Trip to Seattle (part 1)

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Recently a number of us at UBC went down to meet up with the student ALA group at the University of Wasington iSchool! It was a super great time, we met lots of awesome people, and got to check out some neat libraries. (Oh, and by the way border guards think it’s kind of weird when you say you went to Seattle to meet up with a student group and go on tours of libraries…)

Here’s a sign at the entrance to their iSchool (and they actually call it that!).

Here we are walking towards the first library we visited: the Gallagher Law Library!

Jonathan, a student in UW’s Law Librarian program, gave us a great tour!

Lots of study space!

You can see the compact shelving in the background.

Here you can just about see everyone on the trip (excluding me)! From left: David, Sarah, Jonathan (all UW students), Kelsey, Eka (at the very back), Anna, and Daisy.

This popsicle wasn’t at UW, but it was the first thing I took a photo of during this trip.

January 14, 2014 meeting minutes!

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ALA_minutes_January14REV

Attendees: Chelsea Shriver, Matthew Murray, Carolyn Heine, Anna Ferri, Eka Grguric, Mark Christensen, Nicole Askin, Kelsey Ockert, Hedda Monaghan, Krista Darham, Alyssa Hamer, Luke McLeod, appleberry, Rebecca Lahr, Lauren Washuk, Stephanie Fan, Kaja Dawkins, Shideh Taleban, Sadie Tucker.

1.       Introduction of the current executive committee

  • Anna, chair; Carolyn (graduating in May) and Chelsea, co-secretaries; Matthew, communications webmaster
  • There is no co-chair, but one will be elected at end of meeting

 2.       Introduction of new members

  • New members introduced themselves
  • Eric Meyers, the faculty liaison for ALA@UBC, introduced himself

3.       Summary of semester events

  • UBC has possibly the only active ALA student chapter in Canada (maybe University of Toronto, but inactive)
  • The chapter has about three events per term
  • The next event is this weekend (January 18-20): a trip to Seattle to visit ALA student chapter at University of Washington
    • The trip will involve tours and volunteer work
    • People who want to go should commit during the meeting and stay after the meeting to talk about logistics
  • Marathon reading event will be during Freedom-to-Read Week (February 23-March 1)
    • Kaja will be the liaison with BCLA/CLA  to partner with them for a Marathon Reading being planned for Tuesday, February 25
    • Event takes place over 12 hours with people reading from challenged books for 10-15 minute increments
    • Event also includes bake sale (by donation)
    • Usually occurs in Lillooet or Dodson Room of IKBLC
    • Nicole will liaise with graduate student writing group for potential collaboration
  • Panel on publishing to be in mid March
    • People interested in helping to organize: Lauren, Carolyn, Chelsea
    • Eka and Steph (new cohort) can provide contacts within the publishing industry
    • Need liaison with CLA/BCLA to collaborate?

 4.       Trip to Seattle (details)

  • Group will leave Friday evening (January 17) or Saturday morning (January 18)
  • Saturday afternoon, ALA student chapter at University of Washington will provide tours of UW libraries
  • Pub night on Saturday
  • Sunday will include tour of main branch of Seattle Public Library and free time downtown
  • Monday will include volunteering in Fremont
  • Transportation options include the bus (~$17-20), car (if anyone has one and can drive), or train (more expensive than the bus)

5.       Election of new executive committee members

  • Co-chair
    • Position entails helping to organize group activities
    • Having one chair from the incoming cohort and one from a previous cohort provides nice orderly transition of responsibility
    • Co-chair maintains organization to keep the group on track, can switch off leading meetings, works with events committees, helps put together the meeting agenda, helps break work and contact points up between two people.
    • A new cohort co-chair may be around / available more at times than a co-chair from a previous cohort (more commitments)
    • Anna hopes that the new co-chair will also help members get connected to and navigate larger ALA organization (through blog posts, handouts, etc.)
    • Mark and Shideh (at library orientation, but sent email) expressed interest in being co-chair
    • Mark provided statement of interest and qualifications (member of new cohort, eight years of leadership in retail and banking and experience training people)
    • Shideh arrived at the meeting and indicated she did not wish to run for the co-chair position
    • Mark accepted the co-chair position
  • Co-secretary
    • Sadie and Kaja expressed interested in sharing secretary position with Carolyn
    • Kaja provided statement of interest and qualifications (member of new cohort, has previously been secretary in clubs, worked in administration / experience taking meeting minutes)
    • Sadie provided statement of interest and qualifications (member of new cohort, experience taking notes as part of committees, does work at public library that involves taking notes)
    • Ballot vote conducted and Sadie was elected as co-secretary
  • Exec committee members must be ALA member ($35)
    • Not necessary to sign up for interest groups, etc.
    • Benefits include ALA publications, emails, and chance to apply to ALA Student-to-Staff Program

6.       Meeting adjourned

November 5th Meeting Minutes

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November 5th Meeting Minutes

Present:

Anna Ferri, Eka Gguric, Matthew Murray, Carolyn Heine, Kaylin Anderson, Mitchell Meler, Matthew Root, Hedda Monaghan

Next Meeting: January 14 @ 1:00pm, Trail Room

  1. New Treasurer

  • Treasurer’s main duty is to be the point of contact with LASSA treasurer, Jordan
  • Hedda volunteered to perform Treasurer duties
    • Motion to have Hedda be our new treasurer passes with a unanimous vote in favor
    • Hedda will take over Jason’s duties beginning in January

  1. T-Shirts

  • T-shirts have arrived
  • As Anna is able to track everyone down with ease, we will not be needing to set up a table for members to collect their shirts
  • If enough people outside ALA@UBC (at least 15 people) want a t-shirt, we will submit another order in the spring

  1. White Elephant Book Exchange

  • Wednesday, November 27th, 11:30-1:30
  • Bake Sale
    • Anna, Carolyn and Kaylin are available to run the bake sale
    • Anna, Carolyn, Matthew Root, and Hedda are willing to provide baked goods
    • Bake sale money will be donated (TBD)
  • Book Exchange
    • A poster will be created explaining how the exchange works
    • Extra books will be donated (TBD)
      • Last year, books were donated to SIPS Book Drive
  • Action Items
    • Digital Signage: Eka will create the digital signage to post in the SLAIS lounge and forward the file to Kaylin
    • Physical Posters: Kaylin will print and distribute posters around SLAIS
    • Donation of money and leftover books
      • Eka and Matthew Root will investigate possible locations/organizations
    • Creation of a box to place outside the Trail Room (for students that cannot attend the event but wish to donate books)
    • Anna will send out a Google Spreadsheet to ALA members to describe what baked goods he/she will bring for the bake sale
    • Anna will send out an email to the listservs and post on Facebook; Matthew Murray will post an announcement to the blog

  1. Student-to-Staff Essay Contest

  • Advertising: Eric needs assistance advertising the contest to SLAIS students
  • Contest closes on December 2
  • Action Items
    • Anna will forward Eric’s email to the listservs and post an announcement on Facebook

  1. Events for Next Term

  • Orientation: January 5th (12:00-1:30)
    • ALA needs at least one representative, preferably two. The reps should not be representing another student group
    • Action Item: Anna will send out a call for volunteers via email
  • Panel on Publishing: March
    • Hopeful collaboration with BCLA/CLA group
  • Freedom-to-Read Week (February 23-March 1)
    • Marathon Reading Event
  • ALA Exchange (January 17-20th?)
    • Matthew Murray is in contact with UW ALA group
    • Kaylin will send out inquiries to friends about hosting students
    • As there is no meeting until January, communication will be done via email
  • Membership Drive
    • Table until January

  1. Next Meeting

  • January 14, 1:00 in the Trail Room
  • If Eka and Anna are unavailable to attend, Carolyn will chair the meeting

 

 

ALA Conference Student-to-Staff Program

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We have a great opportunity for ALA members!

Each year 40 of the 60 ALA Student Chapters get to nominate one student to to attend the ALA Annual Conference (to be held this coming summer in Las Vegas, June 26-July 1; more info here: http://ala14.ala.org/) on the Student-to-Staff Program. This program covers the conference fee, housing, and a food per diem (but not the travel expenses) for the four main days of the ALA Annual Conference in exchange for four hours per day of volunteer work at the conference.

Here at UBC, the student is selected via an essay contest which is judged by our wonderful Faculty Advisor, Eric Meyers. The essay, of no more than 500 words, should address the question:

How will the student-to-staff program contribute to your goals as a SLAIS student and future information professional?

The essay should be emailed to Eric Meyers at eric.meyers@ubc.ca by December 2.
 
Attached is a one page full description of both the Student-to-Staff program and the essay contest. Please know that you must be fully committed to attending ALA Annual!

More information on the ALA Student-to-Staff Program can be found here: http://www.ala.org/groups/affiliates/chapters/student/resources/studenttostaffprogram

This is a wonderful opportunity (just ask our Student-to-Staff winner last year, Ariel Deardorff), so do consider applying!

Download the description: ALA_StS_Essay 2014

Wikipedia ❤s Libraries!

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Learn how to edit Wikipedia with ALA at UBC!

Tuesday, October 22, noon-2pm in the Terrace lab.

This event will include an hour long lesson from noon to 1pm on how to edit Wikipedia and how to understand the editing history and the “Talk” pages that exist behind the scenes of Wikipedia articles. The lab will be open from 1pm to 2pm for editing of Wikipedia articles with ALA student members on hand to help and offer advice. Come with an idea of a Wikipedia article that needs to be edited or created or simply come and spend time exploring the “underbelly” of Wikipedia.

This event is held in recognition of Open Access Week, October 21st-25th.

For more information, please email ala.slais.ubc@gmail.com.

The Terrace Lab can be accessed by ringing the doorbell for entry to the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS) department on the fourth floor of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. We will be expecting you!

ALA Meeting Minutes: October 15th, 2013

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ALA Meeting Minutes: October 15, 2013

Oct15 2013_ALA Minutes

Trail Room, 1:00pm

Attendees:

Anna Ferri, Matthew Murray, Eka Grguric, Carolyn Heine, Kaylin, Amanda Wanner, Hedda Monaghan, Monica Swamiraj, Nicole Askin, Matthew

Agenda:

  1. Change to the ALA @ UBC Constitution
    1. Motion passed with a majority approval (40/79)
    2. Members are now “encouraged” to be ALA members
    3. T-shirt Order Status
      1. T-shirts are off to be printed
      2. $14.35 per shirt, ALA will cover $1.35 per shirt and the three free shirts (to Eric, Caroline, and our Bellingham contact)
      3. Alyssa gave ALA@UBC full permission to use her logo however we like
      4. ETA to Bellingham: October 28th
      5. Task: Arrange to collect money and distribute shirts

i.      We will need ALA members to help with this (sit in lounge)

  1. Accreditation Review Panel Luncheon
    1. Monday October 21st at 12:00pm
    2. Eventbrite sign up
    3. All chairs have been invited to meet with the review panel at 11:45pm
    4. LASSA sponsored All Chairs Meeting
      1. Last Thursday, October 10
      2. Hoping to make this a once a semester event
      3. Spring panel on publication and distribution

i.      Hopeful collaboration with BCLA/CLA

  1. Calendar is EXTREMELY helpful (studentsatslais.weebly.com)

i.      Matthew will pass off the torch to another student

  1. Treasurer’s Report
    1. $723.62 in the budget
    2. $250 to donate a small library to One to One Charity

i.      Donation includes the $100 made from last spring’s Freedom to Week bake sale

  1. About 20 dollars to reimburse Anna for food items for ALA Roundup
  2. We have been approached by LASSA to provide a monetary sponsorship for the Halloween Event (Oct 30)

i.      We will donate $100.00 to start. If LASSA is desperate for more, we will donate up to an additional $50.00

  1. Motion approved
  2. Wikipedia Loves Libraries Event
    1. Next Tuesday, October 24 in the Terrace Lab
    2. Task: Advertisement of the event

i.      Outside departments (Education department, English department, libraries)

ii.      Eka will develop a poster from the digital sign

iii.      Volunteers to put up posters

iv.      Central repository for WLL to add our event to

  1. The workshop will run from 12pm-1pm with an open lab from 1pm-2pm (for questions and practice)
  2. Upcoming Events
    1. White Elephant Book Exchange

i.      Task: advertisement and organizing a possible bake sale

ii.      Set a date: 27th of November

  1. Executive Elections

i.      Two open positions: chair and treasurer

ii.      Matthew (and possibly Eka) will be doing co-op at UBC and may be able to continue their executive duties

  1. ALA Student to Staff Program

i.      Essay contest for ALA Conference travel scholarship

ii.      Scholarship covers room, food stipend, and cost of conference

iii.      Essays need to be submitted before December 1

  1. Scholarships basically offered on a first come, first serve basis
  2. Student must be committed to going to ALA
  3. Next Meeting
    1. November 5, Trail Room

ALA Meeting Minutes: October 1st, 2013

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ALA Meeting Minutes: October 1 2013

Oct 1 2013 ALA Minutes

Trail Room, 1:00pm

Attendees:

Anna Ferri, Carolyn Heine, Matthew Murray, Grace Romund, Mitchell Meler, Stefania Alexandru, Hedda Monaghan, Nicole Askin, Monica Swamiraj

Agenda:

Money in ALA Locker

  • Record how much money in AMS; give to Jordan to run through account
  • Email Elspeth and/or Chelsea and Nick to figure out what to do with that money
  • One-One Charity donation?

Charter (two proposed changes)

  • Current ALA student chapter requirement for ALA membership:
    • Officers have to be ALA members, but members do not.
    • We want to change the language
      • All members are “encouraged” to be members of ALA
      • ALA membership is one of the more expensive student memberships, so limiting members of UBC student chapter to those who are also members of ALA would be a bad idea
      • Eric: let’s talk about pros vs. cons; but cutting out any fee is a good move because it encourages more people to become members of UBC ALA student chapter
  • UBC student membership vs. ALA student membership: difference in definition
  • Anna will email the proposed change around
    • Any change to the charter needs at least a 50% majority vote (based on the amount of people on the listserv)
    • Addition of one additional chair/exec: Liaison officer
      • Duties: facilitate communication with other student chapters, ALA, and Eric
      • Pros: encourages collaboration between SLAIS student chapters of other organizations (which has been largely absent)
      • However, description of proposed executive position overlaps with current description of the co-chairs
      • Should this position be an ALA executive position? Would it be more appropriate for the LASSA exec team?
      • Course of action
        • Anna and Eka will discuss specific role of co-chair
        • Anna will attend Monday’s LASSA meeting to put a liaison role on the table for the LASSA exec team to see what the discussion brings up

ALA T-shirts

  • Shirts being shipped to Jordan in Bellingham (saves money on each shirt and overall shipping costs)
  • ALA will absorb the cost of shirts for four people: Eric (faculty advisor), Jordan (delivering shirts), Caroline (SLAIS director), and Alyssa (t-shirt designer)

ALA Roundup Debrief

  • “Helpful” and “nice event”
  • “Beneficial to have very different impressions” of the conference
  • Would be useful to have in the future so that students can get a flavor for what happens at these conferences

Wikipedia loves Libraries Event

  • October 22, 12:00pm-2:00pm in the Terrace Lab
    • Anna has reserved the room
    • How do you look at the backside of Wikipedia and understand what is going on. How do you edit a page? How can you contribute information?
    • Specifically tied to Open Access Week
    • Use digital signage in SLAIS
      • Eka is taking care of this
      • Volunteers will be hearing from Anna

Luncheon, ALA Accreditation Week (hosted by LASSA)

  • October 21, SUB 209
  • Specifically for MLIS students, but anyone from SLAIS is welcome
  • External review panel of ALA Accreditation committee
    • We haven’t been given a lot of information about what it’s going to look like
    • They have a preset list of questions that they want answer to from students
    • We want to try and encourage as many students as possible to attend to show support for the department
      • EventBrite form (it’s on the blog, will be sent through email, tweeted, etc.)
      • Not a place to discuss department specific problems (save that for the director’s forum)

Other items on the table: ALA Blog; more member involvement to reach

Next Meeting

  • October 15, 1:00pm in the Trail Room
  • Focus on Wikipedia Loves Libraries event

Meeting Minutes: September 9th

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ALA Meeting Minutes: September 9th, 2013
IKBLC Trail Room, 1:00pm

Sept 9th, 2013 – Minutes

Attendees:
Matthew, Anna, Nadine, Grace, Kendall, Eric, Tracy, Mitchell, Hannah, Robin, Kaylin, Monica, Matthew R., Katie, Elise, Nicole, Amanda, Stephanie, Caroline

Agenda:
Introductions
Officer Openings
Treasurer graduating in November, position opening
New officer:

ALA Roundup: 1st event of the year
Friday, Sept 27th at 5pm
Inspired by attendance to the ALA Conference
Vote: Koerners or Calhouns?
Result of vote: 5 / 7 Calhouns

Need to add Eric to mailing list

T-Shirts
If approved by members will attempt to set a low cost
ALA will swallow the excess cost of the t-shirts, we will set a lower price
Handful of people raised their hands but –
Will have a sale table to fundraise the initial cost of shirts and take orders

Banned Book Week and Book Exchange
Banned Book Week Event fell mid-Sept. this year so we missed it
should plan during the summer next year if we want to have an event
Book Exchange: White Elephant-type event; wrap a book and exchange

Wikipedia Loves Libraries

Open Access Week (last full week of October usually)
Libraries host workshop to learn how to edit Wikipedia entries and improve quality of entires
Week of October 25th (the week of the SLAIS accreditation) _not the 21st_ which is an accreditation event for the students
Goal: Incorporate the editing of stub entries into the event

University of Washington ALA Student Group
Exchange with the UW ALA (Our contact person: Matthew)
They want to do this in January, which corresponds with a holiday for them (Is this MLK Day?)
Matthew is looking into arranging an earlier event
We will need to house exchange students

Other Events
Freedom-to-Read Week
Reading event with fundraiser bake sale
Haiku Event
Tends to fail (low turnout; got cancelled last year)
Distributor / publisher event
Getting to know the publishers and distributors better / getting a grasp on the general situation in the industry via panel or such
Showing of “The Librarian” series of movies and possibly “The Librarian” board game
Scholarship for students going to the ALA conference
Conference roundup will cover the conferences happening in or around Vancouver / Victoria

Update Charter
Membership terms are really vague
Includes the requirement that everyone be an ALA member
Executive positions must be filled by an ALA member (can happen post-election as needed)

ALA Promotion
The blog is going to get more active
Call for promotion ideas / ideas to get in touch with ALA
Trying to mediate the intimidation factor of ALA
ALA is a huge organization so there are many opportunities for volunteering
Lots of possibilities for recognition and professional development
Rob Bittner is a past student who’s ended up on high profile book award committees
Many committees need more people
Amanda: a suggestion is “what student involvement looks like at ALA”
Identifying avenues for involvement for beginner students

New Business
Ran out of time
Next Meeting?