Break!

Hello, SILS!

We hope you had a fun and relaxing Spring Break, hopefully somewhere with warm weather! We are hitting the ground running here at SILSSA, and we wanted to let you in on what’s going on!

First! We are pleased to announce the winners of the ALA Annual Conference Scholarships:

Tara Das
Stevie Feliciano
Stephanie Neel
Eugene Rutigliano
Jodi Shaw

Congratulations! We know that you will have a great time, and represent Pratt SILS well.

Next! Our March general meeting will be happening this Wednesday, March 25th, at 6pm in Room 609. We will be talking about all the awesome upcoming events, as well as elections for 2015-16 SILSSA Officers. We’d love to see you there!

And about those upcoming events! Here’s a quick overview, with a promise of more details to come:

Friday, March 27th, 5pm : Gender, Race and Sexuality in LIS Panel
Saturday, April 11th, 1pm : Zine-Making Workshop
Tuesday, April 14th, 5:30pm : Public Librarianship Panel
Saturday, April 18th, 1pm : Librarians @ Pratt, Part 2 – Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
Monday, April 20th, 6pm : SILSSA General Meeting

It’s going to be a fun and busy month, and we’ll be sure to keep you updated here, on Twitter, and via email!

San Francisco here we come!

Hi SILS students, Rachel here, I’ve just registered for the ALA Conference 2015 and so should you – early bird registration ends 1pm EST March 16th! While there will still be plenty of time after this date to register, now is the time to decide whether or not all that hard work you’ve put in to your MSLIS is worth one extra investment and make the commitment to go to Conference…there really is nothing like it!

Last year I attended my first ALA Annual, 2014’s conference was held in Las Vegas and while the sight of 18,000 librarians storming the exhibition center on opening night was worth the price of registration alone, the experience of five days of presentation hopping and poster viewing, not to mention all those book giveaways was one I would highly recommend to anyone considering a career in librarianship of any kind. However, by far the best experiences of the conference were the one-off conversations I had with Librarians – all of whom were open to a newbie asking them questions, sharing their experiences, knowledge of the profession, and delight in their work.

Inspired, I went back for more and attended ALA Mid-Winter in Chicago where even a blizzard couldn’t keep the place from buzzing with excitement as awards were announced, contacts were made, and committees joined – Mid-Winter tends to be the conference where, if you are interested in committee work, there are open meetings to attend and help you understand more the work of the ALA divisions.

There are 11 divisions within the ALA and all of them are represented at both the Annual Conference and Mid-Winter Conferences with a vast array of programs, presentations, open meetings, and, in the case of YALSA, a Happy Hour!

If you’re totally new to the conference there are guides a plenty, one of the best is this one and I can certainly testify that attending New Member Round Table meetings and volunteering are two sure fire ways to meet people who want you to make the most of your conference and your career.

So…what are you waiting for? SILSSA is offering five scholarships of up to $500 per recipient to attend ALA Annual Conference and offset the cost of registration, airfare and accommodation. Applications close March 15th – good luck and I hope to see you in San Francisco!

Access the SILSSA Scholarship application form here:

Round-Up: February 28 – March 6

It was pretty quiet at Pratt SILS this week, but we consider that the calm before the storm. The storm of awesome upcoming events, that is!

ALA Scholarships:

SILSSA is delighted to offer five scholarships of $500 per student to attend the ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco. Dates for the 2015 conference are June 25-30 and SILS students interested in a career in Public, Academic or School libraries are encouraged to attend. This is a great opportunity to learn about current issues in the profession, attend presentations and poster sessions, get actively involved with an ALA Chapter, meet your peers and your future co-workers, and meet a favorite author (or two)! Only current SILS students may apply for the scholarship. For more information about the conference, visit: http://alaac15.ala.org/

To apply, fill out an application at: http://bit.ly/ALAScholarship

The deadline to submit is March 15, and recipients will be notified by March 20th.

Events:

SILSSA will be hosting a panel about Gender, Race and Sexuality in Library & Information Science on Friday, March 27th, co-sponsored by Pratt’s Diversity Committee. Panelists will discuss how the categories of gender, race and sexuality affect or inform library and reference practices, archival theory and practice, and knowledge creation and Wikipedia. The panel will take place from 5:00-6:00pm in Room 609, with discussion and refreshments to follow. Please let us know if you’re planning to attend, so we can have an idea how many people to expect.

Zines are super cool, and have a unique history and role in library collections. So, join us Saturday, April 11 for a Zine-Making Workshop! The event will be from 1:00-5:00pm, on a drop-in basis. You’ll be able to see some zine collections, and there will be a lecture on the history of zines at 1:30, with time to make your own afterwards. Look for more information from us about this event as the date gets a little bit closer!

And if you can’t wait until April, The Feminist Zinefest is Saturday, March 7th from Noon- 6:00pm at Barnard!

In addition to these events, SILSSA is also planning to host a panel on Public Librarianship, and a Pratt SILS-themed Wikipedia edit-a-thon in April. Oh, and of course, Student Happy Hours!

Our next General Meeting, where we will discuss all this–and more!– will be Wednesday, March 25, at 6:00pm in Room 610. We hope to see you there!

And, as always, keep up with all the hottest SILSSA trends on Twitter, Instagram, and via the Pratt SILS Google Group.

Round-Up: February 20-28

It’s finally March, and it’s come in like a Lion, as they say. So let’s take a moment to hunker down, away from the seemingly endless snow and talk about what happened at Pratt SILS the last week of February.

News

SILSSA is delighted to offer five scholarships of $500 per student to attend the ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco. Dates for the 2015 conference are June 25-30 and SILS students interested in a career in Public, Academic or School libraries are encouraged to attend. This is a great opportunity to learn about current issues in the profession, attend presentations and poster sessions, get actively involved with an ALA Chapter, meet your peers and your future co-workers, and meet a favorite author (or two)! Only current students may apply for the scholarship.

To apply, fill out an application at: http://bit.ly/1zQ90Hv

The deadline to submit is March 15!!

Recipients will be notified by March 20th.

Events

The last week of February saw some awesome SILSSA events!

The Pratt SILS Afternoon of Service with NYPL Correctional Services on February 26th was a huge success! Over the course of the afternoon, Pratt SILS students helped achieve everything on the to-do list for the day! Many thanks to everyone who participated, and to NYPL Correctional Services for hosting an excellent event.
Friday, February 27th saw the SILSSA-sponsored trip to Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Thirteen SILS students attended, and were given a tour of the building, as well as the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the Beinecke’s fantastic and extensive collection. Many, many thanks to Alison Clemens for an excellent and educational afternoon!

students outside library — Pratt SILS students outside the Beinecke building

oldest known Macbeth — The oldest known manuscript of Macbeth

Archivist Alison Clemens discusses the history of Yale’s rare book collections

SILSSA held its monthly general meeting on Monday, February 23rd. The proposed amendments to the SILSSA constitution were voted on, and passed unanimously. The meeting minutes are available to view and comment on.

Upcoming

The next SILSSA general meeting will be Wednesday, March 25th, at 6:00pm, in room 609. We will be discussing our upcoming events, SILSSA officer elections, and the end-of-year Student Showcase. Hope to see you there!
In conjunction with the Pratt Diversity Committee, SILSSA is proud to be hosting a panel on Gender and LIS, at 5pm on March 27th. There will be discussion and Q&A, as well as a Student Happy Hour to follow. Keep an eye out for more information about this event!
Just a reminder: Spring Break, woo! Spring Break is March 16-20, and we’ll see you in Cancun! (SILSSA is not going to Cancun).
There’s even more cool stuff planned for April, including a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, a Zine-making Workshop, and a Public Librarianship Panel. We’ll let you know more about these events as they get closer.

It’s been a busy month, and we hope that March will be just as much fun! As always, feel free to email us at silssa.pratt@gmail.com with any comments, questions or suggestions, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.