Category: Professional Development

The review was published on May 1st. I can’t wait to read the book now. Way to go Allan!

SLA WCC is pleased to present Paul Whitney, City Librarian, Vancouver Public Library, in Vancouver on April 8 for an interesting and practical update on copyright developments in Canada as they impact all types of libraries and all Canadians.

Tuesday April 8, 5:00 – 8:00pm at The Sandman Hotel (180 W Georgia St) in the Georgia Room. This session requires an email RSVP and paid registration, see below; there will be a cash bar; light refreshments are included with your registration.

:30 – 6:00 register & socialize

6:00 – 7:00 presentation

7:00 – 8:00 more socializing

PRESENTATION – COPYRIGHT AND YOU

For more than four months now, there have been rumours that the Canadian Government is ready to introduce new copyright legislation. At the time of planning this presentation, they have yet to follow through. During this time, citizen and media engagement in copyright as a public policy issue has reached unprecedented levels. A strong private sector coalition has added its voice to those calling for enhanced user rights to be recognized in the new legislation. At the same time, there is an emerging rift between user rights advocates on the appropriateness of certain institution-specific exceptions.

SPEAKER

Paul Whitney, City Librarian (Vancouver Public Library)

Paul Whitney joined VPL in June 2003 from the Burnaby Public Library where he had been Chief Librarian since 1989. He has been involved in various professional activities since 1989, including serving as President of the Canadian Library Association and the British Columbia Library Association. Presently, he is Chair of the Library and Archives of Canada Council on Access to Information for Print-Disabled Canadians, and a Member of the Canadian Heritage Public Lending Right Commission and the PLR Executive. He is also Chair of the Canadian Urban Library Council Copyright Committee; Chair of the Copyright Forum, which is responsible for addressing digital copyright issues with the Federal Government; and a resource person to the International Federation of Library Associations’ Copyright and Other Legal Matters Committee. In 2002, Paul received the Canadian Library Association’s Outstanding Service to Librarianship Award, and the British Columbia Library Association President’s Award for contributions to the Association. In 2001, he received the University of British Columbia’s School of Library, Archival and Information Studies Alumni Service and Leadership Award.

REGISTRATION

To pay by cheque, complete the online registration form http://units.sla.org/chapter/cwcn/programs/regform2004.htm and mail it with your payment (cheque made out to SLA WCC), to:

Lesley Perkins
Canada Border Services Agency

Pacific Region Enforcement Centre
700- 300 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC
V6B 6C8

To pay by credit card, go to our online announcement at http://units.sla.org/chapter/cwcn/programs/programs.shtml and follow the PayPal links.

FEES

For SLA members, students, and those between jobs

$28

For non-members

$35

RSVP

Please send an email to Lesley.perkins@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca indicating that you’re attending this session, and whether or not you are an SLA member. This will help to ensure we have sufficient space and refreshments for everyone. Thank you!

VENUE

The Sandman Hotel is located at 180 West Georgia (between Cambie & Hamilton).

Thank you to our sponsor FPinfomart for generously supporting this event.

Lesley Perkins

Mr. Zhu Lei has done a great job writing the minutes. Please read and comment here.

Time: March 8, 2008, 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Location: Asian Library
Present: Jing, Xuemei, Qi, Ian, Lingbo, Jane, Wei, Lei, Qiong, Lili, Min (remotely via Skype) and Heather (remotely via Skype). Two guests – Jessica and Wendy.
Topics:
1.Toastmasters – Practice Makes Perfect!
2.UBC Institutional Repository Project–cIRcle
3. Multicultural Canada Project

Topics:

1.Toastmasters – Practice Makes Perfect!
A 7-minute speech by Linbo, fully in English with impressive poise and confidence, introducing the concept of Toastmasters, the importance of strengthening your communication skills, and the great value of joining a Toastmasters club.
2.UBC Institutional Repository Project
A presentation by Lili based on her professional experience at University Archives, explaining the purpose of UBC’s cIRcle project, various policies and procedures to follow, and the challenges they are currently faced with, followed by a demo of uploading a sample record to the system.
3.Multicultural Canada Project
A presentation by Ian on this national-wide digitization project lead by SFU, including a brief history of the project, a quick glance of the multicultural collections (e.g. historical newspapers in different languages), an overview of the whole system architecture as well as some details at technical element level, concluded with a warm and informative session of Q&A and discussion.

In addition,
·We were happy to see some new Chinese SLAISers with strong computer background, and two guests who showed great interest in the career path as a librarian;
·Heather and Min shared with us their current roles and responsibilities at work, as well as some great thoughts and suggestions on career goal setting, relocation after graduation, etc., which are particularly valuable to those soon-to-graduate MLIS candidates;
·For the first time and with great success, Skype was used in our meeting to reach out to our friends located in Quebec and Florida;
·Everybody in the meeting was happy with this informative, straight 4 hour professional meeting and, of course, a full table of tasty snack food;
·Schedule for the next meeting was not discussed during the meeting, but according to the reflection of most attendees, a “hot and practical” topic should be able to attract more friends to show up in our next gathering; and
·Special thanks to Jing, Ian, Linbo, Qi and Lili for their organization of and presentations in this successful meeting.

RSS, YouTube, Blogs, Wikis, Facebook, MySpace, and more! There is a global conversation going on right now about what the next generation of the web will be like. It’s happening largely under the meme of Web 2.0. It’s about putting information into the real context of our users’ lives, learning, researching and playing. MySpace and Facebook are just the tip of the iceberg! Come hear an overview of Web 2.0, a draft vision for Library 2.0, and an opinion about what adaptations we’ll need to thrive in this future scenario.
THE SPEAKER
Stephen Abram, MLS, is the President 2008 of SLA and the past-President of the Canadian Library Association and Vice President Innovation for SirsiDynix and Chief Strategist for the SirsiDynix Institute. He has been VP of Corporate Development for Micromedia ProQuest and Publisher Electronic Information for Thomson. He ran libraries for Suncor, Coopers & Lybrand, Smith Lyons Torrance Stevenson and Mayer and Hay Group. Stephen has been listed by Library Journal as one of its first “Mover and Shakers”, the “key” people influencing the future of libraries and librarianship. He has been awarded SLA’s John Cotton Dana Award as well as being a Fellow of the SLA. He was Canadian Special Librarian of the Year and Alumni of the Year for the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Information Studies. He was President 2002 of the Ontario Library Association as well as sitting on the SLA Board of Directors as Director and Secretary. Stephen gives over 90 international keynote talks annually to library and information industry conferences and writes articles and columns for Information Outlook, Feliciter, Access, Multimedia & Internet @ Schools, and Library Journal. He is the author of ALA Editions’ Out Front with Stephen Abram.

VENUE
The Terminal City Club, 837 Hastings Street. There is a dress-casual dress code in effect, so no jeans please.

FEES
$28 for SLA members, students, and those between jobs
$35 for non-members

For payment options, go to: http://units.sla.org/chapter/cwcn/programs/2007/van1128.shtml

CLA 2008 Conference will be held in Vancouver in late May. Our city will also host an IFLA satellite meeting in August on Multicultural Library Stories. Ping, Jan, Ian and many of us can get involved. Shall we plan an outing to discuss about them?

BOSTON, MA — The editors of the American Heritage® dictionaries have compiled a list of 100 words they recommend every high school graduate should know.

by: Editors of The American Heritage Dictionaries (Edited by)
http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/booksellers/press_release/100words/

Each word is fully defined and shown in context with example sentences from well-known authors. 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know is a must-have for every grad, perfect for building vocabulary, quizzing friends and family — and just having fun.

ISBN-13/EAN: 9780618374120; $5.95
ISBN-10: 0618374124
Trade Paperback; 96 pages
Publication Date: 05/05/2003
Trim Size: 4.50 x 8.00

I attended the Ninth Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute (NEL 9) in early March, 2007. This program is intended for librarians who have a desire to develop their leadership potential, received their degree within the past seven years and have a minimum of two years of professional experience.

This is the spiritual journey I mentioned in this blog before. I hope many of you would have the opportunity to experience it at the earlier stages of your careers. I wrote an article and submitted to the SLA WCC online newsletter, The Wired West, and the BCLA Reporter.

To read the full article, go to: http://units.sla.org/chapter/cwcn/wwest/v10n3/article_yan.shtml

For more information about NELI, check out the links in the article, or feel free to contact me.

I had the great fortune to be involved in two once-in-life-time events this year, one in early January and one in early March.

Besides being grateful to my very supportive and forward-thinking manager, I firmly believe that being an active Toastmasters member helped me in accomplishing these two tasks successfully.
Toastmasters activities not only improved my communication skills, it also provided me with confidance and poise. Most importantly, I have FUN at club meetings each and every time.

To find a club that is in your area, please go to: http://www.toastmasters.bc.ca/clubsearch.php

You may be surprised to know there are many clubs near where you work and/or where you live!! If you are not laughing or smiling while attending a club meeting, then you should look around and try another club.

Just got back from completing the nineth Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute, NEL 9. I am filled with gratitude to the leaders, mentors, and the sponsors!

I am in love with the spirit and vision of NEL. I feel rejuvenated and energized. I hope some of you will seek out the opportunity and give yourself the gift of attending a future NEL.
http://www.ls.ualberta.ca/neli/index.html

It has been quite a while for me to post something here at this site, which I deem it ‘OUR’ site, though the site URL bears Jing’s name 🙂 I believe Jing would generously agree so and hope that this site would become a platform for us to share our thoughts and ideas here…)
Having just graduated from SLAIS, UBC for less than 2 months and have not quite used to the title “Librarian” yet, I am thinking that perhaps I should make use of this ‘freshness’ to note down some of my thoughts here and hope they can be of some use for my dear library school fellow-students. Also I truly wish the veteran librarians would give some comments/suggestions/advice re my thoughts here. All in all, to borrow a Chinese idiom here, I think what I’m doing here is to “throw bricks to attract jade”.

About LIS Program

Generally I feel my LIS study was helpful for actual job practice. But I am afraid I was thinking more of the part-time library job experience I took during my study period when I said the study was helpful. So I’d strongly suggest the current LIS students have some library experience before graduating. It does not only boost your resume, but also, more importantly, help you understand what you have learned in the lectures…I know it could be competitive to find a paid job during the study, but, hay, there are so many alternate ways you can earn some library experience, right? Like volunteering, professional experience, practicum, etc.

Courses
My personal experience might not fit your particular situation, but here are some courses I really wish I had taken them: Cataloging, Project Management, Marketing (you will see why if you read on…

About Job Searching
My only advice would be: DON’T BE DISCURAGED BY REJECTIONS. I landed both of my current part-time jobs before the end of my study, and was offered a fulltime job within two weeks after my graduation. But before all the ‘good’ things happened, I got a couple of rejection letters. I remember I was feeling pretty depressed during that time, for the wording of the letters could really get you down if you happen to be like me who is not that confident enough. (I remember it was said in one letter “your candidacy is not competitive enough to be shortlisted for our further consideration..”)

Having said ‘my only advice’, I still want to throw out another tip here: Talk to your mentor, or any other veteran librarians, to get to know better the other side of the interview table. Having been sitting in search committees, their advice is invaluable for you to know what the employer is really looking for from a candidate..

About New Job

I was lucky enough to land a position I feel passionate about: Reference/Instruction. And both of my two part-time jobs employers belong to those types that every new librarian dreams about. The colleagues I am working with are supportive, trusting, friendly and most of all, approachable…Nevertheless, I’m having a big concern now with my job, or with our profession in general…whenever I sit at the ref desk watching the students just walk passing by, whenever I looked at the sparsely filled ref desk statistics sheet and whenever I stared at my computer screen looking forward to the signal of a new chat-reference patron, I really felt bad for /worried about my passive waiting. I wish I could do something more proactive to assist the students….that’s why I mentioned earlier that I wish I had taken the course Library Marketing.