Hi there Pratt SI students and wider community,

Join us at ALA-MW!

Fill out an application at: http://bit.ly/mid2016 by December 5th. Winners will be announced December 8th.

Give Feedback on the School’s Mission, Vision & Goals

Come to the Holiday Party!

before December 9th.

Fill out the ASIS&T Student Survey

The results of this survey will be shared with SILSSA and faculty, and is a great way to let us know how your semester went. All answers will be kept completely anonymous.

This survey will be open through to the end of January. Please encourage your fellow Pratt SI students to fill it out for us.

Review the notes and Storify from our Town Hall Meeting

Follow us on Social Media

Let us know what you’re thinking

I know this is a lot, thank you for taking the time to look at it! And thank you all again for making this a great semester, and I know that Spring 2016 will be even more awesome!

Pratt SILSSA is pleased to announce that we are hosting an informational town hall meeting for students, alumni, faculty, and other members of the Pratt School of Information community on Saturday, November 14th, at 2:00pm, in Room 613 of the Pratt Manhattan Campus.

The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the recent transition our school made from SILS to the School of Information, to clarify what this change entails for our students, accreditation and the future of the program, and to allow for continued and increased involvement of the student body in the strategic plan for the School of Information going forward.

The name change came as a bit of a surprise for a lot of us, so we want to make sure everyone’s questions are answered, and voices are heard. We all want Pratt SI to be as great as it can be, and making sure that the student body, alumni community, and other interested parties are involved in and informed about the future of our school is the first step in making that happen.

We will discuss:

• The MSLIS degree and ALA Accreditation
• Plans by Pratt SI to offer additional degrees
• The timeframe/method by which the name change was announced
• Student involvement in the strategic planning process
• Personal goals/outcomes for your time at Pratt SI
• The future of LIS education in general

This is a great opportunity for your voice to be heard, so we hope you can join us!

If you plan to attend this event, please RSVP at http://bit.ly/SItownhallRSVP. If you are not a currently enrolled Pratt student, it is very important that you RSVP, so that you will be able to access the building the day of the event.
And as always, if you are unable to attend, or if there are questions, comments or other ideas you would like to voice anonymously, you can submit them via our feedback form, or email us at silssa.pratt@gmail.com.

We look forward to seeing you there!

NYPL Day at Pratt

Sponsored by Pratt SILSSA

Hey all you School of Information students!*

Monday, October 19th sees the start of Open Access Week!  From their website:

Open Access (OA) has the potential to maximize research investments, increase the exposure and use of published research, facilitate the ability to conduct research across available literature, and enhance the overall advancement of scholarship. Research funding agencies, academic institutions, researchers and scientists, teachers, students, and members of the general public are supporting a move towards Open Access in increasing numbers every year. Open Access Week is a key opportunity for all members of the community to take action to keep this momentum moving forward.

If you want to participate and learn more, join us for our Librarians@Pratt Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon on Saturday, October 24th in Room 609.  Come by any time from 1 PM-6PM.  There will be a new editor workshop from 1PM-2PM and open editing from 2PM-6PM.  We will be discussing the importance of Wikipdedia as a tool for increasing Open Access awareness and use, as well as the value of Wikipedia to libraries, librarians and other information professionals.  Snacks are on us!  You can RSVP here.

Also, if you’re interested in a library position with NYPL, don’t forget to sign up for NYPL Library Day, sponsored by Pratt SILSSA!  NYPL Human Resources will be on the Manhattan campus, 6th floor on Thursday, October 22nd to interview for librarian positions from 2 PM-7PM.  Email us at silssa.pratt@gmail.com by Wednesday, October 21st at 8 PM to reserve your spot.  Walk-ins are welcome as well.

Hope to see everyone out and about for Open Access Week!

*P.S. Just a quick reminder that if you have any thoughts or questions about the recent decision to rename the School of Information and Library Science to the School of Information, SILSSA has set up a Google form you can reach out to us on.  Read more about this decision on our last post by SILSSA President, Sarah Hackney.

Hello Students, Alumni and Prospective Students,

By now, I’m sure you’re aware that Pratt SILS is now the Pratt School of Information. If you need to get caught up, you can read Dean Tula Giannini’s statement, and Provost Kirk Pillow’s announcement.

I wanted to take a moment and clarify SILSSA’s position within this change, and reach out to any of you who want to discuss what this change means for you, for the school, and for the future.

To start, SILSSA remains the student association for all students enrolled at the School of Information, as well as the official Student Chapter of the ALA for Pratt. We intend to retain the name and acronym SILSSA. This is the name that we are known by, both within Pratt and in the world at large, and because we continue to be officially associated with the ALA, we want to continue to represent libraries and library science within our name.  As the School of Information expands, there may come a day when we need to reevaluate the scope and/or name of our group, but for now, we remain SILSSA.

Secondly, I know that a lot of people have questions about what the name change means for the school, for their degree, and for ALA accreditation. As per the Dean, the School of Information will continue to offer the MSLIS degree, and that degree will continue to be accredited by the American Library Association.

Currently, the School of Information offers two Master’s degrees: the MSLIS and MS in Museums and Digital Culture, as well as the dual-degree programs. There are plans to offer other degrees in the future, and it is my understanding that this planned expansion is what predicated the change of name.

Becoming the School of Information is a change that was made behind closed doors. Many students and alumni did not know that this was being considered, and our input was not sought. It is also a change that has caught many people off guard, considering the quick turnaround time between the announcement (Thursday, October 1) and the official change itself (Monday, October 5).

I have spoken to a number of student and alumni who have concerns not only about the removal of “Library Science” from our name, but also about the manner in which this decision was made and announced to our community. SILSSA would like to give you an opportunity to discuss these changes, our position within the world of LIS education, and the future of the field.

We are in the early stages of planning a town hall-style event where students, alumni and other concerned parties can come together to discuss these issues, so keep an eye out for further announcements. If you are interested in participating or helping to plan this event, please get in touch with us.

If you have questions or comments, whether for SILSSA, the School of Information administration, faculty or the Dean, you can email us at silssa.pratt@gmail.com, or me directly at shackney@pratt.edu. Or, if you would like to remain anonymous, you can leave a comment though the google form we’ve set up for this purpose.

I look forward to hearing from you, and to continuing the dialog around this topic,

Sarah Hackney, SILSSA President

The American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits 2016

Early bird registration starts today and runs until November 11, 2015.

This years’ conference will be held in Boston. MA from January 8-12, 2016.

Since Boston is relatively close (a short trip by bus or train or car), attending would be easy.  It will also give you many opportunities… to meet other students and professionals, to network, to obtain resources, to find out what’s going on in the field.  If you are looking for a job, bring your resume and start interviewing.

For more information about ALA 2016 Midwinter, go to their website http://2016.alamidwinter.org/.

Look for further info from Pratt SILSSA on ALA Midwinter and other  ALA opportunities.

Hi there!  My name is Alana and I’m your SILSSA VP.  I’m interested in museum libraries and organizing engaging events for you guys this year!   You can get to know your new SILSSA officers better on our “About” page.

If you want to get to know us even better, come out to our SILSSA Happy Hour on Friday, September 25th, location TBA!

Don’t forget to take our survey regarding scholarships for the ALA Midwinter and Annual conferences this year.  Last meeting, we discussed a plan to offer a few registration-fee scholarships to ALA Midwinter.  The Midwinter conference is being held in Boston, so we thought it might be helpful in making a relatively close conference better accessible to Pratt students, but we want to hear from you!

The plan proposed is:

• Offer 8-10 merit-based scholarships to ALA Midwinter 2016 to cover the cost of event registration (approximately $125).
• Help to coordinate travel and housing for SILS students attending ALA Midwinter to help further offset costs.
• Reduce the number of scholarships to ALA Annual 2016 from 5 to 2 or 3.

We will discuss the results and hold a final vote at our next general meeting, to be held on Tuesday, October 6th.

We’re always interested in your input!  Feel free to contact us at silssa.pratt@gmail.com with suggestions for events, speakers, and other activities you’d like to see us organize.

Hope everyone is settling in to the Fall semester well.  Can’t wait to see you guys at our upcoming meetings and events!

P.S.  Check out the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday, September 20.  Some events of interest include the Reception for Librarians, The Internet: The Great Equalizer?, and Translating Books for Youth.  The Brooklyn Book Festival’s website has a complete list of events here.

Yesterday, September 9, 2015, was the first SILSSA general meeting of the fall semester! Thank you to all who attended. We introduced SILSSA and our officers, and reviewed some of the great plans we have for the upcoming school year.

If you were unable to attend, the minutes for the meeting, along with the SILSSA Constitution and past meeting minutes are available in our public Google Drive folder.

We’re really excited about the events we have planned for this fall, and are still looking to add more trips, activities, and workshops that best reflect the needs and desires of the SILS student body. If you have a suggestion for an event, a library you’d like to visit, or a speaker you’d like to hear, please email us at silssa.pratt@gmail.com, or speak to one of us in person!

During our meeting, we proposed that SILSSA offer a number of registration-fee scholarships to ALA Midwinter this year. In the past, SILSSA has been thrilled to be able to offer scholarships of several hundred dollars for ALA Annual, but since this year’s Midwinter conference will be held in Boston, we thought that it would make sense to offer more scholarships, in a smaller amount to Midwinter, to help create a greater Pratt SILS presence at the conference.

The plan, as we propose it is this:

• Offer 8-10 merit-based scholarships to ALA Midwinter 2016 to cover the cost of event registration (approximately $125).
• Help to coordinate travel and housing for SILS students attending ALA Midwinter to help further offset costs.
• Reduce the number of scholarships to ALA Annual 2016 from 5 to 2 or 3.

Before we decide to do this, though, we want to hear from you!

We’ve set up a survey for SILS students to give us feedback about this proposal. Please take a moment to fill it out, and we will discuss the results and conduct a final vote at our next General Meeting on Tuesday, October 6th, 2015.

More information about the ALA Midwinter and ALA Annual Conferences is available on their website and via any of the many Pratt SILS students (including SILSSA Treasurer Maureen McElroy, and President Sarah Hackney), who have attended these events in the past – feel free to ask us!

Thanks for helping to make the start of the 2015-2016 school year great, and we look forward to hearing from you!

P.S. Don’t forget the SILS Student Group co-hosted Librarian Libations is happening TOMORROW, Sept 11, at 6pm at Beauty Bar! We’ll be there, will you?

We didn’t manage to get a round-up in last week, but that was only because we were so busy hosting some awesome events! So here’s a super-sized round-up to catch you up:

Friday, April 10th was the Pratt SILS takeover at Librarian Libations! Thanks to everyone who showed up, all the student group leaders for promoting, and especially to ASIS&T at Pratt for making this event happen!

Saturday, April 11th was our Zine-Making Workshop, with Emma Karin Eriksson. We had a great time looking over Emma’s vast zine collection, and getting started on zines of our own! If you’re interested in zine culture and/or zine librarianship, the Brooklyn Zine Fest is April 25th & 26th, and the Barnard Zine Library will have a table there on the 26th.

Tuesday, April 14th was the Perspectives in Public Librarianship Panel, which had a great turnout, and excellent presentations from Natalie Milbrodt, Lauren Comito, Betty Lacy, and Nicola McDonald. Special thank-yous to Dr. Rabina, Corina Bardoff and Anna Murphy for making this a great and informative event!

Saturday, April 18th was our Librarians @ Pratt, Part 2 Wikipedia Editathon. Thank you to SILS alumna Gina Shelton for leading an informative and fun editing workshop, and congratulations to everyone who added to Wikipedia with us! Every edit counts! To see a full report from our editathon, check out the event’s Wikipedia page.

And last, but not least, our April General Meeting was held on Monday, April 20th. We discussed #infoshow15, SILSSA Office Elections, and the upcoming Bike the Branches. Take a look at our meeting minutes for an overview, and quick links to more information about what we covered.

We had a great time at all these events, and we hope you did too! If there’s something you’d like to add, or a suggestion for the future, don’t hesitate to email us at silssa.pratt@gmail.com. That’s all for now, and don’t forget: Nominations for #infoshow15 must be in by May 1st!