UT ALA/TLA Student Chapter

Thanks to everyone that ran and voted in this round of the ALA/TLA Co-Director elections. You new co-directors are:
Kathryn Benson
Sarah Brandt
Alexa Doval
Franny Gaede


If you have any programming ideas or want to be involved in any way, contact any of the co-directors. We’re looking forward to a great spring semester.

Want to attend the ALA Conference? Apply for the ALA Student to Staff Program by Dec. 3rd.
Apply to participate in the ALA Student-to-Staff Program during the 2012 ALA
Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA in June 2012!

Our ALA Student Chapter can nominate one (1) student member for the
Student-to-Staff program each year. Student-to-Staffers work 4 hours per day
with an ALA staffer at the ALA Annual Conference in June from Friday through
Monday (16 hours total), in exchange for:

• Free conference registration
• Free housing (with roommate)
• A per diem for meal expenses

The student selected from the UT chapter is expected to be an active member of
the Student Chapter in the following year (2012-2013). An “active” member
might serve as an ALA/TLA Co-director, act as the Webmaster, or participate in
some other way.

To apply:

1. Write one page describing:
• Why you want to attend the ALA conference
• What you could share from the conference with students at the UT
School of Information
• What you would bring to the UT ALA student chapter as an active
member OR leader?
2. Include your name, ALA member number, & expected date of graduation.
**Your member # MUST be active by 1/2/2012 in order to be considered.
3. Submit your application to ALATLAstudent[at]gmail.com no later than December
3rd, 2011.

Fine Print:

To qualify for the ALA student-to-staff program, each student must be a current
ALA member and a student chapter member, have an expected graduation date of
May 2013 or later, and cannot have previously participated in the program. In
addition, all students selected must be ALA members and current students during
the 2012 ALA Annual Conference. Only one student will be accepted per chapter.

Students are expected to work 16 hours for four days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
Monday). Transportation costs (taxis, flights, etc., are the student’s
responsibility.

For more details, please visit:

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/affiliates/chapters/student/resources/studenttostaffprogram.cfm

Questions? Contact: ALATLAstudent[at]gmail.com OR Don
Wood at ALA (for big questions), dwood[at]ala.org

ALA/TLA is currently looking for new co-directors! All iSchool students interested in assuming a leadership role in the group are invited to apply to be a co-director for Spring ’12 through Spring ’13. Students graduating in December 2012 are still eligible to serve.

ALA/TLA co-directors are responsible for coordinating various programs, such as webinars, career panels, and tours. Co-directors additionally raise funds (ie bakesales) and maintain the group’s internet presence. We welcome applicants with innovative suggestions for new ALA/TLA programing!

Interested students should apply by sending a brief statement explaining why they’re interested in the position, as well as relevant experience and thoughts on the role of the ALA/TLA student group. ALA/TLA will share your statement on our blog so that the iSchool student body can vote for our incoming co-directors.

Along with your statement, please submit your expected date of graduation and either your ALA or TLA membership number to ALATLAstudent[at]gmail.com before Friday, November 11th at midnight.

We look forward to hearing from you! Please email ALATLAstudent[at]gmail.com with any questions or concerns.

We had a great time volunteering at McBee Elementary this semester and earned some hours for the iGive Campaign.

We helped out by:

processing new books

weeding the science section

and withdrawing old books.

Thanks everyone!

Tuesday, October 11th

4:30-5:00pm
Tour of the Center for Transportation Research Library (UTA 4th floor)

5:00pm-6:00pm
UTA 5.522 (large conference room, 5th floor)

Join five professional librarians for the ALA/TLA and SLA Student Chapters’ Fall 2011 career panel on library employment. Get your burning questions answered by school, instructional, youth services, business reference, and special librarians.

Light refreshments will be provided.

Also, right after our panel Artex will be hosting a professional panel featuring three librarians from the Fine Arts Library; Karen Holt, digital assets librarian; Beth Kerr, theatre and dance librarian and David Hunter, music librarian. Caffe Medici will be sponsoring their event with free coffee and their co-directors will be supplying some yummy baked goods. The Artex panel will take place downstairs in room 1.504 from 6:15 to 7:15.

The guests for our panel will include:

April Kessler is the Business Librarian at the University of Texas. As the liaison to the McCombs School of Business, April provides research assistance, course-specific instruction, and collaborates with library colleagues and business school faculty to enhance the library’s business services and collections of print and electronic materials. She received her MSIS from the University of Texas at Austin and her MBA from Wichita State University. Prior to joining the University of Texas Libraries, April was a research analyst for a venture capital firm. In addition to her research experience, she also has over 10 years of experience in marketing and public relations.
April is the President-Elect for the Texas Chapter of the Special Libraries Association and was awarded the Achievement in Academic Librarianship Award for 2011 from the SLA Business & Finance Division. She is the past-chair of the Texas Library Association Special Libraries Division and serves on the Executive Board of the Texas Library Association.

Heath Rezabek is the Teen Services Coordinator at the Austin Public Library. He oversees 8 full-time Teen Services Librarians as well as Interns for a project called Connected Youth, which is a technology and media literacy initiative growing out of the decade-long Wired for Youth project. Heath authored and oversees the grant which formed the Connected Youth project, and oversees the budget for this as well as several other related grants at APL. Since arriving in 2006, he has developed interview questions and lead panel interviews for over 100 candidates for the positions he oversees. Heath has his MLIS from the University of Texas at Austin (1997), and his BA in Humanities from the University of Northern Iowa (1994).
Heath spent 6 years as a Children’s Librarian at the Denver Public Library, where among other things, he delivered an annual series of extended-session read-alouds of The Lord of the Rings to an audience of all ages. Since becoming Teen Services Coordinator at APL, Heath has concentrated on overseeing and developing several grants while juggling the responsibilities of supervising and guiding the growth of his Teen Services Librarians (who serve all ages). He also helped create APL’s flagship special event for teens and tweens, YomiCon, an annual manga/anime convention that drew 1,000 young people to the library in 2011. Heath has long been concerned and involved with the role of information technologies in society and culture, and passionate about services to tweens and teens, who stand at a pivotal moment in their lives and a determining role in our culture’s evolution.

Meghan Sitar has been the Instruction and Outreach Librarian in Library Instruction Services at the University of Texas Perry-Castañeda Library since August 2005. Meghan works with faculty to design assignments, exercises, and instruction sessions to integrate information literacy into first-year undergraduate programs on campus. She also coordinates outreach to undergraduates through the development of events, programs, and social media efforts. Meghan received her MSIS from the University of Texas at Austin (2004) and her BA in English from DePaul University (2001). Prior to her current position, Meghan worked at the University of Texas at Austin Undergraduate Library as a Collections Librarian and a Library Assistant. She also worked as a Reference Assistant at the St. Edward’s University Scarborough-Phillips Library and as an Archives and Manuscripts Assistant for the Mandeville Special Collections at the University of California San Diego.
Meghan is active in the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) where she’s currently vice-chair of the Membership Coordinating Committee as well as a member of the ACRL Instruction Section’s Mentoring Program Committee.

Louise Rosenzweig is the Manager of Library Services for the University of Texas at Austin Center for Transportation Research. As the Manager of Library Services, Louise meets the reference needs of all CTR patrons including researchers and staff, UT graduate and undergraduate students, external referrals, and researchers from sponsor offices, including the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT); hires, trains, manages and evaluates library staff; attends training and development workshops to enhance services and performance of library as well as personal development and skills; represents departmental concerns, objectives and information within the university setting, and outside agencies, constituencies, vendors, suppliers, and public; participates in listserv/discussion groups relating to transportation research, including the SLA TRANLIB and TRB LIST groups; represents CTR and TxDOT as a member of the Western Transportation Knowledge Network – monthly/annual meetings, as well as national and AASHTO TKN meetings; serves on various task groups in team based organization, including Proposal and Symposium teams; and edits contract proposals when needed. Louise received her Master of Arts in British History and her Bachelor of Arts in History from Louisiana State University. Louise has also worked for the Texas State Library and Archives Talking Book Program, the University of New Orleans Earl K. Long Library, and the Mandeville Public Library.

Heather Stephens is the librarian at McBee Elementary in Austin ISD; as such, she serves as a teacher, information specialist, instructional partner, program administrator, campus leader, and learner. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in English and Spanish from the University of Virginia and a Master’s in Library Science from the University of North Texas. Additionally, Heather is an alumna of Teach for America’s Rio Grande Valley corps and a former bilingual third grade teacher. She is particularly interested in the information needs of English Language Learner students and their families in the elementary library setting.

Hope to see you there!

We had a very well attended Banned Books Week Read-Out yesterday. An interesting conversation about banning and censorship in libraries got us started and then we had passages read from a variety of books, including The Color Purple, Naked Lunch, A Wrinkle in Time, Tango Makes Three, Brave New World and The Great Gatsby. The Daily Texan was there the whole time and wrote up this piece about it. Remember to check out our Twitter (@ALATLAstudent) all week for the Banned Book of the Day.

Other upcoming events to watch out for:
ALA Panel: Tuesday, October 4th at noon
Librarian Panel: Tuesday, October 11th at 5PM
Be sure to e-mail us with any questions at alatlastudent[at]gmail[dot]com

Interested in joining a Young Adult Book Club hosted by your fellow iSchoolers? Here’s some information courtesy of Marjory Gibson:

Are you an avid reader of young adult fiction? Would you like a way to keep up with popular titles in the genre? Are you looking for a place to relax and discuss literature with fellow iSchool students? Feel free to join our young adult book club. We meet on the third Thursday of every month at 7pm.

This month we are reading Delirium by Lauren Oliver. Despite being intrigued by rumors of “Invalids,” Lena feels safe in her world where everything is controlled by the government and love is a disease cured on your eighteenth birthday. Then she meets Alex and begins to question the events surrounding her mother’s suicide. Booklist says this novel “is another deft blend of realism and fantasy…the book never loses its A Clockwork Orange-style bite regarding safety versus choice.” And in a starred review School Library Journal credits Delirium with “strong characters, a vivid portrait of the lives of teens in a repressive society, and nagging questions that can be applied to our world today make this book especially compelling and discussable.”

The next meeting is October 21 at 7pm at Spiderhouse. For more information please contact Marjory at marjory.gibson@gmail.com